MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Google announces first nuclear site to power its data centers.

Big Tech’s foray into nuclear power continues as Google announced the site of its first nuclear reactor today, as part of its 2024 deal with startup Kairos Power. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will be home to the Hermes 2 plant, which will supply Google with 50 megawatts of power under a long-term purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The Oak Ridge plant is the first in a 500-megawatt deal that comprises multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) to provide power for Google’s data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. The Hermes 2 is scheduled to begin operations in 2030.

In a statement, TVA CEO Don Moul said, “Nuclear is the bedrock of the future of energy security. Google stepping in and helping shoulder the burden of the cost and risk for first-of-a-kind nuclear projects not only helps Google get to those solutions, but it keeps us from having to burden our customers with development of that technology.”

If AI does turn out to be a bubble, pray it doesn’t pop until after we get a bunch of new SMRs online.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER: Newsom’s Trump Impression Is Spot-On — Except for All the Winning.

IN JUST ONE WEEK? D.C. Police Union: 8 Percent Crime Drop When Feds Arrived.

According to the union, which represents the Metropolitan Police Department’s 3,000 personnel, carjackings are down 83% since federal control was enacted, while robberies dropped 46%.

Violent crime fell 22% in the seven days since federal law enforcement began patrolling D.C.’s streets, and car theft came down 21%. Assault with a deadly weapon and property crime are also each down 6%.

“While federal assistance gives us a boost, we must repeal the misguided Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act in order to make these changes permanent,” the union wrote on X, Monday morning.

The D.C. city council passed the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 in December of that year. According to USA Today, the measure was voted down by both the House and the Senate after it was submitted for congressional review in January 2023. Then-President Joe Biden vetoed Congress’ decision, however, and the law took effect in April 2023.

Home rule hasn’t exactly worked out as advertised.

MARK ANTHONY: Wimkin Social Media Takes on Big Tech, Gov’t, and Legacy Media in Landmark Free Speech Case.

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

Falcon Launch #100 of 2025. For reference on the increase in launch rate from last year, we hit 100 on Oct 20th in 2024 🚀🚀🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/Rs2jlERocD

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) August 18, 2025

August 26 promises an Earth-shattering kaboom: FAA gives SpaceX green light for Starship Flight 10 launch test.

After some amazing progress in 2024, 2025 hasn’t been kind to Starship. I’m keeping fingers, toes, and eyes crossed for Flight 10 next week.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Mail-In Ballot Fraud Fest Is Headed for the Executive Order Guillotine. “The COVID-inspired vote-by-mail rules are still around, even though they weren’t supposed to be. They’re intended to permanently turn our elections into Third World jokes that are gushing fountains of fraud possibilities. Naturally, the Democrats love them. These days, if it’s good for the Democrats, it’s bad for America.”

CHECK YOUR SOURCES:

This account is run by a Pakistani named Abdul, based in Karachi, Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/Usvuykntm6

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 19, 2025

MS WHO? A message to our community. “Later this year, MSNBC will take on a new name: My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW).”

You might be wondering, why is this change happening? As part of our move to a new media company, VERSANT — which also includes CNBC, Golf Channel, GolfNow, and SportsEngine — we’ll no longer be part of NBCUniversal and NBC News. This gives us the freedom to chart our own path forward, and we’re excited about where it’s headed.

In fact, we’ve been growing. In the past few months, we’ve welcomed Pulitzer, Emmy, Murrow, and Peabody award-winning journalists into our newsroom, and have been recruiting for nearly 100 new roles. At a time when so many newsrooms are shrinking, we’re investing in more reporting, more coverage, and more ways to serve you.

All I can say is: they’d better be hiring.

MSNBC will have its NBC newsroom fully amputated later this year. What remains to be seen is whether MS NOW can turn a profit when they have to pay for their own news services.

IT IS UNWISE TO ANNOY 4CHAN: 4chan to British Censors: Get Stuffed.

WELL, WHEN YOU PUT IT LIKE THAT…:

Things we’ve established in 2025:

Democrat cities are crime ridden hellholes, but can be fixed with the National Guard

Diversity is NOT our strength

DEI is literally killing people

Ivy League universities are admitting they were racist and discriminatory

Illegal aliens are… https://t.co/S64FWFCjUn

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) August 18, 2025

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: School safety is top reason parents use choice to leave public schools.

Bullying is the number one reason parents use choice programs to leave public schools, write researchers Misty Gallo, Colyn Ritter and Patrick J. Wolf. Low middle-school test scores rank second. “When public schools are not equipped to limit exposure to bullying behavior and when the academics of the middle school years are insufficient, parents flee the public schools if and when private school choice programs provide the financial means to do so.”

Even if test scores go down when a student moves to a private school of choice, long-term success odds improve, argues Marty Lueken, director of EdChoice’s Fiscal Research and Education Center.

“Many high-quality evaluations of private school choice, such as those in Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Indiana, and Milwaukee, have found a disconnect: lower test scores, but better long-term outcomes like high school graduation and college attendance, persistence, and degree attainment,” he writes.

How much of the decline after leaving public schools might be attributable to earning honest grades instead of inflated grades?

FIRST THE NATIONAL LEAGUE EMBRACED THE DH AND NOW THIS? Baseball’s Top Dog Touts the Sport’s Biggest, Most Radical Change Yet. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, is touting the most radical change of all: elimination of the American and National Leagues.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Stop and Smell the Commie: The Normie’s Guide to Recognizing Marxism Before it Kills Us All.

SETTLER-COLONIALISM, STRAIGHT UP: Vienna court decides that Sharia is also valid in Austria.

SCOTT PINSKER: The PR War Over War: Ukraine, Russia, and the Danger of ‘Snow White’ Peace Deals.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND BLS NUMBERS:

Funny how once you actually start digging, you find all the bodies https://t.co/AHDusUTGTn pic.twitter.com/ZXoxiXF3Zn

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 18, 2025

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: ICE Arrests Creeps, Killer Among Other Criminals.

FLYING CLAYMORES ARE THE 21ST CENTURY I ALWAYS DREAMED OF: US Army Pulls Off ‘First-of-its-Kind’ Drone-on-Drone Takedown. “A SkyRaider quadcopter with claymore mine achieved its first drone-on-drone takedown during a recent US Army demonstration.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: 4chan to British Censors: Get Stuffed.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Colorado’s gun rights restrictions keep criminals empowered. “The recent flurry of gun control measures has made Colorado one of the most restrictive states for firearm ownership in America. Senate Bill 25-003 for example, imposes a three-stage process on every Coloradan who may need to purchase a semiautomatic pistol for self-defense. There is no cap on fees and there is no time frame within which an application must be approved or denied. This will create substantial time and cost barriers for anyone who needs protect themself and their families in case of an emergency.”

GOOD LORD: Muslim Assaulted Dying, Unconscious Tennessee Woman.

SAY ANYTHING: Is John Cornyn Cognitively Impaired Or Is He Just Lying About His Role in Passing Biden’s Gun Control Bill? “Texas Senator John Cornyn shocked gun owners across the country this week after denying any involvement in helping pass Biden’s signature gun control bill—the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA)—despite his well-documented leadership role in getting it across the finish line in 2022.”

MIDDLE EAST: NGOs Accusing Israel of Blocking Aid Employed Jihadis, Most Didn’t Apply for Approval.

PEACEMAKING: The Ugly Truth About a Necessary Ukrainian Peace.

That there is any Ukraine left to save is a testament to the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainians, with the help of their Western allies, stopped Russia from the takeover of what had been a part of the former Soviet Republic. Their defense defied conventional wisdom, which held that Ukraine would likely fall within weeks. After the initial invasion, the front has largely remained static with the Ukrainians slowly giving up inches—at great cost to both sides.

Zelensky cannot be faulted for not wanting to settle the war before all Ukrainian land is restored. In the eyes of the West, it’s not fair or just that the Russians would benefit in any way from the attack. But this is not a court case in which rational and moral arguments will result in a fair outcome as decided by a third party with absolute power over all concerned. This is a war. There’s no judge and there’s no justice. The terms of peace in this war, and indeed in every war, are an extrapolation of what will happen if the war continues without peace. Both sides must use strategic leverage to extract terms. Fairness is irrelevant. It’s not the way we want the world to work. But that’s how wars are settled.

Moscow isn’t going to give up at the negotiating table anything that Kyiv can’t take back by force. If Ukraine comes out with most everything they still hold and their sovereignty intact, that’s as “fair” a peace as they can expect.

But I don’t expect Ukraine to get its kids back.

MUST WATCH: Rubio Turns Sunday Morning Into a MSM Reality Check.