THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Astronauts in Quarantine.

On this day in 1969, multiple parades are held in honor of the Apollo 11 astronauts. They’d just been released from quarantine. Many people remember Neil Armstrong’s historic first step on the moon. But how many remember the quarantine that followed?

The entire crew was isolated for almost three weeks after they’d returned from that historic trip.

After all, no one knew for sure what the astronauts would bring home from the moon. What if they were exposed to a deadly lunar pathogen? Everyone needed to be sure that the astronauts were healthy before they came into contact with the general public again.

In addition to concerns about possible side effects from a moon landing, an ongoing news story that year may have also strengthened the desire for a lengthy quarantine: Woodstock Occurred in the Middle of a Flu Pandemic.

RUSSIAGATE WAS WORSE THAN WATERGATE:

Even if the main actors in Russiagate do not face legal consequences, the disclosures from Gabbard and others provide valuable public and political accountability. They help to set the historical record straight – and, hopefully, will begin to rebuild some trust in government.

Russiagate was a dark episode in American history. The US security services, which ought to be neutral, joined with Democrats to try to bring down a Republican president. There was no evidence pointing to Trump’s collusion with Russia – it truly was a hoax. Yet the schemers achieved their anti-democratic objective: to make Trump appear illegitimate in the eyes of many Americans.

The ‘-gate’ suffix in ‘Russiagate’ derives from Watergate. But of the two scandals, I believe Russiagate will, over time, be seen as the more damaging. For their shameful role in undermining the people’s trust, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s names should be as disgraced as Richard Nixon’s.

Read the whole thing.

Although regarding that last quoted sentence, to be fair, Nixon isn’t all that badly disgraced these days, considering the successful full-on blitzkrieg Democrats and their operatives with bylines waged against him back in the mid-‘70s. On the right, Christopher Rufo wrote in 2023 that, “With a presidential election looming, conservatives need to develop a national counterrevolutionary agenda. For some ideas for what that might look like, they can turn to a surprising guide: Richard Nixon.” And he’s become increasingly praised by the left in recent decades – but then every Republican president candidate, once seen as Hitler on this campaign trail (and if he wins, during his time in office), gets strange new respect to bash the newest potential Hitler.

As Glenn asked in May of 2017, “Was Obama administration illegal spying worse than Watergate?” “In 1972, some employees of President Nixon’s re-election committee were caught when they broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to plant a bug. This led to Nixon’s resignation and probably would have led to his felony prosecution had he not been pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford. But if a single bugging of the political opposition is enough to bring down a presidency — and maybe lead to an unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former president — then what are we to make of the recently unveiled Obama administration program of massively spying on political opponents in violation of clearly established law? Because that’s what was unveiled last week.”

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND:

I don’t know if there’s a point left in saying something like this, but just in case…

Well-meaning Westerners see this as a kind and generous gesture of politeness. However, third worlders see it as weakness and an invitation to violence and domination. This is just reality. https://t.co/avWiF7FSWF

— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) August 13, 2025

UPDATE (from Steve): Gestures like this one might have started out as well-meaning, but if so, that’s no longer the case.

It no longer feels paranoid to wonder if the UK government uses foreigners to subjugate their own people.

— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) August 13, 2025

If “Let us celebrate you while you rape our little girls” isn’t an open invitation for more crimes against helpless Britons, then what is it?

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD ONCE AGAIN DOING STRAIGHT UP REPORTAGE:

Jerome Powell Says He Won’t Lower Interest Rates Until He Can Be Sure It Won’t Help Trump https://t.co/4erCSoMhKY pic.twitter.com/KzVVlPvlaZ

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 12, 2025

THIS IS CNN:

Wow, if opening the fridge creates that level of conflagration, imagine what multiple server farms and TV studios full of hot lights must be doing to the environment. CNN must set the example for the rest of us and exit the industry, especially considering the amount of resources expended for the comparatively tiny amount of eyeballs: CNN’s Viewership Hits Historic Low in July 2025 – “Disastrously Bad” Former CNN Contributor Chris Cillizza Says.

Because otherwise, Florida will be reduced to a kickstand!

(Via SDA.)

PORSCHE PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1939: Billionaire Porsche family prepares for war with new defense fund.

The German billionaire family behind Porsche is launching a new fund focused on investing in defence as it seeks to cash in on Europe’s rearmament drive.

Porsche SE – the powerful holding company run by the Porsche family – said it wanted to “defend our values, democracy, and freedom” by pursuing a range of investments in the sector.

The company, which has stakes in its eponymous luxury carmaker and Volkswagen, is expanding into weapons as it claimed we are “in a world where freedom and security are no longer a given”.

In particular, Porsche SE called out Russia’s “war of aggression against Ukraine, growing geopolitical tensions in Asia, and increasing cyberattacks on critical infrastructure”.

To expand its fund, the Porsche family is planning to attract investors across Germany and Europe.

What could go wrong?

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:

IT’S COME TO THIS: Canadian Film Festival Cancels October 7 Documentary Claiming Hamas Has Footage Rights.

“The Toronto Film Festival has succumbed to pressure and threats, and has chosen to silence and erase October 7,” Noam Tibon said. “My message to the festival management: The truth cannot be erased. The atrocities committed by Hamas cannot be erased or denied. … The festival management’s claim that the film cannot be screened because ‘permissions to use’ the footage of the Nukhba terrorists were not obtained is absurd and bizarre, and constitutes further harm to the victims.”

“It is inconceivable that TIFF allows a small group of extremists — using intimidation and threats of violence — to dictate which films Canadians can see at the festival. This shameful decision sends an unequivocal message: Toronto’s Jewish community is no longer safe or welcome,” the Canadian Centre for Jewish and Israeli Affairs declared.

David Strom adds: Toronto’s—and the Cultural Elite’s—Shame.

I’m also pretty sure that copyright protection doesn’t apply in such cases. What is Hamas going to do? Sue in Canadian courts? That would be amusing. Canada has recognized Hamas as a terrorist organization, so their rights are pretty limited in Canada, although these days, you never know. Canada has gone all wobbly on Gaza, threatening to recognize Palestine, although one assumes that they would be focused on the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.

* * * * * * * *

I can sympathize, up to a point, with TIFF’s concerns about protests, and given their likely audience–cultural leftists, for the most part–they are probably worried that allowing a film that exposes Hamas’ barbarism would be unpopular with their audience.

So they should tell the truth: raping and murdering Jews is OK in their book, and in the eyes of their audience. Hiding behind phony “copyright” claims is adding insult to injury.

No word yet if Judgement at Nuremberg received proper clearances from the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda for its newsreel footage.

YOUR KIDS ARE NOT YOUR OWN, A CONTINUING SERIES:

The president of the American Federation of Teachers concurs:

Randi Weingarten just promoted her new book calling those on the side of parents "Fascists."

She's wearing a shirt that says "Protect Our Kids."

She thinks she owns your kids.

Wake up, parents.

Dismantle the teachers unions. pic.twitter.com/bb8GymBZ4H

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) August 12, 2025

Yes, it’s creepy and wrong — and it’s Politico and Comcast approved:

And it’s Nation magazine approved as well:

Related: Saving Your Child From The Village. “It used to be that it takes a village to save a child. Now, you have to work hard to save your child from the village.”

You may not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you (and your kids).

THE EMERGING DEMOCRATIC CONSENSUS FOR 2026: Curse More, Obey Less, Protect Criminals and Illegal Immigrants at All Costs.

The Democratic Party is hideously unpopular heading into next year’s midterms. This is a problem for the small faction of Democrats who think the party should prioritize winning elections over throwing performative tantrums and other theater kid nonsense. It’s less of a problem for the Democrats who are actually leading the party right now and setting the agenda for 2026. They are loud, obnoxious, profane, and passionate in their defense of illegal immigrants and other criminals. Rules? They don’t believe in rules.

“There are no refs in this game,” said Beto O’Rourke, the thrice-failed candidate for governor, president, and U.S. Senate, at a rally in support of Texas Democrats who fled the state to avoid doing their jobs. “Fuck the rules, we are going to win. Whatever it takes.” O’Rourke has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent leaders after his political action committee paid for the private jet that took the fleeing Democrats to Illinois earlier this month. This week, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton asked a judge to order Beto’s arrest after the obnoxious Columbia grad violated a court order by continuing to raise money to support the fugitives.

O’Rourke, who flamed out of the 2020 primary after yelling profanely about abolishing guns, has also urged Democrats to fight harder in defense of the illegal immigrant community “that makes this country so goddamn great.” When Democrats reclaim power, he said, they would “drive that car like we stole it” to end deportations and approve a sweeping amnesty bill for unlawful residents.

And of course: Left-wing dark-money megadonors, including George Soros, contribute $20M to groups funding protests against Trump’s DC crime crackdown.

Keep DC lawless!

Incidentally, Soros turned 95 yesterday: A Legacy Erased: Happy Birthday, George Soros. “The second election of Donald Trump—in a race where crime, immigration, and the IRA were three of the major issues—was America’s personal slap to George Soros’ face. Today, on his 95th birthday, his legacy is in shambles.”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Anti-Communist Film Festival Arrives at Perfect Time. “The 2006 modern classic ‘The Lives of Others’ may be the finest film to cover Communism in its ugliest form. The story follows a Stasi officer (Ulrich Mühe) who spies on a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his lover (Martina Gedeck) only to develop conflicted feelings about the assignment. It’s part of the festival lineup.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE PRECRIME UNIT AND THE JUNIOR ANTI-SEX LEAGUE: Running from catcallers! LBC joins undercover female police officers in crackdown on people harassing women joggers.

Violence Against Women and Girls Safer Spaces lead for Surrey Inspector Jon Vale who runs the operation, said it’s far too common.

“One of our officers was honked at within ten minutes — then another vehicle slowed down, beeping and making gestures just 30 seconds later – that’s how frequent it is.

“Someone slowing down, staring, shouting – even if it’s not always criminal – it can have a huge impact on people’s everyday lives and stops women from doing something as simple as going for a run.

“We have to ask: is that person going to escalate? Are they a sexual offender? We want to manage that risk early.

“This is about protecting women and girls in public spaces and we want them to know we’re out here, and we’re taking it seriously.”

He told LBC the operation is acting as a deterrent and a method of early intervention.

“You don’t know if the woman you’re harassing is a police officer – and that’s the point and we want people to think twice before acting like this.”

Oh, to be in England:

Meanwhile, while motorists are getting arrested for the “crime” of honking at distaff joggers: Channel migrants arriving at record speed under Starmer. “More than 50,000 small boat migrants have crossed the Channel to Britain since Sir Keir Starmer came to power — the fastest the milestone has been reached under any prime minister.”

Flashback to 2009: “Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser. Labour threw open Britain’s borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a ‘truly multicultural’ country, a former Government adviser has revealed.”

How’s that working out for all concerned?

UPDATE: Question answered:

Auron MacIntyre of the Blaze adds, “This program will be ended immediately once they discover almost everyone cat calling the women is a Muslim migrant.”

MORE: The crackdown on wolf-whistling is ‘precrime’ in action. The UK authorities are now clamping down on lawful speech as a sign of future offending.

MARY KATHARINE HAM ON TRUMP TAKING OVER DC (Video):

ON THIS DAY IN 1968, LED ZEPPELIN PLAYED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME:

Misfortune can beget some of the best creative wins in the artistic world, and that is certainly true of Led Zeppelin’s origin story. Jimmy Page had recently found himself without a band after his fellow Yardbirds parted ways in the late 1960s. What was worse, he already had a tour booked, which meant he had to cancel the run or find a new band. He ultimately chose the latter.

Page had already worked with John Paul Jones, so he was an obvious ask. Manager Peter Grant suggested Robert Plant and John Bonham, who played together in Band of Joy, as Page’s singer and drummer. Page originally wanted Terry Reid and B.J. Wilson to fill those roles, but both musicians declined. Thus, the four men who showed up to practice that fateful August day were Page, Jones, Plant, and Bonham.

The group met on August 12, 1968, in a small, toasty basement room in what is now London’s Chinatown neighborhood. “There was just wall-to-wall amplifiers and a space for the door, and that was it,” Jones later recalled. “Literally, it was everyone looking at each other. ‘What shall we play?’ There was an old Yardbirds number called “Train Kept a Rollin.’” The whole room just exploded.”

Related: ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ – If You’re a Fan, Catch It on the Big Screen.

But watching at home on a big TV with a good surround sound system isn’t all that bad an alternative; it’s available for purchase or rent at Amazon Prime Video, and currently streaming on Netflix.

SMUG ‘DOOM PIXIE’ GRETA THUNBERG PREPPING ‘SELFIE YACHT 2.0:’

With some people, as my late grandfather used to say, “you can teach ’em, but you can’t learn ’em.” One such is Sweden’s embarrassment, the Doom Pixie, Greta Thunberg. Remember her ill-fated mission to take aid to Gaza, aboard what wags called the “Selfie Yacht?” Remember that this excursion ended up with her caught, deported, and put on a carbon-spewing airliner home — in the cheap seats. The “aid” delivered would have fed a dozen people, at the most.

Well, she’s trying it again, with “Selfie Yacht 2.0.”

Greta Thunberg’s recent ‘Palestinian rescue mission’ was a total failure, carrying a tiny amount of supplies—enough, said some commentators, for “maybe a dozen people”—and resulting in her deportation from Israel.

So she’s going to do it all over again!

This time, the Swedish activist, best known for her green zealotry, is planning on heading from Spain to Gaza with “dozens of boats,” with the overall intention of “break[ing] the illegal Israeli siege.”

Meanwhile, citizens across the world have been asked to participate in “encampments and demonstrations that will happen simultaneously.”

The initiative has been dubbed the ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ and will supposedly include activists from more than 40 countries.

Others have dubbed it as yet another attempt to cover Thunberg with publicity.

Also apparently participating in the “Global Sumud Flotilla?” Meet the Zyklon B heiress who is sailing to Gaza.

Sometimes something so perfect happens you find yourself Googling furiously to make sure it’s really true. The news that one Marlene Engelhorn from Austria is joining the next flotilla to Gaza is one such story. For Ms Engelhorn is an heiress of a German industrial dynasty that profited from the production of Zyklon B, the cyanide that was used to gas and slaughter millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Her family profited from the Nazi extermination of the Jewish people and now she rages against the Jewish State – who was it who said history doesn’t repeat itself but it sometimes rhymes?

Ms Engelhorn inherited $27.1million from her family’s coffers. And some of that generational wealth has pretty disgusting origins. She is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, who founded the German chemicals giant, BASF. In the 1920s, BASF merged with IG Farben. Some readers may have heard of that latter chemical conglomerate – its name lives in infamy as the producer of the poisonous gas the Nazis used to try to wipe the Jews from the face of the Earth. When her grandmother died in 2022, Ms Engelhorn got millions of Euros from this dynasty with a dark history.

The Instagram post embedded at the bottom of this recent Berliner-Zeitung article on Engelhorn states:

As Brendan O’Neill wrote, “If my forebears had been involved in the Nazis’ attempted annihilation of the Jews, I would simply sit out the Israel issue… Think about the optics, Marlene.”

TEXAS DEMOCRATS WHO FLED TO STOP REDISTRICTING JUST FOLDED LIKE A BAD POKER HAND:

As predicted, the Texas Democrat legislators who fled to blue states to deny a quorum for redistricting have folded. Still, I’m not sure anyone expected them to fold this soon.

According to ABC News, the runaways who claimed to be saving “democracy” are heading back to their home state early, claiming to have accomplished their goal of raising “awareness” about gerrymandering. That’s a very polite way of saying they failed miserably.

Axios saw the handwriting on the wall at the start of the month: “Texas House Democrats have broken quorum twice in recent history — in 2021 to Washington, D.C., in response to proposed voting restrictions and to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 2003 over redistricting. Both times only delayed the inevitable passage of the bills they had opposed.”

CHUCK TODD TURNED OBJECTIVIST SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED: Chuck Todd warns America is heading towards a ‘cold civil war’ amid ongoing redistricting battles.

Former NBC host Chuck Todd argued that America is heading towards a “cold civil war” on “The Chuck Toddcast” on Tuesday as redistricting battles in states like Texas and California continue to rage.

Todd contended that the ongoing redistricting battles are “just the latest skirmish between what is turning into a cold civil war,” and that it is President Donald Trump and the Republican Party who are “creating this unprecedented challenge to our constitutional republic.”

“I hate using that rhetoric. I hate using those words, but what else are you going to describe it? We are literally having a redistricting war between the states right now, and we have governors who have decided they don’t care about the minority rights in their own states,” Todd argued.

“Greg Abbott doesn’t care. If you don’t agree with Greg Abbott, he is going to force his will upon you in the state of Texas. And if you don’t agree with Gavin Newsom and how they’re going — he’s going to force his will upon you,” he added.

The former NBC host stated that “this is not what the founders intended,” placing blame on both sides of the aisle, but focusing in on Trump as the primary catalyst for what he describes as a “cold civil war.”

“This is not a policy fight. This isn’t the usual partisan back and forth. It is a direct stress test of whether our constitutional system actually works when a president and his party decide they don’t have to care about the limits that are written down on paper,” he asserted.

It’s always fun when leftists pretend that Democrats didn’t spend the 20th century gerrymandering their states so much, even the New York Times has recently noticed: “States where Democrats would have complete control over any redistricting, such as Illinois and Maryland, are already gerrymandered heavily in their favor. Squeezing more Democratic seats out of those states would be a challenge.”

It it isn’t the first time that Todd referenced “the Cold Civil War,” incidentally. In late 2019 he used the phrase to describe the denouement of the then-Pelosi-led House’s first attempt to impeach President Trump:

In some ways, you know, this is the end of a decade that has been just hyperpartisan, hypertoxic, the toxic politics, the mix of social media. So you could make an argument that it was almost inevitable that our politics were going to end with this kind of showdown over impeachment. So in that sense, it sadly feels like almost a predictable next step in this escalation of a partisan war that now feels like it’s obviously gotten too overheated, to the point where at times it feels as if culturally we’re in a cold civil war.

I wonder if Todd knows that possibly the phrase’s very first use was by Ayn Rand in a 1962 column with that same title, back when she was giving speeches and proposing book titles railing against JFK’s “Fascist New Frontier.”

But considering that Todd’s fellow leftists spent 2020 burning their cities down, and last year attempting to the shoot the president twice, and cheered on en masse the murdering of an insurance company executive, when would he consider that “the Cold Civil War” has turned hot?

Related:

“Days of Rage” is a WILD book. Leftist bombing campaigns went well into the 80s, resulted in several murders, bank robberies and myriad other crimes.

Obama palling around with Ayers should have been IMMEDIATELY disqualifying. https://t.co/CQDKeZpp0B

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) August 12, 2025

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Trump Vows To Drastically Reduce The Number Of Criminals In Washington By Sending Congress Home https://t.co/trJ7188sb3 pic.twitter.com/GbwwA9P5Do

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 11, 2025

ONE MAN’S TERRORIST IS ANOTHER MAN’S FREEDOM FIGHTER:

BREAKING: A senior State Dept. official says a USAID report was “intentionally manufactured” to hide Hamas aid theft in Gaza.

Reuters used it to push a viral lie. Why does the media keep running Islamist propaganda? pic.twitter.com/IGAM4NJdZm

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 12, 2025

(Classical reference in headline.)

DEPEND UPON IT, SIR —- WHEN A MAN KNOWS HE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN THREE YEARS, IT CONCENTRATES HIS MIND WONDERFULLY: Gavin Newsom, Climate Warrior, Flinches as California’s War against Oil Produces a Crisis.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Does anybody else find it bizarre that people with the greatest amount of support for locking down lawful citizens during Covid, and taking away guns from law abiding citizens now are also the most upset that Trump’s gonna try bringing a little bit of heat to criminals in DC?

— Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 (@marcorandazza) August 12, 2025

BURN AFTER READING: Delete your old emails to save water during drought, Environment Agency tells Britons.

It’s real and it’s spectacular — spectacularly silly:

Even Jerry Brown wasn’t nutty enough to suggest this during California’s drought.

TOO GOOD TO CHECK: Jeff Bezos Is ‘Obsessed’ With the Idea of Wife Lauren Sánchez Being the Next Bond Girl: She’s ‘His Muse.’

VDH: Debunking Revisionists on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings (Video).

RIDIN’ WITH BIDEN, THE EARLY DAYS:

1992. Joe Biden talking about how he runs red lights when driving out of DC to avoid being carjacked. pic.twitter.com/IKdLJSUAPz

— MAZE (@mazemoore) August 12, 2025