A checkin' out the tabs, makin' sure the coast is clear, lookin' in the links, no, there ain't nobody here ...
A Nazi drag queen at Pride in Cincinnati. Hitler really has the followers he deserves in 2026. https://t.co/Nq93Aer9PQ pic.twitter.com/zvsR7JU929
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) August 12, 2026
Ed: This is utterly unsurprising. The Pride parades routinely feature outrageous performers, but in recent years have mainly promoted utter nihilists whose only real agenda is the destruction of Western civilization. The utter incoherence of this is lost on these activists, who would go straight to a gulag or worse in competing civilizations. And for that matter, who DID end up in concentration and extermination camps guarded by the SS. Sheer moral idiocy.
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Freddie Gray at The Spectator: The primary ended in farce early this morning as Milwaukee County workers reportedly had to recover five USB sticks with vote counts on them, only for those sticks to apparently be blank – or something, nobody seems entirely sure. But what is certain is that the Wisconsin polls predicting a comfortable victory for Hong were wildly wrong – and did not take into account the peculiar dynamics of the race. Crowley only became the clear moderate choice late in the process – and mainstream voters duly flocked to him over Hong, a proud DSA member with a long record of expressing barmy radical opinions. Polling companies failed to anticipate or identify those shifts. They made a similar mistake in not identifying late trends in last week’s Senate primary in Michigan, which ended up being a far narrower victory for the DSA-aligned – but not affiliated – candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
But the real story should not be how Hong lost. It should be how on earth she came so close to being the Democratic choice for Wisconsin in a very high turnout primary in such an important swing state. Like many DSA members, Hong has said she wants to abolish the police because law enforcement agencies “uphold white supremacy.” She’s also expressed discomfort at the fact her bi-racial son gives her a “proximity to whiteness.” She has supported the abolition of the Senate, supported public-owned grocery stores and banks, and opposed Valentine’s Day. ...
In comparison to Hong, El-Sayed comes across as Obamaesque in his political professionalism. And yet she came within a whisker of being the Democratic nominee for governor in a state Donald Trump won twice.
Ed: I don't think there's any great mystery as to how these DSA candidates are poaching their way into controlling the Democrat Party. It's because the Democrat Party has been a functionally Marxist party since 2008. The only change in this cycle is that the DSA is forcing the party to either embrace this honestly or watch itself get eaten by the socialists to whom they have pandered all along. Be sure to read the whole essay, especially the warning in Gray's conclusion. Après Flanagan, le deluge?
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This is how all DSA people speak in private. Every single one. Communists want to destroy your entire way of life, and they will lie to you and pretend like they're not violent psychopaths. Don't let socialists anywhere near power. pic.twitter.com/cL39czf7oN
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) August 12, 2026
Ed: Um ... NSFW, by the way. This is precisely what I expect from products of Academia, however. They are incapable of actual argument. All they have is rage and profanity. This clip is basically the courtroom scene from "Idiocracy," only without the wit.
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Jim Geraghty at NRO: By nominating Crowley instead of Hong, Wisconsin Democrats are this morning sighing with relief that they no longer must fear their nominee’s campaign getting derailed by a bunch of controversial social media posts.
Nah, I’m just kidding, Crowley has a different variety of the same problem:
Crowley, who is currently Milwaukee County’s executive and a Democrat candidate for governor, spent the weekend answering questions about some of the old posts on his old account.
“I created this Twitter account, but many individuals had access to this account,” Crowley explained during an appearance on UpFront on Sunday. “There are different posts on this account. And there are a lot of offensive and crude comments on these posts. And I want folks to understand that I don’t condone that type of language. And anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn’t use this kind of language.” ...
Awfully convenient how he didn’t write any of the offensive posts in that shared account, huh?
Ed: Paging Joy Reid! Joy Reid to the super-red emergency phone! I covered the "Dirt McGirk" story three weeks ago, when Crowley first got back into the race. Suffice it to say that Tom Tiffany still has a target-rich environment, and that Democrats may have not solved their initial problem but just added a party schism to it instead.
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Haven’t written this (yet), but polling orgs frequently rely on models that underestimate the size, intensity and preference of Black voters. Screw up Detroit and you’ll miss what’s happening in Michigan; underestimate Milwaukee and your Wisconsin numbers will be off. https://t.co/WjsRuYOqYF
— Errol Louis (@errollouis.bsky.social) (@errollouis) August 12, 2026
Ed: There may be something to this, but it's a stretch to think that this covers the sheer scale of the miss in either state. The only way that accounts for a ten-point swing is if nearly all black voters refused to vote for El-Sayed and Hong. This may be a component of the failure, but there has to be a lot more to it than just ignoring black voters in a Dem primary.
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Jonathan Turley: Newsom wants to be one of the red aristocrats of the new Democratic Party. By calling for radical changes to our constitutional system, he is hoping that the socialists will ignore his own wealth and privilege. The same is true for Ro Khanna, who is also offering to trash our institutions. He hopes to secure the socialist vote despite being reportedly worth roughly half a billion dollars thanks to his wife’s inheritance.
In Newsom’s case, the proletarian pitch still comes off as more French Laundry than French Revolution. He is trailing in the polls, with some showing him falling behind former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been promising his own radical changes to our system while campaigning with controversial figures such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
The loss of DSA candidate Francesca Hong this week will not change the calculation for Newsom. What he saw was an extremist who came within less than one percentage point of winning the nomination for Wisconsin governor. The far-left gubernatorial candidate Peggy Flanagan did win the primary handily in Minnesota. Other leaders like Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (who previously praised the violent group Antifa) celebrated the infusion of socialists into the party.
Newsom believes that there is a pocket of delusional free-market Marxists who are longing for his leadership. If so, they do not live in New Hampshire, where Newsom is being trounced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Voters can spot the real thing; AOC is authentically bananas. That is better than a Newsom banana split that is part establishment and part insurgency.
Ed: Yes, I link to Professor Turley a lot in these posts, but he's so darned wise and insightful and I want to make sure people see it. Newsom isn't the only person in the Democrat Party attempting to be second-slowest when it comes to outrunning the Marxist bear. People have been using that strategy since Robespierre, and it didn't work well for Robespierre in the end. I'm not really sure if AOC is authentically bananas either; I suspect she may be a poseur, too. Even if she and Newsom are true believers, though, the real threat isn't the Marxists as much as it is the radical Islamists that the Marxist knuckleheads believe to be their allies. The Robespierring will get outright medieval for them in the end, even if they refuse to see it.
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Going to be hard to find someone with as much smarts and fire as Leavitt! Best of wishes to her in a harder and more important job of being a wonderful mommy to her kids. ❤️ https://t.co/7XeKsXMILx
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) August 12, 2026
Ed: Best wishes to Karoline Leavitt. She is making a wise choice; let's hope that her replacement can match her energy and focus.
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Donald Trump on Truth Social: The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, “A WALL OF STEEL,” and there is nothing Iran can do about it. They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing, and their “Leadership” is uncertain, at best! They have No Money - Their country is “shot.” All they have is FAKE NEWS and 300% INFLATION, and getting worse! Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer. Praise be to Allah! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Ed: We don't have 'total control' over the Strait, thanks to Iran's ability to hit ships with drones and missiles. We do, however, have total control of Iranian ports. The point Trump is making relates to the blockade, not the full passage, and he's correct. The question will be whether Trump will lift the blockade again in pursuit of a deal, or whether he exercises enough "strategic patience" and for long enough for the IRGC to collapse. This sounds like Trump may be locking in for the long term, which is good news.
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John Hinderaker at Power Line: With Lisa Demuth and Michele Tafoya, Minnesota Republicans will have stronger candidates at the top of the ticket than at any time since the days of Tim Pawlenty and Norm Coleman.
On the Democrat side, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Congresswoman Angie Craig contended for the Senate nomination. Flanagan is hard left, while Craig is hard left pretending, until now, to be a moderate because she represents a swing district–mine. Craig attacked Flanagan from the left throughout the campaign, but it didn’t work. Al Franken, Tina Smith, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar and other far-left luminaries backed Flanagan, and we all know where Democratic primary voters are this year. They went for Flanagan, something like 59% to 40%.
This is good for Republicans because Flanagan is a poor candidate. She is almost a parody of a far-left politician and unlikeable to boot, and as Tim Walz’s Lieutenant Governor she can’t escape the fraud scandals that have engulfed our state. I think there is a strong likelihood that Michele Tafoya, a vastly more talented candidate, will beat her.
And if that seat flips, there is no way Democrats can take control of the Senate. Which means that Tafoya will attract serious national money. Republicans are always outspent in Minnesota, usually somewhere between three to one and seven to one, because lots of money flows into DFL coffers from rich liberals who live in other states. If Tafoya achieves something approaching financial parity, say being outspent only two to one, she will win and Republicans will hold the Senate.
Ed: I wish I could be this optimistic about Tafoya's chances. She's a great candidate; Minnesota is just too far blue now. I hope the state proves me wrong. John's correct that Tafoya's chances improved without having Mike Lindell on the ticket, but Tafoya's talent is not the issue. The Twin Cities electorate is the issue, and Flanagan matches too well with it. Of course, that doesn't mean Tafoya won't deliver ...
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“Notably, Flanagan did not mention fraud during her victory speech Tuesday night…”
— Michele Tafoya (@Michele_Tafoya) August 12, 2026
Peggy may not want to talk about fraud, but I will.
The lieutenant governor was second-in-command while billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen. She refuses to take responsibility and is now…
The lieutenant governor was second-in-command while billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen. She refuses to take responsibility and is now asking Minnesotans to promote her to the U.S. Senate.
Minnesota deserves better than Peggy Flanagan.
Ed: I suspect that this won't move enough voters to matter in MN, where they're far more incensed about ICE arresting and deporting sex offenders than they are about the Quality Learing Center. However, Tafoya can nationalize this scandal, especially if she can make it close enough for Democrats to shift resources into this race.
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Turns out there was nothing to see https://t.co/UGYW6Mf0cf
— James Jay Carafano (@JJCarafano) August 12, 2026
Ed: True. But if a Republican kicked out ABC or CBS from an Election Night campaign event, it would have made national news and the other crews would have walked out in solidarity. Even, I suspect, the Fox News team.
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Last night's lyric: "Feels Like the First Time" by Foreigner.
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