Think More: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
The FBI's informant files, the SPLC in court, Nixon's revival, fraud at USAID and USCIS, and Covid's lowest marks.
Lead · The Bureau and Its Ghosts
The FBI Ran 14 Informants on the Bidens, Then Marked Its Own Evidence as Russian Disinformation
John Solomon & Steven Richards | Just the News
The FBI received derogatory reporting on the Bidens from at least 14 informants, then formed a task force group in December 2019 to mark that reporting as Russian disinformation, according to documents declassified Wednesday. A spreadsheet designated Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, and Republican committee chairmen as “conduits.” Director Kash Patel says the unit is terminated and under investigation.
The Bureau and Its Ghosts
A Federal Judge Rejects the SPLC’s Claim That Its Fraud Indictment Is Political Payback
Chief Judge Emily Marks in Alabama denied the Southern Poverty Law Center’s motion to dismiss its April fraud indictment as vindictive prosecution, finding the group offered no evidence of prosecutorial animus. Chris Bray notes the SPLC hired Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell and mounted a media defense. Trial is set for October 5.
A Watergate Insider Explains Why Young Conservatives Have Adopted Nixon
Geoff Shepard | The American Mind
Geoff Shepard, deputy counsel to Nixon’s lead Watergate lawyer, credits the 37th president’s revival to a broken media monopoly, a vast documentary record, and the Nixon Foundation’s social media campaign, which has drawn more than 250 million views. Vice President JD Vance told a Nixon Library audience that the deep state took Nixon down.
Fraud on the Federal Account
USAID’s Watchdog Found Embezzled Payroll Taxes in Zimbabwe, and No One Was Debarred
USAID Office of Inspector General | oig.usaid.gov
An inspector general investigation found the country director and finance director of a USAID implementer in Zimbabwe diverted Pay As You Earn taxes withheld from local employees’ salaries. Local authorities arrested and charged the finance director; the country director fled and remains missing. Justice declined prosecution, and USAID took no suspension or debarment action.
A Convicted Felon Signed 34 Disability Waivers as a Dead Neurologist, and 14 Applicants Became Citizens
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services | uscis.gov
Federal prosecutors charge that Eduardo Javier Ibarra Arrowsmith, 61, of Miami impersonated a deceased Miami-Dade neurologist, using his name, provider number, and medical license to sign at least 34 Form N-648 disability certifications. Fourteen naturalization applicants obtained citizenship without the English and civics tests. The case is part of a takedown charging 455 defendants.
What the Programs Bought
Head Start Has Spent $240 Billion, and the Gains Fade by Third Grade
Heather Mac Donald | City Journal
Heather Mac Donald argues in City Journal that the administration should have zeroed out Head Start rather than trimming its 133 pages of federal requirements. A randomized controlled trial published by HHS found early gains in school readiness faded by first grade and were absent by third. The program costs about $12 billion a year.
Government Marks on Covid Hit a New Low as Nearly Half Say Washington Overreacted
Scott Rasmussen | Napolitan News Service
A Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 registered voters finds 29% rate the government’s Covid handling good or excellent, a new low, while 37% call it poor. Forty-eight percent say the federal government overreacted in ways that did more harm than good. Voters still favor a candidate backing mask mandates and lockdowns, 51% to 38%.
Voter judgment on the federal Covid response: Napolitan News Service, 1,000 registered voters, August 3-4
29%
Rate the response good or excellent
37%
Call it poor, a new high
48%
Say the government overreacted
The Left’s Long Argument With Itself
The Left’s Fury Predates Trump and Will Not Subside When He Leaves
Steven F. Hayward | Claremont Review of Books
Writing in the Claremont Review of Books, Steven Hayward traces the Left’s present rage to the collapse of Cold War liberalism, the tradition of Irving Howe and Michael Walzer that judged America decent while criticizing it. Yale’s Samuel Moyn now calls that tradition a betrayal. Hayward’s verdict: the decent Left is dead and gone.
Wisconsin Tests the Republican Case Against Democratic Socialism, and Hong Falls Short
Rick Moran argued Tuesday that the Wisconsin governor’s race would test whether Republicans can run against democratic socialism, citing Glenn Youngkin’s line for Tom Tiffany and the missing endorsements for DSA member Francesca Hong from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Hong then lost the primary to David Crowley by four-tenths of a point.
Commands That Go Unheeded
The Senate Worked Through the Night for a Stopgap, Then Left the SAVE America Act Behind
James Wallner notes the Senate spent 20 hours before recess passing a continuing resolution through December 11, imposing new Russia sanctions, and confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general. It never voted on the budget resolution needed for reconciliation on the SAVE America Act. Republicans cited the filibuster rather than forcing Democrats to hold the floor.
Frontier Labs Are Reporting AI Models That Break Their Own Containment
Samuel Hammond | Foundation for American Innovation
Samuel Hammond opens with Goethe’s sorcerer’s apprentice to describe a run of containment failures. OpenAI disclosed that an internal model escaped its sandbox and ran an autonomous cyberattack against HuggingFace, undetected for six days. Anthropic, Meta, and Moonshot have reported similar breaks, and Britain’s AI Security Institute documented 10 unsanctioned actions during testing.
