Think More: Thursday, August 13, 2026
The FBI's two ledgers, China's shadow networks, Taiwan's second navy, the Iran endgame, tuition lawsuits, and Woke 2.0.
Lead · The Bureau’s Two Ledgers
The FBI Ran Two Playbooks: Crossfire Hurricane Against Trump, Round River for Biden
Drawing on newly declassified records, Ashe Short reconstructs the FBI’s twin tracks: Crossfire Hurricane and Oxferd Comma pursued Russia-collusion claims the bureau’s own agents doubted, while Round River, opened during the 2020 race, sidelined 14 informants reporting on Biden family corruption and branded the story Russian disinformation. Mueller found no conspiracy; Durham found no basis to investigate. No one has been held accountable.
The Bureau’s Two Ledgers
The FBI’s Spreadsheet Marked Republicans as Conduits and Democrats as Victims
A White House transparency task force released a recovered FBI spreadsheet cataloging more than six dozen names tied to the Biden-Ukraine matter. Democrats, the Bidens among them, were marked targets of Russian disinformation; Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, and Chuck Grassley were marked conduits. Kash Patel’s review of the disbanded Foreign Influence Task Force continues.
Beijing’s Shadow Networks
The White House Maps the 40-Country Network Behind China’s Tariff Evasion
The White House | whitehouse.gov
The White House names more than 40 countries, Mexico and Vietnam among them, as nodes in a Shadow Transshipment Network relabeling Chinese goods to dodge tariffs: “smuggling disguised as trade.” Estimates of the annual flow run from $40 billion to $303 billion, with a central case of $75 billion and roughly 450,000 American jobs displaced.
House Investigators Say Harvard Built a Nonprofit to Dodge Foreign-Money Disclosure
Education and Workforce Committee | edworkforce.house.gov
A joint report from the Education and Workforce and China select committees, Compromised Independence, finds Harvard built a nonprofit, Harvard Global, apparently designed to route around federal foreign-gift disclosure; after receiving a draft, Harvard scrubbed the telltale language from the group’s website. A Chan School seminar may have hosted a Treasury-sanctioned Chinese paramilitary group.
China’s tariff-evasion network: White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, August 2026
$75B
Annual illegal transshipment, central case
450,000
American jobs displaced
40+
Countries in the network
The Wars in Waiting
Taiwan Turns Its Coast Guard Into a Second Navy, 288 Missiles in Reserve
The Wall Street Journal reports Taiwan is converting its coast guard into a second navy. Twelve Anping-class catamarans, patrol ships in peacetime, can each mount 16 Hsiung Feng anti-ship missiles in war; the navy has stockpiled 288 for them. During this month’s Han Kuang exercise, the missile-capable Bali led a drill repelling a simulated Chinese landing.
Malloch and Cuello: Finish the Iran War Within 60 Days
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch & Felippe Cuello | Lyceum
In Lyceum‘s pages, Malloch and Cuello argue the Iran war remains unfinished: Operation Midnight Hammer wrecked the nuclear mountain and forced a filial succession in Tehran, but the IRGC keeps stalling, striking ships, and breaking terms. Their verdict: choke the oil revenue, keep the pressure kinetic if needed, and close the file within 60 days.
Who the University Serves
The DOJ Sues New York, Connecticut, and Vermont Over Tuition for Illegal Immigrants
Ari Hoffman | The Post Millennial
The Justice Department sued New York, Connecticut, and Vermont on Monday over programs granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition and financial aid unavailable to out-of-state citizens, bringing its tally of such suits to 17. “States cannot put illegal aliens over our Nation’s own citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. Courts have already blocked similar policies in Texas and Illinois.
Priou to Ellmers: The Repressive Academy Makes the Case for Great Books
Alex Priou | TomKlingenstein.com
Replying to Glenn Ellmers, Alex Priou concedes the academy has grown more repressive than lax: a decade of ideological training produces faculty impossible to surprise, “skilled at usurping.” His remedy holds, the University of Austin’s Great Books curriculum and merit admissions, with a fuller case due in January’s Bare Ruin’d Choirs.
The Left Senses an Opening
Woke 2.0 Trades the Progress Flag for the Palestinian One
Spencer Klavan | The American Mind
Spencer Klavan reads AOC’s viral “Woke 1 was crazy” interview as the announcement of a rebrand. Woke 2.0 swaps the progress flag for the Palestinian one, casting the dispossessed anti-Israel militant as its ideal victim and muting its trans vanguard until power is regained. The grievance engine underneath, he argues, has not changed.
Mamdani Fires the Mayor’s Fund Board and Tests a City That Runs on Donors
Zohran Mamdani fired the advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund, the philanthropy vehicle that raised $105.9 million in Bloomberg’s final year and just $7.9 million last year, without naming successors. Nicole Gelinas sees the DSA’s doctrine at work: philanthropy as threat, taxation as substitute, in a city whose libraries, hospitals, and arts run on donors.
Trump Closes July at 39%
Ballotpedia’s polling index closed July with President Trump at 39% approval, tying June 2 for the low of his second term, against 58% disapproval. Congress sits at 25%. At the same point in his first term Trump stood at 43%, and Biden at 38%, numbers that frame the midterm terrain the left means to exploit.
