WHEN CANCEL CULTURE MEETS THE STREISAND EFFECT: Cancel Culture Made Aldean’s ‘Small Town’ Even Bigger. “You’re not gonna love every joke a comedian tells… but what the Republican party needs to lean into is the First Amendment, free speech and the marketplace of ideas.”

THERE ISN’T MUCH THE HOUSE CAN DO BUT AT LEAST THEY’RE DOING SOMETHING: The House Judiciary Committee Has Fani Willis in Its Sights. “Turning first to the question of motivation, it is noteworthy that just four days before this indictment, you launched a new campaign fundraising website that highlighted your investigation into President Trump.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Vivek Ramaswamy Tried to Share Your Medical Records With… EVERYBODY. “Energetic tech bro and GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy once made the government an offer that, shockingly, it absolutely refused.”

THE SOVIETS LOST THE COLD WAR BUT COMMUNISM IS MAKING A BIG COMEBACK: Australia’s Misinfo Bill Paves Way for Soviet-Style Censorship. “Controversially, the government will be exempt from the proposed laws, as will professional news outlets, meaning that ACMA will not compel platforms to police misinformation and disinformation disseminated by official government or news sources.”

Those organizations are already on board with Canberra’s daily pravda.

LINCOLN BROWN: Giuliani’s Warning. “Giuliani was partly expressing his hope that when and if conservatives regain power, they will not engage in the tactics of their predecessors in the name of justice. But moreover, he was issuing a warning to you and me. One way or another, they will come for you.”

HMM: NYC will spend billions to cut class sizes: Who’ll get the good teachers? “This is what happened when California spent billions to reduce class sizes in 1996. In affluent communities, students learned more. In low-income communities, the decline in teacher quality erased the benefits.”

HUGE? YES. BUT AS HUGE AS X/TWITTER CLAIMS? NO. Did Trump’s Interview With Tucker Carlson Really Get Huge Numbers? “The number of views attributed to a video includes those who watch the entire video, just a portion of it, or even scroll past it on their feed without even looking at it. Multiple views by the same user are also counted as unique views. You don’t have to take my word for it, either. That’s information coming straight from X.”

UPDATE: Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s jet appeared fine 30 seconds before crash amid rumors bomb was hidden in a wine crate.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? So Now We Need the CDC to Tell Us Not to Make Out with Turtles.

CHANGE: To Tackle Highest Housing Costs in the Country, Hawaii’s Governor Declares YIMBY Martial Law.

Weeks before the fires, Democratic Gov. Josh Green had already proclaimed a statewide housing emergency with the purpose of slashing through all that regulation to get thousands of new homes built.

“We don’t have enough houses for our people. It’s really that simple,” said the governor at a press conference last month, where he promised “bold action to streamline processes for creating thousands of affordable housing units.”

Green is in fact taking bold action by suspending whole sections of state and local laws and regulations that relate to homebuilding.

Local governments are given far more flexibility to expedite housing approvals, while developers will have the chance to route around basically all existing regulations on home building to get housing projects approved.

It’s a radically deregulatory approach that’s received praise from across the political spectrum.

As it should.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Look How Google Shoos You Away From The Biden Family Biz And Other Big News.

While fact-checking a Federalist article early Monday morning, I did a quick Google search for “hunter biden joe biden ‘an absolute wall.’”

It’s the language now-President Joe Biden used during the 2020 campaign to allege a separation between his vice-presidential duties and his son’s overseas work for the family business. It’s back in the news after the House Oversight Committee on Thursday asked the National Archives and Records Administration for unredacted communications containing three of Joe Biden’s vice presidential pseudonyms: Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware.

Google, however, apparently didn’t want me to find too much information — at least not from certain sources.

“It looks like the results below are changing quickly. If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for reliable sources to publish information,” Google alerted me, prompting me to make sure the source is “trusted on this topic” and maybe just to “come back later.”

Google is no longer a search engine. It’s a propaganda and narrative-maintenance tool of the Left.

THE SOVIETIZATION OF CANADA CONTINUES APACE: Jordan Peterson Ordered by Canadian Court to Undergo Reeducation.

AND SO IT BEGINS: Mugshots: 9 co-defendants in Trump Georgia election interference case.

The prosecutions aren’t about justice, the law, or “protecting democracy.” They’re about having those mugshots to run from now until election day.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: Popular Leftist Talking Head Blames Muslim Opposition to Trans Madness on — Guess Who.

YOU AIN’T BLACK: Black Voters Saved Biden in 2020. Democrats Now See a ‘Red Flag’ in Slipping Support.

The red flag is Black voters,” said Quentin James, who controls The Collective super PAC dedicated to electing Black Democrats. “It’s not time to panic. But it’s time to get to work.”

A Quinnipiac University national poll released last week found Biden receiving 73% support from Black voters, compared to 20% for Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch. A poll conducted for Fox News released this month showed 61% of Black voters favoring Biden, compared to 20% for Trump. August surveys from Emerson College, Harris X/The Messenger, and YouGov/The Economist also showed similar results.

That’s a significant shift, given exit polls found Biden won 87% of Black voters in 2020, compared to only 11% for Trump.

Biden’s 76-percentage point margin, though ostensibly large, was still low for a Democratic nominee by recent standards. And for a party that needs outsized support and turnout from Black voters, it kept the 2020 Electoral College results close. Biden edged Trump then – as well as in most of the polls cited above – because he has relatively strong white voter support for a Democrat.

If you thought Democrats jacked up the racial division before, just wait until 2024.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Hot Mess GOP Primary Debate Season Is Under Way. “The fact that our time was wasted by what Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, and Chris Christie had to say thanks to Ronna McDaniel’s debate eligibility rules makes me think that she’s deliberately trying to become a four-time election loser as GOP Chairwoman.”

OH, CANADA: This City Made Developers Build Affordable Housing or Pay Up. They All Paid.

A law designed to build affordable housing in Montreal—and which an elected official predicted would lead to 600 new units a year—has led to zero units of affordable housing, according to the city’s data. The law required developers to either build housing or pay into a fund. Every developer chose the second option.

In April 2021, Montreal adopted the Bylaw for a Diverse Metropolis. According to the law, developers who build five dwelling units (or the equivalent in terms of space) must sign an agreement with Montreal to either construct new city-subsidized housing or new affordable housing subsidized by the developer, along with other subsidies. If developers don’t build this housing, they can either donate land or pay directly into a fund that the city will use to build affordable housing units.

According to data on the city’s website, and first reported by CBC, 150 agreements have been signed under the bylaw as of May 2023, resulting in 7100 units of housing, all of which are market rate. Every single developer opted to pay a penalty and five donated property rather than build affordable housing.

There was less money to be lost in paying up than there was to be lost in building “affordable” housing.

If cities really wanted affordable housing, they’d eliminate the taxes and regulations that help make housing unaffordable. But they’re more interested in grift and showboating.

IT’S (STILL) GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Reedy Creek Improvement District Funneled Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to Disney.

WELL, NOT THAT SECRET: Huawei Tries to Sidestep US Sanctions Using Secret Chip-Manufacturing Plants. “According to the SIA, Huawei is attempting to bypass such restrictions by running these manufacturing plants under other company names and not disclosing its involvement. It’s a ‘shadow manufacturing network’ that exists to help Huawei do business and establish itself as an advanced chip production company within China.”

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: FEMA Officials Enjoy Luxury Hotels as Displaced Maui Residents Need Aid.

LIVE: Grab a Drink and Join Us for the First GOP Presidential Primary Debate. “Mike Pence is the George Bush 1988 of 2024, except for the winning.”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Trump To Host Live Stream Of Debates Where He Insults The Other Candidates MST3K-Style.

Related: Republicans Gather To Debate Who Will Lose To Trump In A Distant Second.

And of course I’m on drunkblogging duties for the debate tonight over at the mothership, starting around 15-20 minutes before the festivities begin.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Here’s your direct drunkblogging link!

HMM: X suspends DeSantis PAC’s account hours before debate.

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, suspended the account for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ main supporting PAC on Wednesday.

The Never Back Down PAC’s account, @nvrbackdown24, was suspended early Wednesday morning, according to the organization’s strategic communications director Matt Wolking.

X did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from Fox News Digital, though Wolking speculated that pro-Trump accounts “engaged in mass reporting” against the account.

“X says it ‘seems like our automated systems incorrectly picked it up as “spam.”‘ We have asked X to tell us who exactly reported @NvrBackDown24 as spam,” Wolking wrote from his personal account.

Wolking included screenshots of several X accounts allied with former Prsisdent [sic] Donald Trump that were celebrating the account’s suspension.

Whatever happened, the account is back up now.

UPDATE: Wagner Decries ‘Murder’ Of Prigozhin Amid Reports Anti-Air Missile Struck Plane. “At this point it’s looking like the entire top command of Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group was aboard the private plane that was downed northwest of Moscow hours ago. Wagner itself is confirming Yvgeny Prigozhin’s death, with Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel Grey Zone calling it a ‘murder.'”

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Amazon’s Tucker-Disappearing Act.

According to an August 16 press release by All Seasons Press, Amazon received 7,523 copies of Tucker. On the book’s publication date, August 1, Amazon listed it as “Sold Out” within minutes. And yet BookScan, a firm that tracks book sales, reported only 3,227 sales of Tucker during its first week. Which raises these questions, as bullet-pointed in All Seasons Press’s release:

Did Amazon sell out of their 7,523 units almost immediately?

If so, why weren’t those sales reported to BookScan?

If they did not sell out their 7,523 unit inventory, why did they announce that the book was sold out and unavailable for sale?

Some other twists: Amazon fulfilled post-publication orders before shipping books to customers who’d preordered Tucker. And after describing the book as “Sold Out,” Amazon didn’t order more copies from the publisher; on the contrary—and quite incredibly—it “emailed many preorder customers to ask if they wanted to cancel their orders,” and required them “to go on a desktop, not the app, and proactively confirm they still wanted the book or the order would automatically cancel.”

In other words, Amazon made it easy for customers to cancel their orders and made it difficult for them to confirm their orders. What merchant eager to sell a product behaves in such a way?

One who puts political interests above their own shareholders’ interests.