August 17, 2026

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: In-person, open-mike, no-holds-barred Town Halls in which citizens ask the senators or representatives why they voted they way they did in Congress on issues important to their state or district? Suddenly in August 2026, almost nobody in Congress is holding these VIP events.

Posted at 6:07 pm by Mark Tapscott

NIFTY: Newest Drone Killer: AI Rifle Scopes. “‘Smart rifle’ technology seems to have finally arrived in the form of an “AI” enhanced scope that still requires you to pull the trigger, but picks the optimal time to actually fire to take out drones.”

Would it work on woodpeckers? Asking for a friend.

Posted at 5:52 pm by Stephen Green

JON OSSOFF’S GROSS INSINUATION ABOUT TRUMP AND ASSISTANT GETS DEMOLISHED — INCLUDING BY TRUMP:

Robby Starbuck pointed out how Natalie Harp had survived bone cancer because of the Right to Try Act that Trump signed into law.

“He should apologize to Natalie for doing this. I don’t think any of us would want our daughters talked about like this,” Starbuck said.

Then Trump himself nuked Ossoff into next week. His response was perhaps the best. He refused to give Ossoff the response he wanted.

Instead, Trump just dismissed Ossoff as “Pee Wee Herman,” saying they had more important things to do than deal with Ossoff. So if Ossoff was trying to get his goat, that was the best response, treating him like the joke that he is.

Trump’s nicknames for his opponents have a tendency to be permanent – I hope it was worth it for those who program his teleprompter:

Tweet concludes, “it tells me everyone in the Ossoff campaign is letting the 2028 hype go to their head way too much and way too quickly. Not ready for prime time.”

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

GREAT MOMENTS IN HARD-HITTING JOURNALISM:

Presumably, Becerra serves as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views, to coin a phrase.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

SCENES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Engaging, culturally relevant and useless: Teachers aren’t trained to teach writing.

When he took master’s degree courses at Teachers’ College, Columbia, Hunt thought his charismatic graduate-school professor would explain how to teach writing in The Teaching of Writing class. Nope. “Every class discussion found its way to the subjects of power and identity,” writes Hunt. There was “Writing As Social Action,” but nothing on how to give effective feedback to students.

“Literacy” has become “a general skill that could be bolted onto any domain or concept,” he learned. That opened the door to “digital literacy, critical literacy, media literacy, and something we talked about ad nauseum called racial literacy.”

Traditional literacy was considered outmoded and oppressive.

Of course.

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

HOW ONE GOP LOCAL ASPIRANT RESPONDED TO ICE: Orlando Sanchez is an Hispanic-American seeking election in November as a Republican to a Harris County (Houston, Texas) Commissioner seat. The Texas megatropolis has in recent years trended strongly to the Democrats on congressional and local office contests.

Sanchez is seen as an unusually strong GOP contender, however, and his recent oped in the Houston Chronicle addressing an ICE shooting that killed a local immigrant is a solid illustration of why Sanchez could well be a Republican bright-spot of the 2026 mid-term elections. Here’s the heart of his oped:

“In moments like this, some will demand that we choose between compassion and the rule of law. I reject that choice. A person’s immigration status does not erase his humanity. A badge does not erase accountability. And grief does not erase the need for facts.

“The most dangerous thing a leader can do after a tragedy is decide too quickly what the tragedy means. Some will use this shooting to condemn every law enforcement officer. Others will see the badge involved and excuse whatever happened before the evidence is known. Both instincts are wrong because they replace judgment with politics which weakens public trust.

“Harris County needs a steady hand. We need an investigation the public can trust. This includes evidence that is preserved, witnesses who are protected, agency actions that are reviewed, and facts that are followed wherever they lead. If video exists, secure it. If reports were filed, review them. If witnesses saw something different from the official account, hear them before they are removed and sent beyond the reach of investigators. That is how justice works.”

Posted at 3:20 pm by Mark Tapscott

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Why Is the University of Michigan Hiding Grades?

Starting in fall 2027, the University of Michigan will exclude first-semester grades from overall GPAs for first-year students in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, purportedly to curb a “mental health crisis.” The university declined to tell the Wall Street Journal how it decided to launch its “grade covering” pilot program. But university documents suggest that grade covering is part of a larger effort to reshape the university around the students it admits rather than expecting those students to adapt to a demanding academic environment.

Starting in fall 2027, the University of Michigan will exclude first-semester grades from overall GPAs for first-year students in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, purportedly to curb a “mental health crisis.” The university declined to tell the Wall Street Journal how it decided to launch its “grade covering” pilot program. But university documents suggest that grade covering is part of a larger effort to reshape the university around the students it admits rather than expecting those students to adapt to a demanding academic environment.

It looks to me like the school is just setting at-risk student up to fail later rather than sooner.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Hollywood’s Climate Change Campaign Falls Flat with Voters?

You can’t blame Hollywood for not trying.

Actors have done more than commit their time and energy to Climate Change projects. They’ve used their bully pulpits to push the green movement and support progressive politicians to further the cause.

Leonardo DiCaprio, whose carbon footprint makes him vulnerable to hypocrite charges, used his Oscar speech to promote the Climate Change agenda.

The actor also produced multiple documentaries on the subject and starred in Adam McKay’s Climate Change satire “Don’t Look Up.” That film earned multiple Oscar nominations, another way the industry promoted the green cause.

All that messaging. All that money. All those films. Speech after speech after speech.

The issue appears to either be shrinking the minds of the public or, perhaps, only holding steady.

Environmental author Bjorn Lomborg has a theory as to why this is happening.

Movie genres die off on a regular basis. Hollywood made comparatively few westerns, and musicals where actors sing and dance with an unseen orchestra behind them, after the early 1970s, despite both genres being a staple of the industry for the previous four decades. That same decade, prior to Star Wars,  science fiction was Hollywood’s preferred way to communicate a looming environmental doomsday, via movies such as Silent Running and Logan’s Run. Most of those films were middling successes at best. Alongside the hypocrisy of  Leonardo DiCaprio lecturing us on climate change when he routinely jets off in his private plane to star in films that have the budget and carbon footprint of a South American country, there’s something very unseemly about using all those resources to lecture us on a looming environmental apocalypse only to expect the audience to all hop in their cars and sit in an air-conditioned theater. As the original movie moguls reportedly told their writers, “We’ll make the pictures; let Western Union deliver the messages.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll