August 21, 2026

CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT:

Posted at 4:29 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Friends, Romans, Florida Man, Lend Me Your Ear. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn that the human body is not an ATM, what not to wave at the police, and that there is at least one cowboy left in California.”

Posted at 4:23 pm by Stephen Green

ASTROTURF ALL THE WAY DOWN (COLORADO EDITION): Over $620K spent on signatures for Initiative 195 tax hike effort.

What has been billed as a “grassroots” movement to implement a progressive income tax in Colorado has proven one thing: the effort behind the signatures turned in to put Initiative 195 on the November ballot was definitely green. Greenbacks, that is.

A paid circulator report obtained by Complete Colorado from the secretary of state’s office shows that organizers behind the proposed ballot measure, who at first appeared to be leaning heavily on a volunteer effort, actually paid petition circulators more than $620,000 to help gather the over 150,000 signatures turned in just as the deadline was closing.

About 150 circulators came from as far away as California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina.

They had to bring in more Californians?

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: Harry and Meghan Think California Schools Suck Too. “Welcome to your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ update, where today we’ll cover yet another reason why Harry and Meghan are leaving California and booking it back to the British Empire. California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be shorting out before our very eyes — especially in response to a reporter’s question about the collapse of California schools.”

Posted at 3:21 pm by Stephen Green

KEEP DIGGING: ‘Where’s the bottom’: Economics professor addresses Seattle area’s shrinking job market.

Layoffs at Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters is the latest sign of continuing job losses in western Washington.

Other major employers, including Amazon, Microsoft, META and Expedia have announced hundreds of local job cuts in recent months. The cuts come as King County saw its unemployment rate dip to nearly 5% in June.

Seattle University associate professor of economics Nick Huntington-Klein said the area is seeing a “sustained issue,” with big companies doing sweeping cuts at the same time.

There are several factors at play, he said. These companies cite AI as the potential to replace some employees. There was also over-hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, higher taxes in Washington state and Seattle specifically has been a reason for reductions in force or for some companies to relocate.

Previously: Socialist mayor’s blunt 1-word message to fleeing millionaires sparks outrage: ‘We’re doomed.’ “‘Bye,’ Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said to millionaires leaving her state.”

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DESPISE THE MEDIA…:

Posted at 2:34 pm by Stephen Green

IRAN IS VIP BUT DON’T FORGET LEBANON: Secretary of State Marco Rubio certainly hasn’t forgotten Lebanon or the Hezbollah, which just happens to be Iran’s most powerfully armed terrorist puppet. Richard Pollock reveals details behind the barely-noticed special talks launched by Rubio between Israel and the Lebanese government.

Posted at 2:23 pm by Mark Tapscott

Posted at 2:01 pm by Helen Smith

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS STUCK LIKE THAT:

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

NO, TEVI TROY, 1976 WAS NOT REAGAN’S GREATEST SPEECH: Those unscheduled impromptu remarks to the Kansas City GOP convention were a fine moment, but, for those millions of us then-young Americans who worked for him know, Reagan’s greatest speech started in 1964 and he finished it 25 years later. It’s my latest Substack column and it is close to my heart, so I hope you will take time to read and ponder it.

Posted at 1:23 pm by Mark Tapscott

CHANGE:

Posted at 1:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THEY’RE SERIOUS: Islamic advocacy group demands James O’Keefe be prosecuted after team dressed as Muslims to expose Minnesota elections. “CAIR-Minnesota called on authorities to investigate after O’Keefe and members of his team entered Minneapolis polling locations during the Aug. 11 primary wearing traditional Muslim clothing and using obviously fake accents to test how election workers would handle attempts to register voters through Minnesota’s vouching process. The demand comes after Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon similarly said law enforcement was reviewing the conduct and warned that the participants may have placed themselves in ‘legal jeopardy.’ O’Keefe and his team are undercover journalists with a long history of exposing fraud and corruption.”

It’s Minnesota, so who knows what will happen.

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green

WEBSITE BEHIND WIDELY SHARED FAKE ELECTION POLLS RUN BY 21-YEAR-OLD.

“I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily,” Rahil Prakash told the Guardian on Thursday when reached by phone. “And as it turned out, it could.”

Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, touted Median polling data after it appeared to put her ahead of her election challenger by more than 10 percentage points. The poll was also cited by the California Post. A widely followed polling aggregator on X also shared the group’s Nevada poll, although several credible polling organizations did not aggregate Median polling because they could not verify its methodology.

“Did I expect it to perhaps expedite in the way it did? Most definitely not,” said Prakash. “I did not expect the California political press to pick it up on their own.”

He added: “I’ll apologize straight out to the campaigns of Karen Bass, Nithya Raman and Francesca Hong for this.”

On the upside, I guess we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving for a few more years:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll