Account information for this Lucianne member

I do not often write about movies. In fact, I have not written an essay about one in more than thirty years. (Snip) That film, of course, is Citizen Kane, returning this week for a commemorative limited engagement in theaters across the fruited plain. Does Citizen Kane live up to the hype? Of course not—not eighty-five years later, at least. But that is precisely the point. The picture was so different, so audacious, so avant-garde in 1941 that calling it “groundbreaking” understates the case. And because so much of filmmaking since has descended from it—or from films that themselves descended from it—it is easy now to miss the treasure

I do not often write about movies. In fact, I have not written an essay about one in more than thirty years. (Snip) That film, of course, is Citizen Kane, returning this week for a commemorative limited engagement in theaters across the fruited plain. Does Citizen Kane live up to the hype? Of course not—not eighty-five years later, at least. But that is precisely the point. The picture was so different, so audacious, so avant-garde in 1941 that calling it “groundbreaking” understates the case. And because so much of filmmaking since has descended from it—or from films that themselves descended from it—it is easy now to miss the treasure

The week began with Independence Day, and it featured a lot of World Cup action. If you can call anything that happens in soccer action. Europe sweltered under a non-air conditioned heat wave, and the Iran conflict resumed. But what motivated meme-makers more than anything else was the spectacular implosion of the Graham Platner Senate campaign. I suppose because it was so unexpected: who would have imagined that the campaign of a Nazi-tattooed Communist would come to grief?

Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. (Snip) Let's enjoy a little World Cup humor before we get to the other stuff. This was floating around social media and cracked me up: England and France are the only two Muslim countries left in the World Cup. We're going to take a quick look at a couple more reasons to enjoy this time we have with a real president in charge, then head off into that good weekend. I continue to marvel at not only how much President Donald Trump has on his plate, but also at the vigor with which he deals with it all. Yes, it's true that presidents

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants the national stage, the party microphone, and the 2028 speculation that comes with both. He's spent years positioning himself as one of President Donald Trump's loudest Democratic opponents. He's told voters that he'll give a 2028 White House run “serious thought” after the midterms. So when the California governor claims he just doesn't know enough about the Graham Platner collapse in Maine, the answer should be simple: then why are you asking Democrats to treat you like a leader? Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, for now anyway, said he would withdraw after being

Welcome, dear readers, to Thursday, July 9, 2026. (Snip) Raise your hand if you still remember the name Andrew Gillum. Don't worry if your hand stayed down. I'm betting the Democrat Party would love for you to forget it, too. Anyway, now your co-workers or your other half would be wondering why your hand was up. Fasten your seatbelts, kids. Gillum, the former Mayor of Tallahassee, Fla., ran a genuinely electrifying campaign as the Democratic nominee for Florida governor in 2018, and he pulled off a real upset to win the primary in the first place. Barack Obama endorsed him. High-profile progressives lined up behind him. He came agonizingly close

A suspected illegal immigrant who tried to run down an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston on Tuesday morning was shot dead by the agent. ICE said the incident took place at about 6:50 a.m. Central Time, when ICE agents tried to stop a vehicle “as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien,” according to KRIV-TV in Houston. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was allegedly in the U.S. illegally, was not cooperative, according to ICE. “From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE

Last night TCM played the dystopian thriller Soylent Green (1973), starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. It was Robinson’s last film. He was dying of cancer during the filming and Heston credited him with the success of the film. Robinson played his character’s death scene in the face of his own “true and imminent death,” as Heston subsequently wrote. Rereading Gulliver’s Travels, I’ve been thinking about Heston’s role as surviving astronaut George Taylor in Planet of the Apes (1968). As Taylor crash lands on a strange planet, the film performs a variation on Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels. In Part IV Gulliver visits the land of the Houyhnhnms.

A family paying the electric bill doesn't care how noble a subsidy sounds in Washington. They care whether the lights stay on, the furnace runs, the air conditioner works, and the bill leaves enough money for groceries. President Donald Trump's tax law set July 4, 2026, as the deadline ending federal tax credit subsidies for new wind and solar projects not already under construction. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright called the deadline the end of roughly 35 years of federal support for wind and solar, and he noted that in 2025 they comprised about 3% of total U.S. primary energy consumption. From Just the News:

Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens began turning 100 last year. An epochal centennial in American music! These 70-plus tracks, laid down between 1925 and 1928, are the source of so much of what was to come and remain a delight to the ear to this day. Woody Allen said that Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues” was one of the reasons life is worth living. “Melancholy Blues” is included on the Voyager Golden Record launched into space in 1977. Armstrong spanned the 20th century with his trumpet playing, his singing, and his warm and welcoming personality. No other jazz musician had more radio hits than Armstrong, hits heard during

Move over Sydney Sweeney: America has a new heroine perfectly fitted to the July 4 semiquincentennial today: She is Sophie Cunningham, Sophie being an adaptation of sophia, the ancient Greek word for wisdom. And sort of like Helen of Troy, our Sophie has launched a thousand memes. So as we celebrate today the sophia of our founding, let Sophie help point the way!

I’m sure you don’t, but I’ll give you one anyway. Michelle Obama has spent years selling herself as America's warm, approachable former first lady. Remember the whole “when they go low, we go high” thing? We knew then it was just an empty slogan, because whenever she had a chance to prove she’s the bigger person, she just proved the opposite. According to a Daily Mail report, Barack Obama’s wife personally torpedoed Cheryl Hines' return to the small screen when Larry David's new HBO series, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, began casting. The show premiered last week. Higher Ground, the production company