Andrew Heaton: Eat the Rich...Then What?

Crowd Sings Country Roads After Win Over Australia

This is freakin awesom:

The reason this song resonates so much across the country is multi layered--part of it is a longing to come home; the other part is so many people from Appalachia/West Virginia were displaced by lack of opportunity and so they migrated away, but they never lost that sense of… https://t.co/I0p2H0wa2M

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) June 19, 2026

Spanberger's Worst Action Thus Far: Signing the "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact"

Utter bullshit.

Get this in front of SCOTUS and let them strike it down.

How can the Democrats be wrong about everything?

So much for the sacred counting of the electoral votes. The constitution says we decide presidential elections by electoral votes of each state. This has to be unconstitutional. https://t.co/Oeyy42Lnxh

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 17, 2026

No Injunction Against VA "Assault Weapon" Ban

WSJ: Trump Explains Why He Cut A Deal With Iran

Again:

All sorts of things can happen...and we don't know how this will play out...

...but it doesn't sound good.

Rothman: The Humiliations Yet to Come from Trump's Iran Deal

Again, I'm not giving up hope.

But the deal sounds fucking terrible.

Noah Rothman: Trump Throws Vance and Rubio Under the Bus

link

Dude was elected for basically one reason... He had one job:  Don't be the Democrats.

Well, also a subsidiary one: Roll back what the Democrats have done over the past 10-15 years.

   I don't think it was stupid of him to take his shot at Iran. It also wasn't obviously smart... But it thrust him into exactly the role he cannot handle, and seems to have botched as bad as it could possibly be botched. When the going gets tough, he becomes just a random word generator. He says wildly, obviously false and inconsistent things. He's just a wreck.

   The TDS crowd refuses to acknowledge his strengths and accomplishments--of course, being generally on the left, they have legitimate grounds for seeing those accomplishments as...whatever the opposite of accomplishments is... Bad accomplishments, or whatever.

   The fawning Trumpistas (of which there are many fewer) refuse to acknowledge his glaring weaknesses. But there's no getting an accurate view of the guy without acknowledging both. 

   The Iran debacle--assuming that's what it actually is--has really brought out and highlighted his weaknesses. One of which: he seems utterly incapable of acknowledging defeat--or even his own errors.

WSJ: Is Iran Really a Normal Country?

Doesn't seem to be--but I know ridiculously little about the place.

My (pathetic) understanding is that it's basically composed of a group of people governed by a foreign Islamic apocalyptic cult...

   The Editors make a good point: all sorts of things can happen from here on out. Trump may be right (he often is). He may have some things up his sleeve (in fact, he almost certainly does). He became rich and powerful largely by reading people, exercising advantages, and making deals. For all I know, he's just using the "deal" as a cover story to give CENTCOM an opportunity to compile a list of new targets, get more anti-drone weapons in-theater, reload the VRSs, and clobber them next time Iran gives him and excuse (as they certainly will). A transformative leader might rise to power in Iran. The people might rise up again--with our help this time...all sorts of things might happen...

   People with my degree of understanding about the situation have basically no understanding of it.

   But, of course, it doesn't look good.

   Trump's wild, chaotic swings...he's loony pronouncements about unconditional surrender...his many claims that the war is already over...then that we're about to level the whole country...his multiple announcements that a deal is already done... It certainly sounds like he's in way over his head and just making it all up from day to day. He seems to think that his method of spontaneous tactical bullshitting--so successful at home--will work on the international stage...and on the Mullahs...just seems insane...

   I've always thought that foreign policy was his biggest weakness. Mostly, I worried about him accidentally starting WWIII...I didn't envision this...

   Kinda seems like the Mullahs know our playbook, and realize that all they have to do is not give up. We're not going to send in troops--ergo we can't just take over their country and make them comply...not that sending troops into Afghanistan worked, either...

   Well, I have no real point, I suppose.

VA Dems Agree to Start Retail Weed in January [July?] '27

The first good thing they've done.

But the plan is full of "equity" bullshit--which, let's face it, means: funneling even more money to blacks and other Democrat-favored races and special interest groups. It'll be interesting to see whether they can figure out a way to also get some to the alphabet people in on the action...

WA Gun Law: Spotsylvania Case Against VA Dems' "Assault Weapon" Ban (in Curtis v. Katz) is Brilliant and Airtight

I'm not a lawyer, but it is a pretty sweet argument.

Here's the relevant clause of the VA constitution:

Article I. Bill of Rights
Section 13. Militia; standing armies; military subordinate to civil power

That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

My argument (not that it matters) was less clever:

Even if the antecedent (or false antecedent) is taken as operant, and even if the right is conditional, and even though we have no militia (in the ordinary contemporary sense) anymore, that doesn't matter. In that case, the right is made conditional on the fact that the militia is the proper, right, natural and safe defense of a free state--not on the actual existence of a militia. The mere fact that we have no militia (in the ordinary sense) is irrelevant to whether a militia is proper, right, natural and/or safe. 

   

   But here's WAGL's short, interesting discussion of the much more important argument in Curtis v. Katz:

The British Rape Gang Report

Jesus Christ.

We knew all this.

But it's still appalling to see it all in one place.

The eight central points:

1) This was a nationwide, not merely local, phenomenon.

2) The scale was enormous, more than anyone dared to think.

3) As has been reported, the vast majority of perpetrators were Pakistani Muslims.

4) Vulnerable girls were targeted using a consistent method.

5) The police, and other institutions, knew what was happening and ignored it.

6) Those in these institutions did so because they were afraid of being called ‘racist’.

7) Parts of the foster and orphan care system became exploitation hotspots.

8) Multiple offenders explicitly linked their treatment of these girls with their own religious and cultural beliefs, and the girls’ white ethnicity.

Back in the day, before the left went completely insane, and I was more aligned with the blue team, an IRL friend and frequent commenter here--a very smart Brit--pushed back against my posts on this, arguing that this was most likely some kind of police scandal, and the cops were basically pleading fear of accusations of racism as some kind of way of covering up their own misdeeds... I never really understood the argument. The point was to deny that this debacle had anything to do with race/ethnicity--to deny that the perpetrators had any such commonality. I said, even at the time, that it certainly seemed that both the Pakistanis/South-Asians and the cops were to blame... I mention this because I've seen this so many times over the last decade: even smart, well-informed people like my friend...and even some (like him) who recognize the crapitude of Woketarianism...can just be blind to certain such things. 

   Quoth Orwell:

   To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

Also via Insty: 

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

White Men. pic.twitter.com/gurSfktWWI

— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) June 15, 2026

Left-Wing Terrorist Plot Against the WH UFC Event Busted

This would have been really bad if they had pulled it off...though they'd have all ended up pummeled into paste by the crowd...

At least the left can't deny the aims of this one:

A suspect told investigators the goal of the attack was to target “capitalist elites,” “billionaires” and politicians who received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to the outlet.

OK, The Alternative to WH UFC is Worse: David Burge: "I Think We've Failed to Educate Our Theater Kids About How Fucking Tired We are of Their Bullshit"

I'm not a fan of MMA on the White House lawn. But if this is the alternative, fuck it, let's have MMA, WWE and Monster Trucks in the Rose Garden every Tuesday https://t.co/IB7ZEwBg6e

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 15, 2026

Trump's UFC White House Birthday Bash

I couldn't watch it.

I didn't like what I did see.

I like MMA, and I like that people--including a lot of servicemen--had a good time.

But this kind of circus has no place on the WH lawn.*

The "Michelle Obama is a man" bullshit was way the fuck over the line. And fuck that guy for it.

I guess it basically comes down to the fact that I can't even.

Yeah, well, neither did Biden's "trans" extravaganza, with dudes in dresses pulling them down to bare their breast implants... Yeah, that was worse. But that doesn't mean that this wasn't bad. Granted, the UFC doesn't aim at the destruction of Western Civilization...but still... Sometimes being less bad just isn't good enough.

I Guess Jon Stewart Was Always a Hack

He knows nothing about Islam, of course, but his lefty presupposition is that Islam can't be any worse than Christianity. So he basically gives AHA a hard time. His derision is barely concealed at all. She grew up in the religion--but his liberal (" ") presuppositions are smarter than her actual, y'know, experience...

Edwards B-52 Crash: Eight Dead, No Survivors

.

B-52 Crashes at Edwards

No word on the crew yet.

It crashed "soon after takeoff."

The lower-deck crew on the Buff--the navigator and gunner--eject downward.

Obviously hoping everyone is ok.

2/3 of Colleges Require DEI Courses?

link

Frank Miele: Before We Forget: What Trump Did Right

Agreed.

Fixed the border, addressed waste/fraud/abuse in government programs, TrumpRx, at least tried to address Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, no tax on tips and reduced taxes on Social Security...

I'd add:

Stopped the Biden administration's attacks on free speech

Struck major blows agianst DEI

Struck major blows against transgender pseudoscience and its abuse of children

Reduced government regulation

Struck major blows against global warming hysteria and radically improved U.S. energy policy

Job creation: good

Stock market: good

SCOTUS: perhaps his greatest achievement.

His DoJ addressing state-level violations of the Second Amendment

...

and that's just for starters.

The guy drives me crazy, and I abhor his frequently-divisive demeanor. I don't think someone with his, er, uneven temperament should be President. I'm not sure what to think about the tariffs. I'm extremely opposed to his infringements of free speech--especially the flag-burning nonsense. I fear that Trump fatigue will give us a Democrat House--and perhaps President in '28.. And then the whole disaster of the Biden years may well be repeated.

   But, just looking at the good side of the ledger, I'd say: the best President of the 21st Century, by far.

   Well, I left out his post-election freakout and his role in the Capitol riot and fostering electoral skepticism on the right. That's a complicated subject...and I actually think he was at least right about the general point: the election of 2020 was sketchy, and the Democrats are undermining the security of our elections. I wish he'd just say that instead of insisting that his 2020 "landslide" was stolen...

Elliot Abrams: The Iranian People are Forgotten in the Iran Deal

Kinda seems that way.

Jonathan Alpert: Therapy is Looking More Like Re-Education. (Or: Everything Woke Turns to Shit...)

Well, it's an irrationalist, totalitarian ideology that spreads itself by taking over social institutions and brainwashing people into accepting it as unquestionable orthodoxy. It's taken over all of our major institutions, including medicals schools and the AMA...and it's particularly bad in social sciences and/like psychology... So this comes as no surprise.