September 7, 2026

IT ISN’T JUST US:

Meanwhile, Axios spins AfD’s win as upstarts for Germany’s elites to squash, not as a legitimate expression of popular will: Far-right win in state election tests Germany’s political firewall.

Posted at 10:53 am by Stephen Green

IT ISN’T ABOUT THE MONEY: Despite Record Education Funding Michigan Students Are Not Getting Smarter.

The numbers are particularly troubling when viewed over several years.

Third-grade ELA proficiency has now fallen for three consecutive years, dropping from 40.89% in 2023 to 39.64% in 2024, 38.87% in 2025 and just 38.17% in 2026.

Fourth grade has followed essentially the same path, falling from 44.35% in 2023 to 43.25% in 2024, 42.43% in 2025 and 41.28% in 2026.

At the same time, Michigan has repeatedly increased education spending under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, including record per-pupil funding and hundreds of millions of dollars directed toward literacy, tutoring, teacher training, early childhood education and other programs.

You can be sure the adminstrators are doing quite well.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green

HAPPY LABOR DAY, COURTESY OF CAPITALISTS:

Posted at 10:22 am by Stephen Green

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Broken feet, ripped-out hair and now a death sentence: the fate of twin sisters jailed over Iran protests.

After four months of desperately seeking news from hospitals and state institutions, their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, finally learned their fate. Taraneh and Romina Rahimi had been seized over their decision to join millions on the streets of Iranian cities during the January protests against the regime. The twins were unrecognisable by the time of their mother’s prison visit in May.

The women’s scalps were patchy from being dragged around by their hair, and their faces were bruised, according to their US-based cousin. It is claimed that Taraneh, who dreams of running her own horse stable one day, had been told the prison guards would rape Romina in front of her unless a confession was signed.

The visit by their mother to Dowlatabad prison, in Isfahan, the main city in central Iran, was five months ago. It has now emerged from the Iranian courts that Taraneh has been sentenced to death for her participation in the January protests, and that Romina has been given a 25-year prison sentence. Neither of the women have been seen by their family since the sentencing.

Read the whole thing, provided you can stomach it.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Laboring to Defeat Communism Is What We’re Doing Here. “While labor and workers are most definitely noble, leftist lunatics have taken both words and perverted them for communist purposes. They’re rallying cries for anti-American and anti-capitalist agitators. The labor movement that began as a way to protect and empower American workers who were in legitimate need of both soon became the driving force behind all that is wrong in this country with political power and personal responsibility.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

WELL DONE: German startup makes European space history with first successful orbital launch.

A German startup successfully sent a rocket into orbit, marking a major milestone for Europe’s push to develop its own commercial space-launch industry.

The 28-meter rocket lifted off from Isar Aerospace’s launch complex in Norway on Saturday night, carrying a payload of five small satellites, in the first successful commercial orbital launch from continental European soil.

“We’re in orbit! And just made European history: This is the first time a privately developed rocket reached orbit from continental Europe,” the company said on X.

More lift is good.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green

OUT: BAGHDAD BOB. In: Baghdad NYT. “A More Confident Iran Emerges After Six Months of War With the U.S.” “The Persian Army has more power and it disappeared in a sandstorm west of Thebes 2,551 years ago.”

Plus: “Why would NYT run something awful like that? Because the NYT strives to be awful. Robert Stacy McCain wrote about the New York Times Journalism Institute, Class of 2018, that NYT travel writer Victoria Leandra called the future of journalism.”

Posted at 8:34 am by Glenn Reynolds

ROB HENDERSON ON LINDSAY CLANCY: O.J. Simpson for middle-class white women. “What I’m about to explain is why some verdicts are more about settling emotional debts than attaining a fair outcome. Once you understand this, the support for Lindsay Clancy begins to look much less mysterious.”

Related:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DESPISE THE MEDIA…:

Here’s a Community Note that could use a little push to reach Helpful status: “While Patrick Havas forced his way through the crowd while carrying weapons, police state he did not brandish them or lunge at Acton. He approached holding a cellphone to record.”

Posted at 8:18 am by Stephen Green

UM…: US troops can still be tracked by purchased location data, and Congress wants to know why.

US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) on Friday asked for an investigation by the Defense Department Inspector General into policies that have only partially stanched the flow of location data that allows military personnel to be tracked and targeted.

In May, Wyden, Harrigan, and a bipartisan group of 12 other members of Congress released details about how commercially purchased location data – often captured by mobile apps and advertising SDKs – can be used to identify where US military personnel gather and to target those locations. They noted that the DoD has been aware of this threat since at least 2016.

The lawmakers urged Defense Department CIO Kirsten A. Davies to take steps to mitigate this risk, including turning off advertising identifiers on DoD smartphones and issuing a policy requiring the disabling of advertising identifiers on all personal devices brought into DoD facilities or overseas.

This seems like no-brainer stuff, and the DOD has sat on it for a decade?

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green

NOW THAT WOULD BE SOME CHANGE:

Posted at 7:16 am by Stephen Green