Hello and welcome to Sunday, June 14, 2026. Today is Flag Day. It's also the Army's birthday. Our Chris Queen will be interested to know it's National Bourbon Day. It's also National Strawberry Shortcake Day, National Cucumber Day, and National Pop Goes The Weasel Day. I add the explanatory link because it'll all news to me, too.
Before we start, I offer a correction: I mentioned Big Boy running through Cleveland yesterday. My bad. That was NOT the case. He was visiting the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad yesterday. Turns out I was on the wrong month of my events calendar. My bad. I'll have a post up with some footage from the RBMN visit later today, probably as a VIP.
1775: U.S. Army first forms as the Continental Army to fight the American Revolutionary War. George Washington appointed its leader the following day.
1777: U.S. Continental Congress adopts the Stars & Stripes flag, designed by Francis Hopkinson, replacing the Grand Union flag. Thus, today is Flag Day.
1789: Captain William Bligh and his loyal men, cast off from HMS Bounty, reach Timor after sailing 5,800 km in a 6-meter launch.
1822: Charles Babbage proposes a "difference engine" in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the Application of Machinery to the Computation of Astronomical and Mathematical Tables."
1834: Sandpaper is patented by Isaac Fischer Jr. in Springfield, Vermont.
1847: Robert Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner.
1916: Democratic Convention convenes in St. Louis; Woodrow Wilson campaigns on the slogan "he kept out of the war." The United States entered the war about a year later.
1946: Nat King Cole records "The Christmas Song" (written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells) for the first time.
1975: Janis Ian releases "At Seventeen."
1989: Ronald Reagan is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (honorary knighthood).
Birthdays Today Include: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author (Uncle Tom's Cabin); Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (Alzheimer's disease); Burl Ives, folk singer ("A Little Bitty Tear," "Silver and Gold"), actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), and snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Pierre Salinger, newsman (ABC) and press secretary (John F. Kennedy); Che Guevara, Argentine Marxist revolutionary; Junior Walker, tenor saxophonist ("Shotgun"); Joe Arpaio, law enforcement officer (Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, 1993–2016); Rod Argent, rocker (The Zombies — "She's Not There"; Argent — "Hold Your Head Up"); Donald Trump, 45th and 47th President; and Steffi Graf, German tennis player.
Happy birthday to you, too, if it's your day.
So the Knicks finally did it. Fifty-three years of suffering, of bad trades and worse luck and squandered draft picks and the Carmelo Anthony era and everything in between — and last night, Jalen Brunson dropped 45 points in San Antonio, and the drought is over. The confetti fell. The fan base lost its blinking mind, deciding that the best way to honor the moment was to make a bonfire out of public transportation. Five school buses were set on fire or destroyed. Five. A fleet. Someone looked at a school bus and thought, "Yes, this represents my joy."
An NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital that officers responded to a shooting at approximately 2:01 a.m. near 42nd Street and Broadway. A 17-year-old male was shot once in the left foot and transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said three persons of interest were taken into custody and a firearm was recovered at the scene.
We don't have a total arrest count yet. Presumably, that's because the night was still young as of when the report was filed.
Look — I'll be among the first to say it plainly: New York City has been circling the drain for years. Zohran Mamdani's election — if that's even the right word for it — did nothing to reverse that trajectory. Undeniably, it was the same demographic, same cultural orbit, same values on display last night. Thing is, it's not just New York here. They're just the most glaring example at the moment.
I wrote this back in 2004, and two decades later it reads like prophecy:
The bottom line, here is alas, the bottom line itself. Which is to say, money. The NBA has sold its soul to the marketing types, who recognize that there's a bit of money to be had in the hip-hop culture.
And lo, here we are. That same culture, the one the NBA has been chasing since the late '90s — the one it decided was worth selling what little integrity it had at the time for — is the same culture that produced last night's "celebration." Scare quotes very much intended.
Consider more closely the full ledger of what a Knicks championship looks like in 2026. Fans smashed windshields, scaled scaffolding and light poles, climbed into and onto school buses in Times Square, and attempted to hitch rides on a moving fire truck. As I indicated, several of those buses were later engulfed in flames. Others ripped the front paneling from a bus’s engine compartment and swung the debris around as a weapon of opportunity. An NYPD cruiser had its windshield caved in outside Madison Square Garden. Around 2 a.m., gunshots rang out near 42nd Street and Broadway, sending bystanders crouching and running for cover. There's video of these things in the Fox report, linked above.
Keep in mind, that was just the final game. The series had been building to this. After Game 4, fans got into fistfights, blocked Midtown traffic, set off fireworks and smoke bombs, ripped down street signs, jumped atop taxis and other moving vehicles, and even showed up at the hotel where the Spurs were staying to throw eggs at Victor Wembanyama. Ten police officers were injured that night, including one struck in the face with a glass bottle. And then there is the case that should give everyone pause: a 17-year-old livestreamer was beaten into a coma on West 35th Street because someone in his vicinity said "Spurs in 7." The mob punched and kicked him in the head until he had a seizure and lost consciousness. He was hospitalized in critical condition. Because someone rooted for the wrong team.
In each case, the throughline is the same: the notion of simply not being a criminal has become incompatible with the cultural identity being aggressively marketed by certain corners of the entertainment industry, black leaders, and even some in government — the very same corners the NBA has been courting, cultivating, and enriching for thirty years. This is what that culture breeds: the entitlement, the volatility, the instant resort to both individual and collective violence over the most trivial of provocations.
It is the exact same milieu that gave us the “summer of love” riots, American cities burning, and, more recently, the walking attitude problem known as Karmelo Anthony — and it is the same milieu on full, floodlit display in the streets of Manhattan last night.
Look, gang... I know very well that nothing on this list is new. This happens every single year, multiple times per year. NBA, MLB, NFL, etc. So maybe — just maybe — it's time to stop dancing around the cause and actually identify and contain the problem. What do you say?
Enjoy the championship, New York. You earned that "celebration," despite your obviously not understanding the dry joke here.
Thought of the Day: During the Obama presidency, between 8 and 12 people were shot by ICE. During the same period, some 56 people died while in ICE custody. Gee, I wonder why you didn’t know about this.
VIP members: Let's hear your comments. Use the buttons below to share this piece on social media. And as always, hit the heart.
Take care today, gang. More comments on the chaos tomorrow. I'll see you then.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Eric Florack brings a total of 35 years of online political commentary to his writing, along with two decades of broadcast radio experience, computer support at a multi-national Bank, and many years as a cargo relocation specialist, (Truck Driver) as well as a stint as a Joke writer for Spiro Agnew. His blog, Bits Blog, is now in its 26th year.
Recommended
Trending on PJ Media Videos
From Tehran to Capitol Hill: Iran Negotiations, Government Funding Fights, and America's Cultural Crossroads