OLD AND BUSTED: ChatGPT.

The New Hotness? ChatVSOP! Meet my snooty AI sommelier. Like many wine drinkers, my family and I are taking notes from Claude.

These days, I am not the only one turning to Daddy AI for wine advice. The New York Times recently ran a piece on the customers consulting chatbots in restaurants, so they know where to start with terrifying wine lists. Sommeliers, for their part, are largely delighted about this development. “People making the conscious effort with AI, it means they’re curious, and that makes me happy,” said Claudia Rossellini, wine director of the restaurant Bavel in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the internet abounds with techy types bragging about online cellars coded by AI. “How I Built an 80,000-Line Open Source Wine Cellar App in 6 Weeks with Claude,” is a typical headline, in this case by one Johan Eklund of “wine cellar management” app Cellarion. Reddit is also full of happy AI users for wine help. “I know almost nothing about wine,” writes one. “Rather than get the same bottle of Pinot Noir over and over, I tell Claude what I am having and it gives me a few good suggestions!”

To wit: my parents and I decided to find out what our Claude “sommelier” could teach us. To do so, we peered at a collection of bottles kindly made for the taking by the daughter of my late great-aunt, a glamorous, chain-smoking, Vienna-born mother of two. Where to start?

Hope pulsed as it does. Should we go with the 1982 Bouchard Père & Fils Meursault? Pictures were uploaded to Claude; the response was extensive and damning.

Claude took one look at the color and declared it was oxidized, which happens when wine is stored at “too warm a temperature.” The wine would then “taste flat, nutty, and vinegary – not pleasant.”

I’ve used ChatGPT a few times on my iPhone when shopping the wine departments at H-E-B and its Trader Joe’s inspired spinoff, Central Market. I uploaded photos of the bottles on the shelf, it OCRed the text on the labels and gave me descriptions of each type of Chablis, until it described the last one as “Ahh, Jean-Marc Brocard Sainte-Claire Chablis 2024 — now we’re talking. This one is a serious reference-point Chablis…If you’re choosing one bottle and want the most true Chablis experience from this shelf: Jean-Marc Brocard Sainte-Claire is the pick.”

I don’t know if it’s one “serious reference-point Chablis” — but it wasn’t bad at all.

DON SURBER: “Hello. I’m the Boss:”

Kris Sidial is a prominent derivatives trader, volatility specialist, and Co-Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of The Ambrus Group. He is on vacation in France. He tweeted:

I’m in Versailles right now, staying at the Waldorf, which is connected to the Palace of Versailles.

When we arrived, the receptionist told us the gardens would be closed because, “President Trump is coming.”

I turned to my fiancée and said, “That’s an odd thing for a French citizen to say, wouldn’t you say Macron?”

It’s a very interesting psychological dynamic that exists globally right now with Trump. On a micro level, this small interaction probably reflects the broader perception of why he believes he can walk into meetings of that caliber and project himself as “The Boss.”

President Trump is The Boss.

Indeed, he did visit the Versailles with Macron in tow. Gone are the days when Macron could try to one-up Trump in a handshake. In his second presidency, Trump realizes he holds the cards.

Likely the Secret Service requested the closure of the garden for security reasons. None of the other G7 leaders fear assassination, which reflects their importance. Trump leads the United States, which has an economy larger than the rest of the G7 combined—despite having 100 million fewer people.

Read the whole thing.

HOLLYWOOD TO PARENTS*: FOR PRIDE MONTH, BRING THE KIDS TO SEE THE NEW GAY SUPERGIRL!

Yeah, that'll put butts in seats. "Supergirl's possibly gay now, guys! Isn't that cool?!" Meanwhile, more and more people become apathetic to the "Pride" movement and are tired of everything having unnecessarily forced Pride glazing.

It's like they're TRYING to make this bomb.

— Media Illiterate (@BlocksRetards) June 18, 2026

“I’m honored that that’s happening, but I think because she doesn’t live inside the binary of what we think a woman should be, that is what makes it so special and so exciting and so new.”

But it really isn’t. Warner Brothers aimed the marketing of 2006’s Superman Returns, which should have been a family-friendly movie towards a gay audience. As a result:

While the film was one of the biggest films of the year, earning $391.1 million on a budget of $204–223 million and becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2006, Warner Bros. was disappointed with the worldwide box office return and cancelled a sequel for release in 2009.

*Except for “Christian dads.” Alcock attacked that demographic last month.

DEATH OF LATE NIGHT: Jay Leno On What Went Wrong At 11:30, Why Joe Rogan Is The New Johnny Carson & How John Oliver Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About.

LENO: Yeah, so when I turn on late-night now, regardless of how I’m watching, if I see Jake from State Farm again, I’m gonna shoot myself in the f*cking head.

It’s like, geez … the host comes out, does the monologue, then it’s right away over to six minutes of commercials. You come back, the host talks about who’s coming up and everything out, “We’ll be right back,” and so on. All cut up.

Enough already.

Why watch that when I can switch over to streaming or YouTube and I can watch an hour with Harrison Ford talking off the top of his head, as opposed to just having few minutes with the guest or with the host, you know? Johnny used to have real conversations. I tried to have real conversations. That’s seems to be gone, and the audience knows it.

DEADLINE: Can it come back?

LENO: It’s not that people are better or worse, it’s the fact that the whole medium has changed. The idea that you have to turn the TV on 11:30 p.m. to hear what was being said, like appointment television, that sounds ridiculous now.

DEADLINE: Devil’s advocate — why?

LENO: Because you can watch TV whenever you want now, you can watch whatever show whatever you want, you know, so that’s what’s really ruined it. There’s no immediacy. People used to say, “Oh, let’s see what David Letterman or whoever had to say about the president’s thing today,” and you and the whole world simultaneously at 11:30 knew what they thought. Now you can look it up anytime, and whenever you watch it, if you miss it, that’s OK, you know? So yeah, that’s what’s really changed.

DEADLINE: Sounds like Jay Leno is channeling Marshall McLuhan. That you’re saying, it’s the medium, not the message?

LENO: Yeah, I think that’s fair to say.

I mean, podcasts really are the new talk shows. Joe Rogan is the new Johnny Carson.

Yeah, Joe talks to everybody about everything. There’s no FCC to step in and say what you say and can’t say, so you really do get an unfiltered idea of what everybody thinks. So yeah, I mean, to me, that’s what’s also changed late-night.

I talk to young people — they don’t know CBS, NBC or ABC, Channel Four; they know Channel 682 or whatever. They just go to YouTube. Which is amazing. If you had predicted YouTube would be the most popular channel in the world 10 years ago, I think people would have said, “What are you talking about?” But it is now.

Read the whole thing. There are a pair of photos atop this section of the interview juxtaposing a young, Brylcreemed Carson in a suit and tie, and a bald stubble-faced Rogan. In the 1960s and pre-cable 1970s era of mass media, every American man wanted to be the suave yet accessible Johnny Carson or the fun and boisterous Ed McMahon. While Rogan can certainly get his guests to talk and talk, does any guy fancy himself a Rogan clone?

DREW HOLDEN: A COVID Autopsy, Part 5: ‘Kids Will Be Resilient with Lost Education.’

But perhaps no legacy media coverage failure about COVID was worse than the threat the virus posed to kids, and what steps the government should take in response. Remember the fight over school closures?

Amid the push to reopen after 15 Days to Slow the Spread, and for months (and even years) thereafter, legacy media fought tooth-and-nail against efforts to allow students to return to in-person learning. As parents were trying to figure out how to ensure their children’s education could continue amid the pandemic, legacy media outlets were preaching panic at every turn.

Take the New York Times. As late as August 2020, the outlet was publishing headlines asking “As the Coronavirus Comes to School, a Tough Choice: When to Close” – a when, mind you, not an if, even five months after lockdowns started. It was a perspective, published as straight news, seemingly encased in amber of what the paper said back in March. Under a section titled “A growing consensus,” NYT alleged, the increase in school closures was “reflecting a growing consensus that the benefits of closings outweigh the harms, especially since many of the harms can be mitigated,” highlighted by the fact that “a transition to e-learning is possible.”

The paper went further. Despite a paragraph of disclaimers about expert concerns that “the effect of school closings is extremely difficult to predict because of unknowns like how infectious children are and because of the difficulty in separating out the effect of school closures from other measures that states took to control the virus” and that, at the time, “testing was especially limited and spotty, raising questions about how well the number of confirmed cases reflected actual infections,” the Times’ title of the piece (just in time for the debate on whether to cancel a second year of in-person school) was definitive: “School Closures in the Spring Saved Lives, Study Asserts.” And it wasn’t enough for the Times that public schools locked their doors – “If Public Schools Are Closed, Should Private Schools Have to Follow?”

But it wasn’t just the Times – the message that it was too dangerous to allow students to go to school was everywhere.

Read the whole thing.

THE INEXPLICABLE SUICIDE OF HOLLYWOOD:

In late February of 2026, Netflix announced it was pulling out of its attempt to purchase Warner Brothers, paving the way for Paramount and David Ellison to merge the two century-old studios. David Zaslav spent four years as the most hated executive in Hollywood, acting as hatchet man at Warner Bros., priming and pruning the company for its eventual sale, so you’d think the consensus reaction would be positive, no matter whether Netflix or Paramount won the bidding war. That has not been the case. Ellison has been greeted by hostility and skepticism despite his pledge to produce at least 30 films per year for theaters (something Netflix would not have done). It would be logical for actors, writers, directors, and production staff to be happy to resume business as usual. It would be logical to believe that beggars can’t be choosers, and that replacing Zaslav, who was brought in specifically to cut debt, would be met with relief, but that wasn’t the case. The news triggered a backlash.

Former Hollywood Reporter editor Matt Belloni worried it would result in mass layoffs, only to be rebuffed by the fact that every major studio was already doing layoffs; a month later Disney laid off 1,000 employees. Elizabeth Warren announced she was going to fight the merger, and 4,000 Hollywood professionals signed a petition opposing it. Did they not get the memo? Hollywood is dying. Surely now is not the time to fight whoever is willing to invest money in more production, right? They’re willing to cut off their nose despite their heavily botoxed, nipped and tucked faces. Entertainment media rooted for Netflix because CEO Ted Sarandos was on their side. The idea of the largest global streamer absorbing a major theatrical studio and almost surely reducing the number of movies in theaters was a concern they were willing to overlook. As long as it was the company that paid the Obamas $65 million for their now departed partnership, they’re happy.

We’re now nearly halfway through 2026. The Paramount/Warner Bros. merger seems set to go through. The WGA leadership avoided another strike, making major concessions to extend the deal for four years. Bob Iger finally resigned as CEO of Disney with little fanfare. The heads of Disney Animation and Lucasfilm have been replaced. Unlike other domestic industries that have been killed by offshoring, importing, and international competition, there isn’t really an easy substitute for Hollywood productions. Even as the country has become more diverse than ever, and despite the best efforts from entertainment media and awards shows, foreign films do not perform well domestically. So, while the domestic auto industry can be decimated while Americans still buy cars, the fall of the domestic entertainment industry just leaves a gaping hole.

This could accelerate the decline:

I have never wanted progressive legislation to pass more than I want this.

Dear heavenly God, please give me this one. Let the idiots win. https://t.co/9MYPbBoRxI

— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) June 18, 2026

Related:

This is what happens when you produce a decade of Ford Pintos https://t.co/1gXuDf4xMN

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 16, 2026

Though to be fair, its local industry building a crappy product and eventually having their lunch eaten by overseas production isn’t the only reason Detroit collapsed:

My favorite thing about this is no one wants to explain what exactly happened to Detroit. https://t.co/gacNMpleQ7

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 18, 2026

ACTRESS AMANDA SEYFRIED PAINTS HERSELF THE VICTIM, CLAIMS SHE NEEDED A BODYGUARD AFTER ATTACKING CHARLIE KIRK:

In a classic move of a leftist turning the tables to paint themselves the victim after an attack against a conservative, actress Amanda Seyfried claims she had to get a bodyguard due to the backlash she received for bashing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk after his assassination.

“A, I’m allowed to fucking voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily,” Seyfried — who smeared Kirk as “hateful” on social media after his assassination — told GQ magazine in a recent interview.

“But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that,” the Mean Girls actress ironically added.

Seyfried went on to say, “I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful. So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’”

“And then all of a sudden I find myself with a fucking bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy,’” the Les Misérables star added.

As Breitbart News previously reported, Seyfried initially waved off Kirk’s assassination in a comment she made on an Instagram post on September 16, 2025 — six days after the conservative icon’s murder — dismissing the story because “He was hateful.”

That’s some serious projection by Seyfried:

Gee it must suck to be the target of violence for expressing unpopular opinions.

Now imagine actually being murdered for doing so and having some spoiled Hollywood brat trash you and then whine how unfair she’s been treated https://t.co/Uf5SFE1ehf

— Sunny (@sunnyright) June 17, 2026

Tweet continues:

“A, I’m allowed to f*cking voice my feelings, and B, do it in a way that’s not unkind necessarily. But there’s just an outsized fear and hatred and impulse to bash and to tear down. And I experienced a very small fraction of that. I want my kids to be able to feel safe to voice their opinions as long as they’re not harmful. So I’m like, ‘What do I do? What do I say?’ And then all of a sudden I find myself with a f*cking bodyguard at the airport and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’” (British GQ)

Charlie experienced far more than “a very small fraction of that.”

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

Aren’t you the lady who let Atlanta burn down?

— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) June 18, 2026

Flashbacks:

● CNN Center in Atlanta damaged during protests.

—CNN, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta Protests Turn Violent: Police Cars, Local Restaurants Damaged.

—Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 29th, 2020.

● Atlanta’s protest ends with shattered storefronts and pleas for peace.

—Georgia Recorder, May 30th, 2020.

● College Football Hall of Fame vandalized, looted in Atlanta riots.

—AL.com, May 30th, 2020.

● Protesters burn down Wendy’s in Atlanta after police shooting.

—Reuters, June 13th, 2020.

● As Black Vigilance Becomes Armed Vigilantism, Accountability Is Lost in Atlanta’s Streets.

—The Intercept, June 24th, 2020.

● Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Doesn’t Have the Courage to Clear a Wendy’s Parking Lot and Now a Little Girl Is Dead.

—Stacey Lennox, PJ Media.com, July 6th, 2020.

● Amid spike in crime, a question of who owns the streets.

For some in Atlanta, the feeling is one of abandonment. “The police just don’t seem to care anymore,” says Morris Worthen, a Black Atlanta native. At the same time, he adds, “Everybody protests police shootings of Black people, but I don’t see any protests when Black people kill Black people.”

Nearby, a white neighbor, Tom Doyle, says he can’t deny a shift in attitude among his neighbors, regardless of their race.

“If the police back off, there’s really only two things left to do: defend yourself or be a victim,” says Mr. Doyle, who says he sometimes carries his gun.

But the police feel abandoned, too, says Thaddeus Johnson, a Georgia State University criminologist, who spent 10 years as an officer with the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee.

—The Christian Science Monitor, July 15th, 2020.

● Atlanta mayor says city has been ‘defunding the police’ for the last few years.

—Reporter Newspapers, June 11th, 2020.

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT:

If you feel that Downtown L.A. is not a very cool place to hang out, you’re not alone. A new study found it’s one of the deadest downtowns in the world. https://t.co/InGBDv6f9q pic.twitter.com/Dyt9BtgvvN

— KTLA (@KTLA) June 17, 2026

To boldly go where George MF Washington has gone before: Seen The Lights Go Out On Sunset.

Obviously it’s not Netflix or Amazon’s fault that The Strip is no longer The Strip in any recognizable way. The decline of the restaurants, bars and clubs along Sunset’s iconic length are no one’s fault but the owners and managers of those businesses. But whenever the one industry which dominates a company town begins to collapse, the first to suffer are those luxury business which cater to that industry’s youngest and hippest who have the most disposable income to spend. The inexorable disappearance of popular bars, luxury restaurants and other exclusive cultural signifiers are the leading indicators of a keystone industry in decline.

The Night of the Living Dead feral homeless don’t help matters, either. If only there had been someone running for mayor of L.A. who vowed to do something about them:

LA has over 40K drug addicts holding Angelenos hostage. All it takes is one to make moms feel too nervous to let their kids just go be kids and explore the quiet streets of their beautiful neighborhood. ENOUGH. We are done being held hostage in our own homes. Vote PRATT today! pic.twitter.com/9J3QJWvd1u

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 9, 2026

This is how the L.A. Times covered him:

I love how every article like this is like, "Hi, I'm a disabled, transgender anchor baby whose family's existence was drain on American taxpayers. I hate children and my sexual fetish is watching homeless drug addicts writhing in their own feces on the sidewalk so I love the… https://t.co/BfHZw1LVjx

— David Pivtorak (@TheDavidPiv) May 20, 2026

Speaking of which, if you missed it Monday: Now That Spencer Pratt Is Out of the Race, CNN Can Safely Tell You How FUBAR L.A. Is:

When I said this throughout my campaign, CNN people called me cruel and unhinged. Now, after they helped secure the election for the 2 dorks responsible for all these problems, CNN is now echoing my campaign talking points as gospel. Fascinating!pic.twitter.com/lIXV0OkQrf

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 14, 2026

UPDATE:

Variety spent the last two months trying to ridicule the one Mayoral candidate who was going to help, and IATSE endorsed the very Mayor responsible for running Hollywood out of town. These people are brainwashed clowns. https://t.co/SrYwoiatrI

— Mann Made Cinema (@Hotshot_Movie) June 17, 2026

SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: After 20 Yrs, Al Gore’s Like ‘I Was Right, I Was Right, I WAS RIGHT!’ — ABC News, ‘Why, Yes, He Was.

Yet, here’s the shameless snake oil salesman, now a silver-haired, senior citizen who must need a new revenue stream, out front and center, drawing attention to his hysteria-inducing piece of fictional fundraising.

The scientists have been right about climate change all along, says former Vice President Al Gore on the 20th anniversary of the release of "An Inconvenient Truth," the Oscar-winning documentary about Gore's campaign to educate people about climate change.https://t.co/AtRLF9Ztrw pic.twitter.com/BUMuzibvsk

— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2026

Worse, a national ‘news’ organization is indulging this egotist’s rosy-eyed reminiscing as if the manipulative fabrications in that blatant propaganda piece weren’t basically all outright frozen walrus poo dressed up for gullible human consumption as certified free of destructive pathogens.

Let’s walk down memory lane for a second – circa 2007 or so – and wrap ourselves in the sonorous sound of Gore’s doleful intonations describing mostly submerged Florida because half of Greenland (or Antarctica, or both – your choice) has melted and ‘fallen away.’

Florida? That was gone by the mid-1990s:

Oh, and speaking of ABC News and its global warming predictions, in 2008, they predicted that Manhattan would also be underwater — by 2015:

On June 12, 2008, correspondent Bob Woodruff revealed that the program “puts participants in the future and asks them to report back about what it is like to live in this future world. The first stop is the year 2015.”

As one expert warns that in 2015 the sea level will rise quickly, a visual shows New York City being engulfed by water. The video montage includes another unidentified person predicting that “flames cover hundreds of miles.”

Then-GMA co-anchor Chris Cuomo appeared frightened by this future world. He wondered, “I think we’re familiar with some of these issues, but, boy, 2015? That’s seven years from now. Could it really be that bad?”

Nahh — but why take chances? Tax the blue zones. A climate change tax measure Democrats and Republicans alike should get behind.

GREAT MOMENTS IN DUE DILIGENCE: Jeff Bezos told Trump the Washington Post was his worst investment before slashing staff: ‘People there are terrible.’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called the Washington Post his worst investment in a conversation with President Trump months before gutting the newsroom, according to a new book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.

“The people there are terrible,” Bezos told Trump over dinner in December 2024, according to an excerpt obtained by The Post ahead of the June 23 release of “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.“

“They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen,” Bezos said, focusing his ire at the business side of the publication after losing more than $100 million that year.

About two months after the dinner, Bezos ordered the Washington Post’s opinion pages to promote “two pillars: personal liberties and free markets” — as subscribers peeled off in protest of the paper withholding its endorsement from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Bezos this February authorized the sweeping downsizing of the celebrated Watergate paper, eliminating roughly a third of its workforce, including all staff photographers and the sports section.

Bezos’ candor with Trump was described by Swan and Haberman as part of a larger effort by Big Tech titans to cozy up with the incoming president, who had spent his four years in political exile railing against what he viewed as bias by news outlets and major internet platforms.

Trump told Bezos “this Washington Post is really unfair. You’ve got to take better care,” the book says.

“Bezos commiserated with Trump over their December dinner, indicating that he, too, was deeply frustrated with the Post, though for a different reason.”

“In Trump’s telling, Bezos told him he had lost half his friends over the investment,” the authors write. “Bezos would tell others that wasn’t quite right: He hadn’t lost friends, but people close to him had urged him to sell the newspaper.”

The brand names will likely continue, but we’re witnessing numerous mass media-era stalwarts in their dotage: the Post, late night talk shows, and Hollywood, all being devoured or radically transformed by changes in how we consume opinion and entertainment. The New York Times survives via its various non-news offshoots: “News remains the institution’s center of gravity, but Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic have given its advertising team a broader set of commercial entry points. Some are built around habit, others around purchase intent, fandom or utility. Crucially, many feel less intimidating to marketers that might otherwise hesitate at the idea of advertising with a news brand.”

In contrast, Bezos’ Amazon is what is keeping the lights on at the WaPo, and the staff at the paper believed they should essentially be considered tenured academics with Bezos having no say in how his investment is operated. As we’ve seen in recent years, the WaPo’s entitled leftist journalists have had numerous Scott Pelley-style flameouts before being shown the door.

ELECTION OFFICIAL STOPS DEMOCRAT DIRTY TRICK: Democrats Tried to Split the Republican Vote for Dan Sullivan in Alaska By Running Another Man Named Dan Sullivan.

Jonathan Turley:

There is an interesting controversy in Alaska where an election official just disqualified a candidate over his name. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) is in what is considered a close race with Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola. The seat is viewed as critical to the Democrats’ retaking power.The race was thrown into disarray when a retired teacher named Dan Sullivan, who had no connection to the GOP but did have connections to Democratic operatives, got on the ballot. The alleged dirty trick by Democratic and Peltola supporters would have split Sullivan’s vote through sheer confusion. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualified Dan J. Sullivan, putting an end to it this week.

The suspected dirty trick comes at a time when Democratic candidates and pundits are calling for winning back power “by any means necessary.”

Democrats should really consider what happens when we take a similar “by any means necessary” posture.

Because it’s coming.

That’s just another day at the office for “Democratic candidates and pundits.” See also, their 2015 championing of Donald Trump under the assumption he’d be the easiest GOP candidate for Hillary to defeat. Whoops.

SPOILER ALERT: Jeremy Clarkson Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in Clarkson’s Farm Season Finale.

“If I hadn’t got myself checked out and they hadn’t caught the problem early, this could well have been my last harvest. It’s only because they did catch it early, there’s every hope that I’ll be harvesting this farm for many, many years to come,” Clarkson said on the show.

Clarkson was initially hesitant to share with his staff — and his show’s audience — what type of cancer he has, replying to a query from Cooper, “Where it is, is of no concern to anybody.” But later in the episode, what exactly Clarkson is going through and where his health stood at the time of filming is made clear. “The prostate, 10 percent of it’s dead,” he said. “The 10 percent where the cancer is.”

The season ends with Clarkson in a hospital bed.

“So we started season five in a hospital bed and here we are at the end of season five, I’m back in a hospital bed,” he said. “Some of the treatment has gone awry, let’s say. I’ll probably be here for a little while…What I wanted to say was, if this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six. And if it isn’t, I won’t. Take care, everyone.”

It’s gripping viewing, and I’m astonished that the details weren’t leaked before the last two episodes dropped last night. Co-producer Andy Wilman appeared on a YouTube podcast earlier this month, and basically admitted that he was sworn to secrecy regarding the events of the final two segments:

POPCORN! Watch Hillary Clinton Absolutely SQUIRM When Pressed to Comment About Graham Platner.

Hillary zigs and zags when asked about Graham Platner:

“He’s had some bumps on the road."

Ok, but if you were a Mainer, would you vote for him?

“I’m not a Mainer. I’m a New Yorker."

**Changes subject**

The Dem elite's squirming and deflecting on this guy is something else. pic.twitter.com/gL6A5jzhfa

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 17, 2026

It’s pretty ironic to see Hillary deflect when asked about America’s best-known Totenkopf stan, when Jonah Goldberg’s early 2008 book Liberal Fascism was written with the assumption that she would be the Democratic frontrunner that year; quotes from her on her worldview make up several of its later chapters.

CHINA IS ASSHOE: You Can No Longer Fly or Purchase a Drone in Beijing.

The new law that passed last month makes it illegal to buy, rent, or fly a drone without prior approval from the authorities. Users must also complete an online training session and pass a test on drone regulations.

Under the new rules, drone users are also not allowed to repair or replace their drones in Beijing. Not only that, but a drone in a repair shop must be picked up in-person, rather than sent back by delivery.

The BBC reports that drones must now be registered before being brought into and out of the Chinese capital.

“I have to apply for permission for each flight, which is very inconvenient,” drone enthusiast Steven Wang tells CNN. “And starting this year, the wait time is getting longer, and the reasons for rejection are becoming more vague.”

Despite China being the birthplace of the consumer drone industry, it is increasingly difficult for hobbyists to fly there. Beijing authorities say that the rules are made to “strengthen the management of unmanned aerial vehicles” and “safeguard the security of the capital.”

To revise and extend the remarks by the late P.J. O’Rourke, you can’t get good Chinese takeout in China, Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba, the TV and movie industry is failing in California, and you can’t fly drones in Beijing. That’s all you need to know about communism.

IRAN: It All Boils Down to Trusting Trump; UPDATED: MOU Released.

It seems, from what Trump and Vance are saying, as well as from what administration officials have leaked to news outlets, that the deal’s guarantee boils down to Trump’s willingness to continue bullying Iran into cutting a further deal within the next 60 days. Or more, since the deadline can be extended indefinitely at the agreement of both parties.

Trump:

Iran has to have some missiles because other people have missiles. What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles but Iran can't have them?

They hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet. pic.twitter.com/EGWsLXIgQJ

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 17, 2026

If Trump is willing to go to war to get the “nuclear dust,” as he puts it, then the MOU has the teeth that Vance and others in the administration claim it does. If he is done with the war, as many suspect, then the skepticism is warranted.

Exit quote: In other words, it all boils down to how you read Trump’s intentions. And the Iranians’. Some people are confident, while others are…not.”

pic.twitter.com/yE1TKDelfO

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 16, 2026

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED WATCHING THE WORLD CUP ON AMERICAN SOIL:

 5) Hot Swedish girls love America

Europeans are falling in love with the United States, and why wouldn’t they? Air conditioning. Free refills. Ice. Waffle House. Pure joy. Most Europeans have never experienced these everyday aspects of American life.

One of these World Cup tourists is a Swedish woman named Elsa. She recently reported having an “out of body experience” at Golden Corral, and documented her first ever encounter with ranch dressing and bacon-wrapped tater tots. “I kinda understand why a lot of Americans never leave the country, like why would you?” she wrote. “It has everything.”

Maybe she’s just trolling for clicks. Who cares? It’s still sad, but not surprising, that a random Swedish babe can appreciate—or at least pretend to appreciate—this country’s greatness but the New York City mayor cannot.

Or the coddled leftists who staff the New York Times: 

They just can’t help themselves.

Thousands of Europeans are seeing more of America this summer than many New York Times staffers ever will. pic.twitter.com/oqZyPKtHW0

— Jimmy G (@jimmygards) June 17, 2026

They didn’t heed the warnings emanating from the View of the World from Ninth Avenue:

The Euros failed to heed our map https://t.co/wibWMEZdUG pic.twitter.com/u3V7svPgTG

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 17, 2026

MAXIMUM TWO-TIER KEIR:

A civilization can survive disagreement.

It cannot survive a ruling class that is more afraid of bad headlines than harmed children.

— The Undercurrent (@NotTheirScript) June 17, 2026

AS THE NEW YORK TIMES WOULD SAY, FAKE BUT ACCURATE:

I thought this had to be fake, even communists (actual communists) can't be this stupid. And, in fact, I didn't find the image on the group's website, but there then there's this, which isn't that different: pic.twitter.com/w24jU7aeYG

— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) June 16, 2026

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH:

Guess who they found was the threat to girls and women?

White Men. pic.twitter.com/gurSfktWWI

— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) June 15, 2026

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND:

The multiculturalism leaving my body as I read this report https://t.co/c3uqwIVXnM pic.twitter.com/6we1GwKB0L

— Robert Sterling (@RobertMSterling) June 17, 2026

HAPPY WARRIOR: The Wildest Moments from Vance Visiting The View. 

During the interview, [Ana] Navarro was a near-constant problem for moderator Whoopi Goldberg.

As they were approaching a commercial break and Vance was wrapping up a response to a question from Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin about race (because of course it was), Navarro tried to squeeze in a question about Michelle Obama. This caused Goldberg to clap her hands vigorously and scream to God to get Navarro shut up:

VANCE: I’m telling you, we celebrate black history. We celebrate all American history in this administration. You guys might be skeptical of this, but I promise you it’s true.

NAVARRO: Can I ask you about a specific piece of black history?

GOLDBERG: He’s gotta – I gotta –

NAVARRO: Do you think the attack on Michelle Obama –

GOLDBERG: I have to go to break! [Claps her hands] ANA, GOD PLEASE!

NAVARRO: – should have been condemned by the White House?

GOLDBERG: We have more with Vice President J.D. Vance when we come back.

“Don’t do that!” Goldberg scolded Navarro, in possibly a hot mic moment.

America’s Newspaper of Record sums up the state of the ABC News program Vance appeared on:

pic.twitter.com/kPncBdfsdt

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 16, 2026

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: Rupert Lowe Releases His Rape Gang Report.

The UK government has refused to investigate the crimes so I believe Lowe crowd-funded an investigatory body and conducted interviews and wrote up a report.

The full document is here.

It begins with some appropriate quotations:

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.–Albert Einstein

Man is the cruellest animal.

–Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Matt Van Swol @mattvanswolI have just finished reading The Rape Gang Inquiry Report.

It is, without a doubt, the most horrifying document I’ve ever read in my life.

There is no close second… and it’s worse than you could ever imagine.

Here’s everything you need to know 🧵

1. The inquiry estimates AT LEAST 250,000 girls.

A QUARTER MILLION.

They are overwhelmingly white girls and they were raped, trafficked & tortured over decades.

The 250k number is the MINIMUM, the FLOOR… there are likely even more than this.

2. The same crime was documented in at least 149 local authority districts… nearly 40% of the country.

Read the whole thing.

TOLERANCE FOR DIVERSITY SUDDENLY DISCOVERS LIMITS:

Your newspaper is an intolerant, bigoted Christophobic rag that fosters hate and violence.

Live and let live. Why do you insist on shoving your religion down the throats of people who simply wish to be left alone and not be forced to go against their own deeply-held,…

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) June 16, 2026

Past performance is no guarantee of future results:

San Francisco Chronicle: Athletes should express themselves.

Also San Francisco Chronicle: Not you guys. pic.twitter.com/wTDIEQXb2a

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) June 16, 2026

Including Kaepernick’s own idiosyncratic additions to his uniform: Clown Kaepernick Now Wearing Socks Depicting Police As Pigs: “This ass**** is just begging to be cut, which he probably soon will be, so then he can cry racism,” JWF writes, linking to a CBS Sports article that notes, “It appears that over the past few weeks, Kaepernick has been wearing socks that show a pig in a cop’s hat. The quarterback has been wearing them since at least Aug. 10.”

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT, SOCAL EDITION: Hollywood’s Mass Exodus: Why Film and TV Production Is Fleeing L.A. and What Can Be Done About It.

The contenders for governor are also battling to show that they can revive the industry with the right package of incentives. Newsom doubled the state program to $750 million in 2025. Everyone seems to agree it should be more — maybe a lot more — and that it should cover above-the-line salaries for actors, writers and producers.

“In my understanding, California’s rebate is one of the least beneficial for anybody who is financing motion pictures and television,” says Charles Roven, co-founder of Atlas Entertainment and producer of “Oppenheimer” and “Wonder Woman.” “It’s capped and it has no above-the-line.”

But the state can do only so much to compete with the 81 countries that have embraced filming as an economic development tool. The U.K. alone spent $2.2 billion on film and TV subsidies in 2024, and national incentives are often stacked on top of local rebates.

California “went into this knife fight without a weapon, and now folks are bringing guns,” says Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is the favorite to succeed Newsom.

As she runs for reelection, Bass has to walk a fine line between projecting confidence in the city’s ability to retain production and lobbying for more federal help for Hollywood. “I don’t feel like we’re going to lose our industry,” Bass says, noting that studios and networks are still grappling with the business changes wrought by the streaming revolution. “When all of that settles, I feel confident that we can maintain our industry.”

Once a pipe dream, the idea of a federal film subsidy now seems like a real possibility.

“In order to save this industry in America, we need to be competitive with tax credits,” says Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is working on introducing an incentive bill in Congress. “We have a lot of our influence around the world as a result of American film and TV. We don’t want to lose that soft power.”

Advocates warn that unless the U.S. responds to foreign subsidies, Hollywood is at risk of becoming Detroit, which has bled jobs as automakers pursued low-wage labor and generous incentives in other states and abroad.

“This is supposed to be the film capital of the world,” said Noelle Stehman, a co-founder of the grassroots group Stay in L.A., at a rally for Raman’s campaign. “It should be the cheapest and easiest place to film. In fact, it is the most cumbersome and the most expensive. That cannot continue. If we don’t do something quickly, this is going to become the next Detroit.”

Mike Miller, vice president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, was raised in Cleveland. He also sees a parallel. “I watched the demise of steel and rubber and automotive manufacturing as I grew up,” he says. “This is identical in many ways. We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen.”

Earlier: Fears grow of ‘Detroit-Style’ decline as Hollywood jobs evaporate.

If you’ve even flown into Los Angeles, you understand how gorgeous and perfect Southern California is.

It’s takes a superhuman effort to make that paradise a place where nobody wants to live or do business.

But communists were up to the task. https://t.co/jo058IujgM

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) April 2, 2026

UPDATE:

This is what happens when you produce a decade of Ford Pintos https://t.co/1gXuDf4xMN

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 16, 2026