TALES FROM THE FRENCH LAUNDRY: THE NEXT GENERATION. Gavin Newsom Sipped Cabernet While Los Angeles Burned.

As riots engulfed Los Angeles and mobs vandalized public buildings, incinerated vehicles, and assaulted law enforcement officers, California governor Gavin Newsom was enjoying a swanky wine-tasting party in Napa Valley.

The wine-tasting was held on the afternoon of June 7, 2025, at the Odette Estate Winery, which Newsom co-founded in 2011. Dubbed “Vineyard Vibes,” the event was a fundraiser for the PlumpJack Foundation, founded by Newsom’s sister, and featured “contemporary yet sophisticated” wines, live jazz music, and locally made pizza and smash burgers. “It’s the perfect kick-off to summer fun,” read promotional language. “The fete will take place on the Winery Crushpad, where we’ll gather for music, food, conversation, and delicious wine!”

A source who photographed Newsom at the event expressed shock that the governor was in attendance, given that riots had broken out in Los Angeles the day before. “I couldn’t believe it,” the source said. “He was just walking around like this was an everyday occurrence.”

Violence and destruction in crime-ridden California? They are an everyday occurrence.

UPDATE: Clueless gov in tapas bar:

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Liquid Death Is Selling Empty Iced Tea Cans Containing Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA.

Liquid Death, purveyor of canned water, has announced that it’s selling 10 empty cans of iced tea that were drank by Ozzy Osbourne and were then sealed to contain his DNA.

Dubbed “Infinite Ozzy,” these 10 cans are valued at $450 apiece and are being sold via the Liquid Death website to anyone lucky enough to snag one. Each was laboratory sealed and signed by Ozzy himself, with their timely arrival coming just weeks ahead of Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s final concert on July 5th in Birmingham, England.

“Once technology and federal law permit, fans can use this DNA to try to clone Ozzy in the future and enjoy him for hundreds of years to come,” stated Liquid Death’s publicity team on the goal of the campaign. Added Ozzy, “Clone me, you bastards.”

Shouldn’t we get Leonard Nimoy properly cloned first, before it’s Ozzy’s turn?

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Down With Monarchy Edition. “This week, Democrats turned out across the country to protest against monarchy–monarchy being, apparently, when the president tries to execute the laws as required by Article II. Anti-law enforcement riots continued, although by week-end they were petering out. Tucker Carlson mounted a defense of the mullahs, for no apparent reason. But we all learned the population of Iran.”

IN ORDER TO SAVE THE FRANCHISE, DISNEY REALLY NEEDS TO GREEN LIGHT THIS STAR WARS SEQUEL ASAP:

This guy messed up his A.I. prompt. He wrote Battle of the Philippine Sea June 1944, US Navy vs Imperial Navy. He was supposed to write "Imperial Japanese Navy." pic.twitter.com/HaeWVekG1G

— Asian Dawn (@AsianDawn4) June 19, 2025

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: Pakistan formally recommends Trump for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

THE SECOND COMING OF AMERICA’S FUNNIEST WRITER:

Though P. J. O’Rourke passed away three years ago, his sharp wit and defense of freedom continue to resonate in a world still tempted by interventionist solutions. Reclaiming his work is more vital now than ever. What he told us through laughs and jabs in recent decades has proven to be one of the sharpest diagnoses of the dangers of postmodern left-wing ideology—and one of the most inspired reflections on why we must root our societies in individual liberty, private property, the free market, and the Judeo-Christian values that shaped the West for centuries.

Progressives want bigger government, and often conservatives don’t want it as small as we ought to like. O’Rourke knew all too well that the larger the state grows, the smaller individuals become. He devoted much of his work to explaining this in a way anyone could understand—even those not particularly interested in politics. His words resonate today in a new light, and fortunately, they remain easy to access: the Internet is full of O’Rourke’s articles, and all his books are still in print. The ideas, the jokes—the profound, the outdated, and even the ones that haven’t aged all that well—are still out there, waiting to be discovered by any digital wanderer with a sense of humor and a thirst for sharp thinking. It’s almost frightening to realize that some of O’Rourke’s tech-related jokes would go completely over a millennial or zoomer’s head today. And it’s even more pitiful to think that some of his old comments would be cancelled in today’s dull, hypersensitive postmodern world. Perhaps it’s because, as he once said, “One of the problems with being a writer is that all of your idiocies are still in print somewhere.” Incidentally, that’s where O’Rourke found his only point of agreement with environmentalists: “I strongly support paper recycling.”

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.

THIS IS THE ‘BEGINNING OF THE END’ FOR IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER. BUT WHAT COMES NEXT?

NOW WE KNOW WHY THE MINNESOTA ASSASSIN STORY DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT:

Have you wondered why the story of the Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter has suddenly vanished from the news? Now we have a pretty good idea why.

Boelter, who murdered State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband while also shooting State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, unleashed terror that sparked a massive manhunt before his capture late Sunday. Initial media coverage was rife with speculation, with left-leaning outlets eager to cast Boelter as a MAGA Republican, hastily blaming the GOP and even President Donald Trump for inciting his shooting spree.

Yet the letter found in Boelter’s abandoned vehicle tells a radically different story, one that not only exposes the media’s rush to judgment and political opportunism but sudden drop in coverage.

In an article published late last night, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Letter to FBI from Minn. Shooting Suspect Made Wild Claims About Klobuchar and Walz, Sources Say:

In a rambling, conspiratorial letter addressed to the FBI, alleged assassin Vance Boelter claimed Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar so that Walz could run for the U.S. Senate, according to two people familiar with the contents of the letter.

The letter is the clearest evidence yet of Boelter’s mindset after the targeted violence against Minnesota politicians last week. It is incoherent, one and a half pages long, confusing and hard to read, according to two people familiar with the letter’s contents. It includes Boelter alleging he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books, and that Walz, who is not running for Senate, had asked him to kill Klobuchar and others.

Asked to comment about the letter, Hennepin County Attorney spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said the office cannot comment on an open investigation but “due to the seriousness of the allegations it contains, we will state only that we have seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact.”

Speaking of things not based in fact: Pardon Me?

To repeat: a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, Joe Thompson (acting U.S. Attorney), has filed multiple death-penalty-eligible murder charges against an alleged political assassin.

In last year’s election campaign, Trump himself was the subject of two assassination attempts. The one in Butler, Pennsylvania, resulted in Trump’s wounding, the death of a spectator, and the wounding of two other spectators.

Now comes KSTP-5 TV (local ABC affiliate) to report on Moriarty’s petulance at being big-footed by the Feds. KSTP digs up a local law school professor willing to spread some malicious disinformation in the case. At the 2:00-minute mark of the broadcast, Prof. Rachel Moran says the following,

“It’s possible Hennepin County is worried about the political motivations of the prosecutors involved and the possibility of a pardon down the road,” said Moran. “I’d like to think that’s not an issue in a case this egregious, but it’s possible that’s on the Hennepin County Attorney’s mind.”

“Possible.” “the possibility.” “I’d like to think.” “it’s possible.” Prof. Moran’s misinforming musings are entirely unmoored to any fact in the observable universe. Not just unmoored, but in direct opposition to all available information in the public domain.

“Motivations.” “pardon.” Moran casually defames Thompson, a career prosecutor serving on an interim basis. No effort was made by KSTP to contact the White House for a comment on the alleged, possible, pardon for a double murderer.

The victims were all Democrats. Among the few verifiable facts about Boelter is that he was a twice appointed to an obscure board by Democratic governors as an unpaid public member.

Local media have worked overtime attempting to portray Boelter as a MAGA fanatic, doing Trump’s bidding, based on next-to-no verifiable information.

Including Walz slow-dragging the publication of his manifesto, and the article about it in the Star-Tribune having a time stamp of 10:28 pm on a Friday night.

NATION EUTHANIZING ITSELF MAKES EUTHANASIA LEGAL: U.K. House of Commons Narrowly Passes Assisted-Suicide Legislation.

OLD AND BUSTED: “A Chicken In Every Pot.”

The New Craziness Hotness? A fighter jet in every Israeli home!

BREAKING: Blueprint of a Fighter Jet being hid in an Israeli home

Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/I53YMhP5OR

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 19, 2025

Wouldn’t the jet blast cause a terrible stain on the carpets when it took off?

(No word yet if there’s an Imperial Star Destroyer in the basement as well.)

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: “‘Sex and the City’ actress Cynthia Nixon said her trans son, a biological female, is an ‘observant Jew’ who is currently on a hunger strike in Chicago to support Gaza, according to Newsweek.”

Are we sure he isn’t on a hunger strike to protest mom’s appalling taste in food? Flashback to 2018: Cynthia Nixon Orders Cinnamon Raisin Bagel With… Lox And Capers. “On Sunday, Cynthia Nixon became the latest aspiring [New York mayoral] office-holder to briefly lose her mind while attempting to eat on the campaign trail, when she ordered—in public and on purpose—a cinnamon raisin bagel with lox from Zabar’s on the Upper West Side. She didn’t stop there, but went on to request red onions, capers, tomato, and plain cream cheese to the mess. Again, this was on a *shudders* cinnamon raisin bagel.”

OH SURE, THEY CHANT “DEATH TO AMERICA,” BUT…: MSNBC Analyst, a Former Obama Official, Calls Iran ‘Most Western Nation’ in the Middle East.

MSNBC political analyst and former Obama administration official Rick Stengel questioned why the United States is aligned with Israel rather than Iran, which he called “the most Western nation” in the Middle East. Though Iranians chant “death to America,” Stengel said, they also “love American movies.”

“Why is it a foundation issue for Trump that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon?” Stengel, who served as an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs under former president Barack Obama, asked during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC. “Why are we allied with Israel?”

When pressed on Iranians’ “death to America” chants, Stengel recalled a 2014 trip to the country. “I was sitting … at a rally,” he said. “These young guys were chanting ‘death to America.’ … They finished the chants. And two young men came over and said, ‘Are you American?’ I said yes, [and they said,] ‘We want to welcome you to our country. We love American culture. We love American movies.'”

The 1963 comedy album, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Canne Film Festival kicked off thusly (audio available at the Wayback Machine):

CARL REINER: Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the Cannes [pronouncing it “Can”] Film Festival here in Lower Italy. And we are going to meet some of the producers, directors, and stars of the films that are being exhibited here for the annual competition.

First, I’d like you to meet the German representative from Nartsi? Narsi? Narzi? From the Narzi Film Company! Herr Adolf Hartler. Good afternoon, Herr Hartler.

MEL BROOKS: Heil Hartler! How are you?

REINER: Now, this is a strange name. It’s Narzi Films.

BROOKS: Yes, we… well, we… well…

REINER: That doesn’t have anything to do with Nazi, does it?

BROOKS: No, are you kidding? They are our worst enemies. We are against them. We always were! Are you kidding?

* * * * * * * *

REINER: Sir, sir, you’re wearing your bathing suit, I noticed.

BROOKS: Yes, yes.

REINER: And as you scratched your head, I noticed a little “SS” tattooed under your arm. What does that mean?

BROOKS: Oh, oh, oh, well, wait! That’s the Simon Says!  Umm, umm, Simon Says, We played that on the beach. I’m the captain of the Simon Says team! And that’s where we get SS from! I’m serious about the game, I love it, and so I had myself tattooed, “Simon Says!”

REINER: How did you feel about the motion picture, Stanley Kramer’s motion picture, Judgment at Nuremberg?

BROOKS Unfair!

REINER: Why did you consider it unfair?

BROOKS: Well, because he didn’t tell the whole truth. What was the picture about? Really about a misunderstanding, really, wasn’t it? I mean, look, you have, you send people to camp, don’t you, in the summer? We sent a few people to camp. I don’t know what the whole fuss is about! Sent some nice people to camp…mostly in the summer!

I’m pretty sure Brooks and Reiner thought they were recording a comedy album, not a how-to guide for “Progressive” diplomacy with the Middle East.

ACTIONS MEET CONSEQUENCES:

FINALLY: Hitler weighs in on Iran-Israel conflict.

Hitler finds out Iran is bombing Israel pic.twitter.com/B17BO9kqiT

— David Keyes (@DavidMKeyes) June 20, 2025

MICHELLE OBAMA CANNOT CONTAIN HER CONTEMPT FOR BARACK:

“You should’ve threw a boy in the mix,” radio host Angie Martinez told Obama in an episode of the former first lady’s “IMO” podcast released Wednesday.

The remark came as Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, along with Martinez, discussed society’s view of masculinity and the challenges of raising boys and young men.

“I’m so glad I didn’t have a boy,” Obama exclaimed.

“Why didn’t you throw in a third?” Martinez said with a chuckle to the mother of two.

“Because he would’ve been a Barack Obama,” the “Becoming” author and former president’s wife quipped to laughs.

You’ll note that The Hill, from which the quotation above comes, assures readers that it was a “quip” with “laughs.” However, as we all know, there are jokes and there are mean jokes. The former never hurt a person close to the joke-teller. The latter are a way to get away with a truly nasty, abusive line, while disclaiming responsibility. We’ve all hurt the mean guy, after throwing out one of those insults, claiming afterward, “What are you getting so upset about? Can’t you take a joke?” But of course, everyone knows it wasn’t a joke.

And when you have someone like Michelle Obama, who never stops complaining about her husband and making endless little digs at his expense, believe me, it’s no joke.

Matt Margolis adds: Confirmed: Michelle Obama Really Is a Horrible Person. “Here’s a woman who has built her entire public persona on moral superiority and inspirational messaging, yet she can’t resist using public platforms to crap on the man who made her fame and fortune possible. The hypocrisy is staggering, but it’s entirely consistent with her long history of bitter, divisive rhetoric.”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Old and busted: Keep Austin weird, but keep Austin surrounded.

The New Hotness? Fire up a B-52. Why take chances?

SO SAD: Sunny Hostin Has Regrets for Actually Asking Kamala a Question and Tanking Her Campaign.

It was a moment that many feel ended Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and it never would have happened to a qualified candidate. It went down in October ’24 when “The View’s” far-left contributor Sunny Hostin asked Harris what she would do differently from her addled boss, then-President Joe Biden. Kamala basically answered, not a darn thing.

It was a softball question if there ever was one, and Harris swung and missed in one of the great political whiffs of the century.

Now Hostin has the sads that she had the temerity to ask what should have been a simple query. Speaking on the “Behind the Table” podcast  posted Wednesday, the incendiary host said she feels “terrible.”

“It’s Sunny’s fault she [Kamala] didn’t win,” Joy Behar quipped, trying to be funny but figuratively stabbing her co-host in the back. Sunny put her hands to her face in shame, then responded:

“I knew it instantly when she answered it,” Hostin said during the podcast conversation, when asked by Teta if she knew it would be a viral moment. “Which is why I asked the follow-up question, ‘is there one thing?’  Because I knew, I could see the soundbite and I knew what was going to happen, but I thought it was a really fair question and I thought it was a question that she would expect.”

[…]

“And now Jake Tapper wrote it in his book?” she asked her fellow co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin. “I feel terrible.”

Co-host on a show produced by ABC News feels “terrible” because she actually committed one of the network’s rare moments of journalism.

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: The Scandal of the Biden ‘Tell-All’ Books.

Despite the world crumbling all around them, the inner circle never broke ranks. This raises the third reason, beyond groupthink and the desperation to beat Trump, for the cover-up. Parnes and Allen argue that the Politburo was motivated by venality. Its members were desperate to maintain their own elevated positions.

Parnes and Allen provide a revealing quote from Donilon. It is not direct, of course, but comes via a “prominent Democrat.” According to the source, Donilon said, “Nobody walks away from this. No one walks away from the house, the plane, the helicopter.” The nobody he is referring to could have been Biden, but it could also just have easily been Donilon and Ricchetti and Reed and members of the top Biden team who had access to the house and the plane and the helicopter, along with their patron.

Tapper and Thompson note this dynamic as well. They report that when “discussing the insanity of the situation with a House Democrat, [House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete] Aguilar remarked that ‘folks like Ricchetti and Donilon—they’re living the first line of their obituaries right now. People don’t give that up.’”

The top Biden people were not only protecting their own access and their reputations, but their families as well. Donilon, Reed, and Ricchetti all had relatives on the administration payroll, including all four of Ricchetti’s children. They would not get to keep those jobs if Biden stepped down.

Once these people were on board with the need for the cover-up, it was difficult for them to see the reality of Biden’s infirmity. Other realities became distorted as well. Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden aide who once had briefly replaced Biden in the Senate, shared the mindset. He argued to Whipple after the debate that when even the exceedingly Biden-friendly New York Times started asking questions, it was plotting against Biden: “I’ll bet you $1 million that they had an executive editorial board meeting and said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do, guys.’” If you’re supporting a Democratic incumbent and you think the New York Times is conspiring against you, you have crossed the line into madness. Kaufman was dismissive of the Clooney op-ed as well, saying, “I don’t care, George, with all due respect. I know you’re famous and you’re important and people kiss your ass every day. But George, I’m just not interested!”

So far, the reviews of the recent behind the scenes tell-all books have only barely touched upon the most important aspect of the Biden “Politburo:” — it’s potential unconstitutionality:

Conservative constitutionalists believe the President is a *singular* official — the only branch of our three federal branches of government that consists of only one man.

In important ways, widespread use of the autopen— and certainly abuse without knowledge by the singular… https://t.co/eEl8bp3BFY

— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) June 19, 2025

A MODEST REQUEST: Wanted: A Used B-52.

I just hope Israel has thought through what they’d be getting into here:

UPDATE: Could Israeli C-130s Drop GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bunker Busters?

Found via Ace of Spades, who adds: Trump: I’ll Decide Within Two Weeks Whether I’ll Send Bombers to Take Out the Iranian Nuke Sites.

ARAK AND ROLL SUICIDE: Israel strikes Iranian nuclear reactor.

Israel struck an Iranian reactor in the central city of Arak on Thursday in its latest efforts to destroy the regime’s nuclear programme.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted Iran’s heavy water nuclear reactor, striking what it described as “a key component in plutonium production”.

A black and white video, circulated online by the IDF, showed a missile crashing into the target, followed by a large explosion.

Both sides have been fighting for nearly a week since Israel launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and killed several top generals and nuclear scientists.

On Thursday, Israel said its warplanes also struck a facility at Natanz, a key Iranian nuclear site, which was being used to develop nuclear weapons, a military spokesman said.

The IDF said: “The site houses unique components and equipment used for the development of nuclear weapons, and hosts projects that enable the acceleration of the nuclear weapons programme.”

Faster, please.

⭕This nuclear reactor in Arak was created for one purpose: to build a nuclear bomb.

It has now been neutralized. Here is a closer look at the reactor itself: pic.twitter.com/4KBDsgp8IN

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 19, 2025

SHHHH, IT’S A SECRET: Israel’s Secretive RA-01 Drone Allegedly Spotted Over Syria–Israel Border.

TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: ‘Iranian regime in death throes risks a major economic shock.’

Sir Niall [Ferguson], the Milbank family senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, said: “I think the markets are complacent about this because there have been so many Middle Eastern crises in our lifetimes that produced only a blip in the oil price.

“But remember when an authoritarian regime is on its last legs, when it’s the end game, they tend not to go quietly.”

He predicted that the Iranian regime and its allies could hurt the US by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, and that would have a “massive economic impact”, pushing up the price of oil.

Read the whole thing.

METAPHOR ALERT: ‘Hard to fathom:’ Sewage crisis at Calif. coastline can be seen from space.

A new study using satellite images from NASA shows that an environmental crisis at the Tijuana-San Diego border can be seen from space, prompting new concerns from experts.

The image shows a wastewater plume just off Imperial Beach made up of toxic wastewater pollution from untreated sewage that’s flowing into the Tijuana Estuary and Pacific Ocean for years.

Kim Prather, an atmospheric scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a distinguished professor at University of San Diego, and her lab team have been studying the severe, toxic chemicals. She told SFGATE that the new NASA tool can help scientists figure out how far the pollution goes.

* * * * * * * *

“It boils down to the fact that it’s what feels like an unstoppable stench and an unstoppable flow of crap running through our communities …it’s just it’s hard to fathom how big the issue is,” Granados said. “People legit are sick, like physically ill, headaches, nausea, missing work, missing school, feeling bad, not going outside to, you know, exercise and do things outdoors. It’s like you can’t get away from it. It just smells so bad.”

Meanwhile, up north: Popular Bay Area beach is one of the most polluted in the US again.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: How close was Iran to the bomb, and how far has Israel pushed it back?

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

America Celebrates Juneteenth, The Day Republicans Freed All The Democrats' Slaves https://t.co/ME5YEBeOSQ pic.twitter.com/2TVwGuuWeT

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 19, 2025