The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 07.01.26 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | July 1, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Thanks to everyone who bought stuff from my Amazon links last month. Always appreciated!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

SKSCartoons gets b& from Instagram

OVER THE TRANSOM
Doug Ross: White Guilt – The Suicide Note of the West
357 Magnum: Mass Shooting in Germany
EBL: Karl “The Architect” Rove Supports SCOTUS Birthright Citizenship Decision, Olive Oil Fish, Grant Figured Out Lee’s Flaw, “Monkey To Man”, and The Field Of Lies
Twitchy: CA State Senator Wiener Votes Down Ban on Registered Sex Offenders Holding Office, Need A Mirror, Hillary? and The White House’s Submission For Unmatched X Post
Louder With Crowder: Mutant rats are becoming immune to poisons and are taking over major U.S. cities, Angel mom ANNIHILATES Democrats, Adolf Hitler’s Baby Photo Made Its Way Into a New Jersey Middle School Yearbook, Mayor Zohran Mamdani Says He Is Proof That Communism Fixes Problems Created Under Capitalism, and SCOTUS Strikes Down Trump’s Birthright Citizenship EO – But Congress Can Fix It If They Have The Guts
Vox Popoli: Clown World Wants War, Upcoming Game Test, Germany Learns the Hard Way, Supreme Court Upholds Paper, and The Cat Commotion
Stoic Observations: You Don’t Know Who You Are
Cedar Sanderson: Lightly Toasted Marshmallow Strip #9
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Post-Convention Sleep Disorder
john C. Wright: Losing Religion – John Derbyshire
Upstream Reviews: Graham Bradley – Summer Reading List

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: No, I Can’t Wait Until The Full NDAA Is Out
Dana Loesch: SCOTUS Upholds Mississippi Voting Law
Don Surber: Obama’s red revolution
STUMP: Congressional Morbidity & Mortality Watch – A Quickie Update

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Survival Food
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Category: Linkagery

July 1: Captured at Gettysburg

Posted on | July 1, 2026 | No Comments

Like much else in the “official” history of the Civil War, that map of the opening engagement at Gettysburg — east of Willoughby Run, on the slope of McPherson Ridge — may not be completely accurate.

One of my pet peeves about how Gettysburg has been depicted is the portrayal of Buford’s Union cavalry as having fought some kind of desperate battle in delaying Maj. Gen Harry Heth‘s Confederate division in its advance from Cashtown that morning. Having spent quite a deal of time researching this subject, including personal observation of the terrain, I assert without qualification that the Union cavalry did little or no damage to the advancing Confederates. Once the first shots were fired by Buford’s advance vedettes (an honor claimed by Lt. Marcellus Jones, 8th Illinois Cavalry), east of Marsh Creek, what happened was this: Confederate Brig. Gen. J.J. Archer, commanding the lead brigade of Heth’s division, deployed the 5th Alabama Infantry Battalion as skirmishers, to protect the column marching behind them from any further harassment by the Yankee cavalry. The eastward march on the Chambersburg Pike then continued for more than a mile until reaching the crest of Herr Ridge. At that point, the advance halted, having come under fire by Buford’s troopers deployed on the other side of Willoughby Run, about 400 yards to the east of the ridge. Buford was supported by a battery of artillery (commanded by 21-year-old Lt. J.H. Calef), which opened fire as Heth and his officers were reconnoitering the position.

Heth deployed Archer’s brigade to the south of the road (which is now U.S. Highway 30) and deployed the brigade of Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis to the north side, with the artillery battery of Maj. William J. Pegram in the center. Meanwhile, on the Union side, Maj. General John F. Reynolds arrived on the field, riding in advance of the army’s First Corps. Reynolds consulted briefly with Buford, and quickly sent a note to the army commander, Maj. Gen. George Meade, promising to fight the Rebels “inch by inch.” As Reynolds’ infantry approached, they heard the firing and marched faster, the head of the column being what was to become known as the Iron Brigade. Reynolds directed them toward Willoughby Run, south of the Chambersburg Pike, while sending the next brigade, under Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler, to the north side of the road.

Before these Union troops could reach their assigned position, however, Heth had finished his reconnaissance and, his two lead brigades now formed into line of battle near the crest of Herr Ridge, ordered them to advance eastward. This detailed narrative I relate as contradiction of the way these events have been depicted by “official” accounts of the first day’s battle at Gettysburg, with Buford’s cavalry heroically holding off the Confederates. All that the Union cavalry had done was to (a) force Archer to halt long enough to deploy a battalion of skirmishers and (b) to put up a sufficient show of force at Willoughby Run to compel Heth to deploy a full infantry battle line. If the Confederates had been completely unopposed in their march toward Gettysburg, they would have crossed Willoughby Run before 9 a.m. As it was, by the time Heth ordered his battle line to advance, it was around 10 a.m. No doubt, the Yankee troopers on the other side of the stream were firing their carbines at any target they could see, but so far as is known, during the whole of this engagement they neither suffered any casualties themselves nor inflicted any on the Rebels. Packed away in my garage is a notebook in which I have a copy of Col. Birkett Davenport Fry‘s account of Gettysburg. Fry commanded the 13th Alabama in Archer’s brigade, and nowhere in his account of the fight on July 1 does he suggest that their advance from Cashtown was seriously impeded by Buford’s cavalry.

Having vented about my pet peeve, then, I then recount what happened to my great-grandfather, Winston Wood Bolt, who was a private in Company K of Fry’s 13th Alabama. Most historians have the 13th Alabama as the right flank regiment of Archer’s brigade as they advanced from Herr Ridge, down a slight slope to Willoughby Run, and then up into the woods toward McPherson Ridge on the other side. About this time, on the Union side, the first elements of the Iron Brigade were reaching the field. Near the Chambersburg Pike, Reynolds was supervising the deployment of two regiments (the 2nd and 7th Wisconsin) from the Iron Brigade when he was shot dead. Some historians have attributed Reynolds’ death to a Confederate “sharpshooter,” but it was most likely just regular volley fire from the nearest troops of Archer’s brigade, probably the 7th Tennessee Regiment.

The Iron Brigade in action at Gettysburg

Any visitor to Gettysburg who takes time to walk over this part of the battlefield (as I have) will perceive that Willoughby Run crosses the road almost diagonally, so that the left side of Archer’s brigade probably crossed ahead of the right flank and, most likely, the alignment got disrupted. The first Union forces to reach the field were up by the road, and the 13th Alabama curled around facing toward the northeast — and then disaster struck. The last regiment of the Iron Brigade to arrive (the 24th Michigan, which had been bringing up the rear of the column) came over McPherson Ridge to the southeast, completely outflanking the 13th Alabama. The Confederate line was then rolled up from right to left, resulting in the capture of Archer and about 100 of his men, including my ancestor, Pvt. Bolt, who spent the next two years as a prisoner of war.

Having a personal connection to historic events inspires a deep concern for the preservation of our national heritage, which it seems some of my fellow citizens do not share. But why drag John Roberts into this, huh?



 

Category: History

In The Mailbox: 06.30.26

Posted on | July 1, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: DCU – Is It the Dead Cinematic Universe, or the D-She-U?
Doug Ross: A Day Finding The Oldest Bible On Earth (1947)
EBL: Forever My Girl, Sardine Magic Sicilian Pasta, John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett – Disappointing, “The Globe”, and The Globe
Twitchy: The Amish Clearly Don’t Want To Assimilate Into American Society & The Right Doesn’t Care, Third Reich Rugrat, and Elon Musk Responds To Nicholas “Dog Rape” Kristof’s List Of Children He [Allegedly] Killed With Aid Cuts
Louder With Crowder: Nancy Pelosi leaves her crypt long enough to attend Pride Parade, Man arrested for shooting his BB gun at cyclists who were indecently exposing themselves in public, Woman goes on trial for “villifying” a grown man because she says he can’t breastfeed, Democrat “Reverend” Claims Not Affirming Trans People Is A Disgrace To God, and Killing Ourselves with Kindness – A Review of “Suicidal Empathy” by Gad Saad
Vox Popoli: His Satanic Majesty, A Shaky Ceasefire, The Baen Drain Continues, Attritional Math, and The Only Skull CD
Cedar Sanderson: Au Revior, LibertyCon
Sensurround: A Brief Review of the Radical Theory That Laws Should Apply To Everyone
Upstream Reviews: Gone Fission – Our Summer Break Begins

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: The Vandalism Of The Royal Navy Is Reaching Its Endgame
Dana Loesch: Erika Kirk May Face Her Husband’s Killer In Court
Don Surber: The Declaration of Dependence
Glenn Reynolds: Bringing Back The Spoils System? Yes, Please
STUMP: New York Pensions & Primaries

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 06.29.26

Posted on | June 30, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

In case you missed it, there was some excitement this past weekend about an Uwe Boll movie.
Also, the Based Book Romance sale continues!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Doug Ross: The Day Cortez Met Montezuma (1519), CIA & USAID – The Comic Explainer, A Day Opening King Tut’s Tomb (1929), and The Day A Shipwreck Was Found That Stunned The World (1900)
357 Magnum: How Should a Woman Defend Herself? also, SCOTUS Strikes Down Hawaii Law Restricting CCW
EBL: Fish Kebobs, Omnivore, Citizen Vigilante, Broken Crown : Edward IV, and Happy 100th Birthday Mel Brooks
Twitchy: Nate Silver Looks At Sales Figures For Dr. Jill Biden’s Book, Nick “Dog Rape” Kristof Names Kids [Allegedly] Killed By Elon’s DOGE Cuts, and CATO Simp Whines That ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Good Hasn’t Been Charged Or Fired
Louder With Crowder: Angry Joy Reid lashes out and demands Donald Trump be canceled from history, New polls show just how much Americans support Donald Trump’s common-sense illegal immigration reforms, High School Counselor Writes Kids’ Book Advocating Cutting Off Family Members Who Do Not Affirm LGBT Identities, Bad news! Joy Behar declares she is embarrassed to be an American, and “They are afraid to fight”: Trump wastes no time mocking Democrats letting their party be taken over by commies
Vox Popoli: The Degradation of AI Writing, The EU’s Inverted Values, It’s Too Late Now, The Collapsing Empire, and Further Advances
Defending The Wood Perilous: The Crazy Life of an Author, also, The Crazy Lives of Suffering Authors
Cedar Sanderson: Lightly Toasted Marshmallow Strip #8, June Garden Tour, and Driving Dys Topia
John C. Wright: A Rare Moment of Judicial Sanity, Utopia Hates Reality, and SFF Is Everything Else
Sensurround: Haul Asteroid Ore, Charlie Brown! My Muse Is A Bitch And She Beats Me, The Legend of Don Esteban “Murcielago” Cortez, and Quantum Physics
Upstream Reviews: Masters of the Universe, also, Sneak Preview – Fossil Force
Stoic Observations: Social Entropy
Incensepunk Magazine: Out of the Silent Planet

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Baldilocks: Balm of Goodness, also, Simple Questions
CDR Salamander: Have You Completed Your ASW PQS? Fullbore Friday, and The Battle of Jutland at 110 – On Midrats
Don Surber: Europe needs AC, also, Did we keep a republic?,
Elizabeth Nickson: Young White Men Will Save Western Civilization. Why?
Glenn Reynolds: The Commies Mount An Across The Board Push
Racket News: Zohran Mamdani & The Nitwit Revolution
STUMP: Lightning Safety Week 2026

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Category: Linkagery

Woke ‘Supergirl’ Bombs Badly

Posted on | June 29, 2026 | No Comments

Helen Slater (left, in 1984) and Milly Alcock (right) as ‘Supergirl’

Let’s start by stating the obvious: Sixty-six-year-old grandpas are not the target audience for super-hero action movies and, even when I was part of the target demographic, age-wise, I really never was much of a fan of movies about comic-book characters. Like, I vaguely remember going to see the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman movie, and I’ve seen at least one Batman movie, the 2002 Spider-man and 2008 Iron Man, but that’s about it. Just not the kind of guy who lines up for whatever DC/Marvel project comes out off the Hollywood assembly line.

So now we have the latest franchise-killing “woke” failure:

Supergirl didn’t just flop at the box office this weekend; it is a flop of epic proportions, an abysmal failure that will be remembered only as a failure.
With a disastrous $38 million domestic opening and an even more humiliating overseas take of $30 million, Supergirl is a bigger domestic flop than The Marvels ($46 million), The Flash ($55 million), Black Adam ($67 million), and Morbius ($39 million). . . .
The production and promotion budget for Supergirl is right around $250 million. That makes the break-even number at $450 to $500 million. Supergirl will be lucky to hit $200 million worldwide. Warner Bros. is looking at massive losses.

Much like when the anti-male 2016 Ghostbusters remake flopped, the defenders of Vaguely Queer Supergirl are blaming right-wing “backlash” and “toxic masculinity” for this box-office catastrophe.

Had to screencap that Variety headline just so no one would suspect me of inventing it. Much of the problem with Supergirl is the decision to cast Milly Alcock in the lead role. She is perhaps best known for playing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in a 2022 prequel to the popular Game of Thrones series. Whatever her merits as an actress, however, she doesn’t have the bombshell vibe that, for example, Gal Gadot brought to the successful 2017 Wonder Woman. Keep in mind that the canon backstory of Wonder Woman is a heckuva lot more “queer coded” than anything known about Supergirl, who made her first appearance in a 1959 edition of Action Comics as Superman’s cousin from the planet Krypton.

Leaving it to film critics to assess Milly Alcock’s onscreen performance, perhaps the bigger problem is that, off-screen, the actress simply couldn’t stop running her mouth in publicity interviews:

[A]pparently bizarre comments and financial failures are what the [producer] James Gunn era at DC Studios is all about. Because the latest pre-release tracking data on this weekend’s “Supergirl” release has gone from disastrously bad to monumental failure. And the film’s star, Milly Alcock, is sure to shoulder some of the blame.
Alcock, as a reminder, implied in a March interview that she’d been receiving criticism for being a woman starring as a…female superhero. Which makes little sense.
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” she told Vanity Fair. “We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself.”
When reaction to those remarks was generally negative, Alcock got defensive and doubled down.
“I didn’t even say ‘men’ — I said ‘people!’” she said in a profile for Variety. “And they got so angry. I was like, ‘You’re proving my point. You’re proving my point!’”
Apparently unaware that those remarks then proved she had, in fact, been referring to unknown male fans who supposedly criticized her for playing “Supergirl.” But that wasn’t the only odd statement she made during that portion of the press tour.
Alcock said much of the criticism came from those who said they were a “dad” or “Christian.” Which apparently disqualifies them from having an opinion about a movie or casting decision. Or means that any comments are supposedly hypocritical.
“And it’s from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts,” Alcock said. “Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me.”
As if that wasn’t enough, just a few days ago, Alcock addressed the sexuality of the “Supergirl” character in a response to a question from Queerly Radio. When the host asked whether that was something Alcock had “explored” her character’s supposed “queerness” in preparing for the role, she answered, “It wasn’t, but in honor of ‘Pride month,’ as I’m getting all these questions…I don’t know. I think that what makes this film beautiful is that it’s not centered around a man, it’s not centered around love at all. I don’t really know. I don’t know. I don’t know. She probably goes both ways.”

“Look! Up in the sky! It’s SuperQueerGirl!”

The people making movies — and making decisions about who gets hired to make movies — in Hollywood don’t ask my advice and, as I say, I’m not the target audience here, but permit me to offer just a few observations on what went wrong with Supergirl:

  1. People don’t want politics in a summer blockbuster — So far as I am aware, no one has detected any overt political message in Supergirl, so why was Milly Alcock out there turning the pre-release publicity tour into a Gender Studies lecture?
  2. Respect the audience — If you’re making a comic-book super-hero movie, maybe you should think about the fandom of comic-book super heroes. Just throwing that out there. Instead of viewing the original fandom as a hostile force to be insulted, perhaps the alleged geniuses running Hollywood studios should try to appeal to this pre-sold potential audience.
  3. Respect the source material — Just glancing at the plot summary on Wikipedia, Supergirl begins with something close to the original backstory. But did the filmmakers try to match the spirit of the old D.C. comics character?

Some research into the Action Comics catalog might yield many possible suggestions for a movie plot, but one idea that occurs to me is the contrast implicit in the difference between the character titles: Superman and Supergirl. Why not scout around for a teenage actress to play the lead and write a script that has a coming-of-age theme, the ingenue super-hero, as it were? She’s got her Kryptonian powers on a learner’s permit and has a girlish awkwardness about her? Or maybe make her sassy, getting lessons in humility as she learns from her mistakes?

There are all kinds of fun possibilities in the basic concept, and shouldn’t movies be about fun? Isn’t that what the kids want while they’re munching popcorn and slurping their overpriced sodas?

But what do I know? I’m just a 66-year-old grandpa.



 

Category: Movies

Emergency: Please Help Cynthia Yockey UPDATE: Thanks — You Did It!

Posted on | June 29, 2026 | No Comments

Regular readers know my longtime friend Cynthia Yockey, whom I first met at CPAC 2009. Cynthia was a fresh-minted ex-Democrat at the time, being one of the PUMAs (“Party Unity, My A$$”) women angered by Barack Obama taking the nomination away from Hillary Clinton. Seems like a million years ago, doesn’t it? Anyway, Cynthia blogged for more than a decade at The Conservative Lesbian (the site is currently on hiatus), and has been an outspoken critic of the transgender agenda.

Andrew Breitbart (left) with Cynthia Yockey (right) at CPAC 2012.

Cynthia is active in the Iowa Republican Party, and helped rally support for Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the 2024 election, and has worked most recently as a ghost writer and researcher, assisting with Jack Posobiec’s book Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) among other projects.

All this is preamble to urging readers to hit Cynthia’s tip jar immediately. Due to some health problems, she was unable to work regularly for a while, fell behind on her mortgage and needs to come up with $1,500 by Wednesday to avoid foreclosure. Not to invoke any “greedy banker” stereotypes — Snidely Whiplash twirling his mustache — but this is just one of those damsel-in-distress situations that require emergency intervention. When Cynthia got in touch with me Sunday afternoon, I’d just finished working with my son on our family’s Fourth of July fireworks finale and felt a pang of regret that I’d had no forewarning of Cynthia’s impending crisis. Three days is short notice to come up with $1,500, but I assured her I’d do what I could.

Professor Glenn Reynolds has called attention to Cynthia’s Brain Fog Diagnosis Checklist, an 83-page guide to the problem she was dealing with the past year. Part of the problem is that patients suffering from this issue may not realize it is really a medical symptom (often associated with hypothyroidism), and health professionals might not correctly diagnose the causes. From her own experience, Cynthia was motivated to produce this resource to help others, and if she were to sell just 40 copies of the Brain Fog Diagnosis Checklist, that would be enough to save her from foreclosure. In the meantime, however . . .

HIT CYNTHIA’S FREAKING TIP JAR!

Crowd-funding $1,500 means that if 300 people give $5 each, or if 75 people give $20 each, that will add up to the needed total. We’ve done this kind of thing many times before, and whatever you give, please know that you are thereby answering prayers. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: Success! Today I spoke to Cynthia, who has been able to save her home from foreclosure, thanks to your help. Thanks, everyone!

 

Category: Cynthia Yockey

Rule 5 Sunday: Redness

Posted on | June 29, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I’m late, I’m late!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Temporary Status Ended, Happy 100th Birthday Mel Brooks!, Supergirl – Total Cinematic Catastrophe, Son of the Morning Star, European Heat Wave, NY: Jew-Hating Islamic Commies Win, In Maidjan Heilung, “If I Could Turn Back Time”, Eg Er Kominn Heim Oinn Valdermarsson, Summertime, Cape Fear, Dolly Parton, Midsommar, and Vance Joy Saturday Sun

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: She is Sarah Harris, Fish Pic Friday – Jessica Jackson, Fish and Wildlife Service Redefines Shellfish, Tattoo Thursday, The Wednesday Wetness, Skates in the Upper Bay?, Tuesday Tanlines, Maryland Offering Up to $1,500 Per Blue Catfish Charter Trip, Green Eye, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Still More Reflections from the Reflection Pool and Palm Sunday

BACON TIME: Rule Five Sweet Sweet Summertime

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

 

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Meanwhile, Somewhere In The Great Basin

Posted on | June 28, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Because I’m a retard who can’t remember his passwords, there was no blogging from Salt Lake City Thursday and Friday. I was there for the Ark Press rollout of Larry Correia’s American Paladin, which unlike the new Uwe Boll flick is all killer and no filler.
In the world of Dynasty League Baseball, we’re just weeks away from the 1975 draft in Pete’s league. I’m hoping it’s not on the 17th, because I’m going to be a little bit busy playing host to Tim Powers and a few dozen of my closest friends.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Season tickets on sale now!

The Terrorist ‘Dreamer’: End DACA Immediately, and Deport Them All
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: Checking Out The Free Agents
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Father’s Day: An Extremist Agenda
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Obligatory World Cup Post
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.22.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.23.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Feminists and Their Problems
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Zizian Cult Update: Michelle Zajko Charged With Murdering Her Parents
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.24.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Thanks to everyone that linked us this past week!

 

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Category: FMJRA Award
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