August 27, 2026

SHOOTING NEWS: Not That You Needed Another Reason to Love Dolly Parton, But… “A .38 pistol. I have a permit for it in Nashville. I just carry it for protection. I feel safer when I’ve got it. I just don’t like the idea of knowin’ I’m totally helpless. I’m always scared in a big city and New York was totally foreign to us.”

Posted at 4:53 pm by Stephen Green

BUT PLENTY OF CHUTZPAH: Obama Figures Chastising Trump on Iran Have Zero Self-Awareness.

[It] seems that Washington has fought Tehran to a stalemate. We may have hammered their military, but their willingness to fight an asymmetric war that depletes our munitions and squeezes global energy cannot be ignored.

The stalemate can still be broken, however. The president can heap more financial pressure on the regime and maintain the maritime blockade. Our military also continues to ferry vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, easing the energy crunch.

Iran’s currency, the rial, just hit another historic low — trading now at 2 million to a single U.S. dollar. The regime’s inability to pay salaries or provide basic services could portend domestic upheaval. The president must now do more to support the Iranian people, who are pro-America and truly loathe their regime. They have been brutalized and slaughtered, but they have not given up. Intelligence, financial support, secure communications, and arms are what they need.

The president now understands that, just as the 2015 nuclear deal defined Obama’s foreign policy, the war with the regime will define his. He was right to conclude, “This situation has been going on for 47 years and should have been handled long before I arrived in office.” Seen in this light, Team Obama’s efforts to snipe him should be ignored. Whereas they never derailed Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions, Donald Trump still can.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

DARK MONEY: Exposing the Gun Control Industry’s Financiers: The Joyce Foundation. “Gun Rights Insights pulls back the curtain to show that the gun control agenda is nothing more than an astroturf agenda living off the funding and the backing of a few billionaires and progressive activist foundations flooding the field with waves of cash, up to $400 million annually.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

‘MURICA:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): More on privateers here.

Posted at 3:35 pm by Stephen Green

LET’S DO THIS:

“Legally uncertain,” really? Congress granting letters of marque are authorized by the Constitution, and sea prizes go back centuries further.

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Is ‘How to Rob a Bank’ Really ‘Hasan Piker: The Movie?’

Luigi Mangione stands accused of killing a healthcare CEO by shooting him from behind. The murder stained the nation’s soul, in part, because so many Americans rallied behind the alleged assassin.

They even made a musical about him.

Now, Hollywood is doing more than evoking that horrific crime. It’s tapping into a DSA-style assault on capitalism via “How to Rob a Bank.”

Hollywood seems determined not to learn.

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

CRUEL BUT FAIR:

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green

VICTORIA TAFT: Portland Antifa, HAMAS, and the IRGC Have Some Unsavory Friends in Common. “Rose City Antifa and its fellow travelers and hangers-on, for years, have attempted to create a hacking collective in Portland to infiltrate local tech companies and hijack those companies that do national security-level work. It’s unclear if they succeeded, but the news from the State Department about working with the Italy-based hackers’ collective shows that the group cobbled together the technological superstructure to allow these anti-Western anarchists to operate and organize while remaining undetected.”

Posted at 1:16 pm by Stephen Green