Happy Sunday, and welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. What do you suppose caught people's attention as we wind down August? Grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger if you're so inclined) and sit down with this 21st-century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication.
#1 - Air Force Major Who Went After Trump in Uniform on Capitol Steps Just Hit the FAFO Phase — by Teri Christoph
The Air Force immediately launched an investigation, and Watson certainly didn't help himself by going on CNN last week to double down on his calls for a presidential impeachment.
“What is happening with President Trump is not normal,” Watson told CNN's Erin Burnett. He then accused President Trump of “flagrantly violating the Constitution,” “breaking the law,” engaging in “rampant corruption,” and “killing Americans.”
Then came this remarkable line: “I believe we can defeat this government if we just take a stand.”
Except he can't take a stand because he's still an active-duty military officer, not a civilian political activist who's free to say whatever he wants.
#2 - El-Sayed's Post on Dolly Parton's Death Has People Up in Arms — by Nick Arama
Dolly Parton was conspicuously non-political; she wanted to love everyone. Everyone has been writing about her with that in mind.
Well, everyone, except Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee for Senate in Michigan. He probably thought that recognizing Dolly would help him. Except he used her passing for a political point, saying she "used her gift for music to highlight the challenges of poverty, inequality, and struggle in ways that uplifted and inspired working people."
...
He then posted some of the words to her song, "Coat of Many Colors."
Yes, Dolly was born into poverty, which she was very open about. But she was also open about how she was able to succeed in this country, under this system, and greatly loved this country for the opportunities it gave her. She didn't use the fact that she was born into poverty to play the victim or preach politics to people.
#3 - Remember That Fight Over Muslim Foot-Washing Stations? Wait Till You See What Happened at Dunkin' — by Teri Christoph
And if you thought ordinary bathroom sinks were not the optimal place for ritual foot-washing, New York City would now like a word.
A Dunkin’ employee working at the Staten Island Ferry terminal was caught on video taking things one very unhygienic step further – washing his feet not in the restaurant bathroom, but in a sink behind the counter at the coffee shop.
#4 - The Trump Admin Just Found a Pressure Point That Could Disrupt Antifa's Entire Network — by Ward Clark
This isn't an ordinary sanction. With this action, the United States of America is casting a very, very wide net. This is bigger than Antifa, the ground-level goblins who attack independent journalists like Andy Ngo and Nick Sortor. This is bigger than Hamas goblins, even after October 7th. This action is going against a shadowy international organization that enables those, and other far-left groups, Islamic terror groups, and who knows what else.
We might also note that Antifa isn't all about throwing bottles at cops. They have engaged in lawfare as well, and it's not inconceivable that the A/I Collective is providing some support there as well. One infamous example comes from an independent journalist, C.K. Bouferrache, known on X as @honeybadgermom, who was served papers for a legal action stemming from a pepper-spraying incident. The details read a lot like an attacker suing his victim because he bruised his knuckles on the victim's face. This sweeping sanction may well have the potential to change some of these legal calculations.
As someone once said, this is a big freaking deal.
#5 - Report: The WNBA Finally Issues Ruling on Whether Men Can Play in the League — by Kyle Becker
ESPN reported Monday that multiple league sources said Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White would not be eligible for the WNBA after both former NBA players publicly declared themselves women and announced plans to enter the draft.
The league's collective bargaining agreement says that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but provides no further definition of the term, and the league does not have a publicly available transgender-athlete eligibility policy. That ambiguity is exactly what Kanter Freedom and White have spent the last few weeks exploiting.
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