The Week in Pictures: World Cup Edition
Posted By: Hazymac, 6/20/2026 6:46:28 AM
This week was Steve Hayward’s turn for TWIP, but this afternoon I got an email from him, saying that he was “in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean not far from the Kamchatka peninsula right now, sailing east to Vancouver from Tokyo, in a raging gale with high seas (I love it!), but am having trouble logging in to Power Line to post.” To the best of my knowledge Steve is still among the living. He followed up that missive by sending me some memes and headlines via email, to which I have added more. So this is a collaborative WIP.
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The Week in Pictures: World Cup Edition
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This week was Steve Hayward’s turn for TWIP, but this afternoon I got an email from him, saying that he was “in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean not far from the Kamchatka peninsula right now, sailing east to Vancouver from Tokyo, in a raging gale with high seas (I love it!), but am having trouble logging in to Power Line to post.” To the best of my knowledge Steve is still among the living. He followed up that missive by sending me some memes and headlines via email, to which I have added more. So this is a collaborative WIP.
Joe Biden seems determined to prove he was unfit for the presidency, and boy, did he do so again during the opening ceremony for Barack Obama's presidential center.
I hate that I’m even talking about the event, but Biden’s “Biden moment” is just impossible to ignore. Video from the ceremony shows Jill Biden physically leading her husband onto the stage, which tells you everything you need to know about where things stand for Ol’ Joe before a single word was spoken.
And yes, things got worse from there.
As the ceremony wound down, Obama strutted around, playing air guitar to the music while Jill watched approvingly and then trailed him offstage.
The government cannot prosecute a man for owning a firearm just because he has habitually smoked marijuana, the Supreme Court decided on June 18. The ruling clarifies a section of the Gun Control Act that forbids a person who “is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any controlled substance” from owning guns.
“The government maintains that it may automatically strip Mr. [Ali Danial] Hemani of his Second Amendment right to possess a firearm because he uses marijuana a few times a week,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.
“It makes no difference either if he keeps a firearm only in his home for self-defense, never misuses a gun while intoxicated,
Last year when Iryna Zarutska was (allegedly — our lawyer said we have to put that until it is adjudicated) murdered on the train by DeCarlos Brown Jr., I (and countless others) wrote about the scourge of violent criminals being released to prey on innocent civilians. But I recently started looking at it from a different angle, particularly when I saw the contrast between the way the Knicks fans behaved after their team won and the Japanese did after their team’s game. It occurred to me that something bigger is going on. Not that the scourge of violent crime isn’t real,
When thinking about poor Austin Metcalf, I sometimes wonder about his reactions during those last fatal moments on April 2 of last year. When murderer Karmelo Anthony drew that knife, could he not, being young and athletic, have avoided at least a deadly strike? Perhaps Anthony was just too quick. But then I realize something:
The two boys were from vastly different worlds.
Austin occupied the world most of us inhabit. It’s a place where, among other things, proportionate force is instinctively understood. Sure, boys and men, being boys and men, will sometimes have physical conflict, and we understand that part of manliness is standing up for yourself.
The Banality of Keir Starmer: Chestless
Bureaucrats and the Betrayal of Britain’s Daughters 4 replies
Bureaucrats and the Betrayal of Britain’s Daughters 4 replies
In 1961, Hannah Arendt, already well known among the intellectual elites of America as an expert on the Nazi atrocities, was commissioned by The New Yorker to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the man who had organized the logistics of the Holocaust. Eichmann had been captured the previous year in Argentina in a daring Mossad operation and smuggled out of the country so that Israel could put him on trial for his crimes.
As Arendt watched the trial, she realized in horror that the smug, evil, monstrous character she had expected to see was in fact a petty, banal, and sometimes silly bureaucrat, a man of little creativity
Send them back!
6 replies
Mass deportations may be coming to Europe. The European Parliament has voted (418-218) to pass the new “Return Regulation.” It will facilitate deportation of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, and includes various enforcement measures. Watch the MEPs chant “Send them back!” Some, like this Member of the European Parliament, think it will lead to mass deportations: (X) European voters are finally being heard. That is how it seems, anyway. Activists like Eva Vlaardingerbroek are getting traction. Will the Save Europe Act pass? I assume not, but stranger things have happened. (I see that YouTube restricts this video, you can’t have young people knowing there is a controversy about immigration): (X)
Musk must die!
10 replies
Democrats, who tell us it’s Normal Americans who are really the people doing all that mostly peaceful but fiery violence, continue to behave like rabid badgers. Worse, they behave like envious rabid badgers, which is never a good look. The Party of diversity and tolerance is anything but, and this time, the object of their hate is Elon Musk—still.
Musk was something of a Democrat ally until he did the unforgivable: he aligned himself with Donald Trump, exposed Democrat fraud and crimes, shut down their money funnels, and worst of all, bought Twitter and restored free speech on a platform they previously owned. So, Democrats vandalized and torched Teslas,
Renewable energy may be “green,” but it’s not bulletproof, and now America’s wind warriors are in open legal combat with the Pentagon.
Renewable energy trade groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the Pentagon, arguing that the Department of War has effectively frozen national security reviews for new onshore wind farms on private land.
Renewable energy groups are suing the U.S. military because they say national security reviews for new wind farms on private land have been effectively frozen for months. The groups say this logjam jeopardizes $47 billion in investments and thousands of jobs in 21 states.
President Donald Trump has frequently talked about his hatred of wind power and
The Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, is a federal program mandating a minimum addition of "renewable" fuels to transportation fuels in the United States. These renewables can include ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels. The Environmental Protection Agency administers this program, created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and revised by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
The problem is, it's costing American taxpayers a lot of money at the pump.
The Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRF) has crunched some numbers on this, and the findings paint an expensive and unpleasant picture. These and the other various regulations and requirements
Rush Roars Back to Life
11 replies
So there we were on Sunday, June 7, 2026, some 15,000 strong, gathered at the aging but still respectable Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, located across a parking lot from the gleaming SoFi Stadium where World Cup and Super Bowl matches come to be played. It was a pleasant Southern California afternoon settling into evening as we wandered about the arena, most taking time to shop at one of the numerous souvenir stands or sip ridiculously priced adult beverages from the even more numerous concession stands. It was an assemblage of the familiar, old friends growing older, talking about children growing up, and reminiscing about the days
I know that experts agree that our liberal and Democratic friends are the sharpest knives in the drawer, because education and credentials.
After all, how would they have got to be the ruling class without intelligence and cunning?
But in the last week, we have all started to wonder.
When the Democrats all sing in chorus about the evils of Elon Musk’s first trillion, as though he were a feudal lord with gold in them thar dungeons, you start to wonder.
When all the Democrats sing in unison about the splendor of tat-laden rich-kid Graham Platner, you ask yourself: really?
When California strangely promotes third-place Nithya Raman to second place in the sharp-as-a-tack post-election-day
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Britain Stunned As Report Claims 250,000
British Girls Were Victimized by Pakistani
Rape Gangs 31 replies
British Girls Were Victimized by Pakistani
Rape Gangs 31 replies
Tuesday, British Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe, the leader of the Restore Britain party (sorry to say, at this point I think it is more accurate to look at Nigel Farage and his Reform Party as controlled opposition rather than a real choice), released a report that probably ensures that British politics won't be quite the same. His 219-page "The Rape Gang Inquiry Report" unmasks the concerted effort by British officials to cover up the systematic rape of British girls in their early teens, if that, intimidate the girls into refusing to press charges, and protect the feral Pakistani gangs who preyed on them.
83-year-old Joe Biden was abandoned by his wife and former boss on stage at the Barack Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony in Chicago on Friday, left staring aimlessly into the crowd.
The confused Biden was left behind as Obama danced off the stage, and Jill Biden followed him, forgetting about her husband.
The Bidens were included among four former presidents and former first ladies who attended the ceremony.
Biden looked distressed as he looked out into the crowd from the podium.
He took off his sunglasses and waved before asking the crowd one strange question.
“Where’s my granddaughter?” Joe shouted as the camera panned away from him and ended its feed.
Joe Biden seems determined to prove he was unfit for the presidency, and boy, did he do so again during the opening ceremony for Barack Obama's presidential center.
I hate that I’m even talking about the event, but Biden’s “Biden moment” is just impossible to ignore. Video from the ceremony shows Jill Biden physically leading her husband onto the stage, which tells you everything you need to know about where things stand for Ol’ Joe before a single word was spoken.
And yes, things got worse from there.
As the ceremony wound down, Obama strutted around, playing air guitar to the music while Jill watched approvingly and then trailed him offstage.
Obama has been getting a ton of media attention this week because of the opening of his hideous presidential center. During an interview with MSNOW, he said something that was truly stunning.
Obama claimed that he rejects the belief that ‘the only true narrative of America is this one of oppression and exclusion.’
Is he for real?
His entire political career has been based on the idea that America is the land of oppression and exclusion. It’s practically his personal brand.
If you watch the video below, you’ll see how he set this up.
Nearly four in ten Democrats say they are “ashamed” to be American, a new survey found.
The survey by The Economist/YouGov found just weeks before America’s 250th anniversary that 26 percent of Democrats say they are “somewhat ashamed” and 12 percent say they are “very ashamed” to be American.
Nearly twice as many Democrats reported being somewhat or very ashamed to be American compared to overall poll respondents. Out of all U.S. adult citizens polled, 12 percent say they are “somewhat ashamed” and 8 percent say they are “very ashamed.”
Still, some Democrats say they are “very proud” to be American (22 percent) or “somewhat proud” (18 percent).
Good News: Iran Blocks the Strait
19 replies
The Memorandum of Understanding with Iran appears not to have lasted for 48 hours, as Iran has once again blocked the Strait of Hormuz:
Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz Friday instead of heading to Switzerland for nuclear negotiations, citing Israel’s refusal to pull forces out of southern Lebanon and US forces’ ongoing presence in the region.
In a statement read over maritime radio channels, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US was in violation of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, which President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed Wednesday.
Iran Cancels Switzerland Talks
17 replies
I expected this, or at least some variation of it.
I wrote about this on Wednesday: Iran demanded the ceasefire in Lebanon to create a steady casus belli they can use to jerk the United States around and drive a wedge between Israel and the United States.
Demand a ceasefire, then get Hezbollah to keep poking at Israel with attacks to generate defensive responses. Then use those defensive responses to cancel talks or jerk us around, claiming that Israel violated the ceasefire. This was, at least to me, as predictable as the sun rising in the East. Hell, even I predicted it, and I am not a genius.
Donald Trump has been the greatest, most clear-eyed and most transformative foreign policy president of my lifetime. But Trump is also the famed businessman who wrote The Art of the Deal four decades ago. There has therefore always been the risk that the president's novel and often unorthodox approach to foreign policy could be subsumed by a greater dealmaking imperative.
Prudent statesmanship on the world stage requires setting clear ends and then working backward to calibrate the appropriate means — diplomatic, economic, military or otherwise — to achieve those ends. Because of his dealmaking background, Trump — despite all his foreign policy successes — was always uniquely vulnerable
Juneteenth is a powerful reminder that the Democrats lost their war for slavery.
Yes, the glorious news of Republican President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally made its two-year trek to the great state of Texas. On June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger delivered General Order No. 3 and proclaimed, in part: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” WHO IS JUNETEENTH FOR?
This freedom was made possible by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics who fought for the Union.
Tulsi Gabbard, on her final day as Director of National Intelligence, released a batch of never-before-seen communications and documents that tie Dr. Anthony Fauci directly to funding for dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the same lab now widely believed to be the source of COVID-19.
The release lands as part of President Trump's push for what Gabbard calls a "maximum transparency mandate," and it paints a picture of a bureaucrat who didn't just fund risky research with your tax dollars; he allegedly worked the intelligence community like a puppet to cover up his role in it.
Major League Baseball outraged many of its fans on June 12 by warning that players who wrote Bible verses on their caps could face discipline for daring to express their beliefs. Of course, the League pushed their Pride Night hats, and although they didn’t require players to wear them, they made it clear, as they have in the past, that they're in on the rainbow but not down with expressions of faith. The League maintains that all writing on caps is prohibited, and it’s not a case of religious discrimination.
It’s heartening to see foreign soccer fans, especially the Europeans, marvel at their U.S. discoveries. They’ve been awed by Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, and Bass Pro Shops, the best examples of Americana. But what we’re seeing also makes us wonder how long America will still be America.
“Soccer fans like Freddy from Germany are embracing U.S. culture as they crisscross the country — and going viral,” says Danielle Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute.
“Thousands of Europeans are seeing more of America this summer than many New York Times staffers ever will,” tweets Jimmy G.
Germans and Scots are singing “American