CASEY HANDMER: Just to be clear here, NASA declared its recent test a ‘successful wet dress rehearsal’ despite missing its T-30s target by almost five minutes, botching the dreaded Orion hatch close out procedure, and managing to achieve up to 16% H2 due to copious leakage at the fueling interface.

The “wet dress” was so successful, in fact, that they have to do it all over again in the unspecified near future. But before that, the same team ran a “(no) confidence test” on the leaky fueling interface which failed badly enough that they buried it until 8pm on the following Friday.

The SLS ground support budget runs at $650m per year, and they’ve had 1173 days since the last test to get this right.

Coincidentally it also took 1173 days for Hyman Rickover and his team to ship the world’s first nuclear power reactor, wrapped in a fully functional submarine, for about a third of the total cost of the SLS’s botched ground support equipment, in the 1950s. What a difference a serious team makes!

Read the whole thing.

Despite rosier initial reports about yesterday’s WDR, Artemis II has a bad feel to it.

IT TAKES A TRULY ENERGETIC SOCIALIST TO RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY THIS QUICKLY:

🚨 New Yorkers waking up FAST buyer’s remorse is REAL after voting for socialist Zohran Mamdani.

He campaigned on “tax the rich, not you” now he’s threatening a 9.5% property tax hike on EVERYONE to cover his massive budget hole.

NYC got played
pic.twitter.com/cPbrvlGIW4

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) February 20, 2026

SERIOUSLY, WT ACTUAL F: Susan Rice Reveals Democrats’ Terrifying Plan for When They Return to Power.

MIDDLE EAST: Trump is considering ‘weeks-long campaign’ in Iran that would look ‘like full-fledged war’ and be ‘existential for the regime’, with ‘dramatic influence on the entire region.’

Fears are mounting that the US could be on the brink of a major military confrontation with Iran, with sources warning that any operation would be much larger in scale than recent interventions and could begin sooner than many expect.

Insiders say a potential US strike would not resemble a limited or targeted mission but instead unfold as a sustained, weeks-long campaign that would look ‘like full-fledged war.’

The operation is expected to be coordinated with Israel and would be broader in scope than last year’s 12-day conflict, which escalated when the US joined Israeli efforts to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.

Such a campaign is described as potentially ‘existential for the regime’ in Tehran, with the capacity to reshape the balance of power across the Middle East.

Stay tuned…

MARK JUDGE: The Washington Post Has No Swagger.

Taking things particularly hard has been sportswriter Sally Jenkins, publishing a piece called “You Can’t Kill Swagger” in The Atlantic. “The Post Sports section is, was, no ordinary section, in heritage or in coverage,” Jenkins wrote. “It was habitually young, because it required hiring people with no sense of off-the-clockness. We moved in a close group… We came from all over, competed desperately to outwrite one another, teased one another mercilessly, loved one another.” The Post’s sportswriters were trained “to grab the pen and go, and to regard sportswriting as merely another portal through which to report on the broadest subjects: labor issues, performance enhancement, domestic violence, racism, sexism, terrorism, global corruptions such as vote-buying in the Olympics.”

Jenkins then went over Jeff Bezos and Matt Murray, the owner and editor of the Post: “Usually, when people in an office distrust feckless leaders, when they are subjected to corporate verbiage that bounces off the face and leaves a rage headache behind, they will subtly gear down their efforts,” Jenkins writes. “But my former colleagues do the opposite. For every half-wit decision by a poseur in a 42-long, slim-fit suit, they report even harder. This ethic has been especially true in the renowned Sports section, which was killed in a Zoom announcement.”

Jenkins is puffing herself up for doing the job of any journalist. She makes reporting sound like some kind of brutal triathlon. Swagger? Most of the Posties rending their garments on social media over getting kicked out couldn’t do a push-up.

Heh. Read the whole thing.

HE ALMOST ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE HAVING A GREAT TIME: Firing Rubio? Trump’s Got Jokes, and He’s Having a Darn Good Time.

READER FAVORITE: Airmoto Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor. #CommissionEarned

END-OF-REPUBLIC ERA BEHAVIOR:

The impulse for retribution.

There’s a tone you hear right before a civilization ages out. It isn’t the sound of defeat. It’s the sound of score settling.

When leaders talk about what they’ll do to their enemies once they “come back,” you’re not listening to governance. You’re… https://t.co/hHBBeQ8Ffq

— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) February 20, 2026

IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE: Colorado’s imported wolf scheme a ballot box biology bust.

What did Colorado voters who decided to import wolves expect? That the animals would grow lettuce in secret gardens, safeguard the bunnies, frolic in old-growth forests, and perform moon-howling concerts for the enjoyment of the townspeople?

In fact, wild animals will do what they must to survive, as wolves have done for centuries. They hunt, kill, eat, and repeat. If not, they die. Sadly, those are the choices for Colorado’s wolves: trapped, harassed, tranquilized, flown in noisy airplanes or driven for 17 hours in a steel cage, collared, vaccinated, and thrown into strange surroundings in front of photographers and politicians. They have done their best; running fast, migrating amazing distances, at least one pair raising a litter, and steering clear of people when possible. But they still must eat, which means hunting and killing. They are highly evolved, clever, and efficient at it.

To date, the imported wolves and their offspring are known to have killed 6 ewes, 6 lambs, 6 cows, 12 calves, 6 yearlings, and at least one dog. A total of 37 have fallen victim and state government is on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. The program has cost millions more than voters were promised, and some legislators are unhappy. But it has been no picnic for the wolves, either. In fact, more than half those kidnapped (from Oregon and British Columbia) and brought to Colorado since 2023 have died.

It is not an inspiring story.

Fear not: the wolf importations will continue until morale improves.

I NOW START WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT INCIDENTS LIKE THIS ARE HOAXES: Police refute claim that black Virginia Tech professor was victim of racist attack.

I’m seldom wrong.

BREAKING: Supreme Court Makes a Decision on Tariffs.

YES. NEXT QUESTION?

NYC employs 364,000 government employees, of which only 31% of are white.

What is the point of the office of racial equity? To reduce that number to zero? https://t.co/SoWVwNwPUZ

— Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) February 19, 2026

RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY: Shame on UCLA: The Cowardice of Academia. “The details and reasons behind canceling one of the most important news personalities in this nation are even more despicable than they at first seem and are examples of prejudice and insidious anti-Semitism.”

ICYMI: MY INTERVIEW WITH JOHN HAWKINS: “Too many women have become the men that they hate.”

LIGHTNING DEAL: FOXWELL Car Scanner NT604 Elite OBD2 Scanner ABS SRS Transmission. #CommissionEarned

MASSIVE RESISTANCE: University of Iowa job postings include ‘DEI language’ despite state ban.

WOE, CANADA: Liberals Brainstorm Spiffy Plan to Beef Up Currently Pathetic Military.

The Canadian military has a long and storied history of valour and tenacity. Let’s get that out of the way right off the bat.

That small but respected force has withered away in recent years, losing much of its cachet and nearly all of its lethality under the liberal goverments who have held sway in recent decades.

In 2024, military analysts and Canadian government officials themselves were using the term ‘death spiral’ to describe the state of the Canadian armed forces amid calls for Canada to finally meet its obligations as a NATO member nation.

Much more at the link.

KNOW YOUR PLACE, COLORED MAN: White Liberal Lectures Black Conservative About Race on CNN. It Does Not Go Well.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems’ #RESIST Strategy Might Just Be Turning Into Background Noise. “They’re hoping that the seemingly endless anti-ICE protests will sufficiently demonize the agents, the Trump administration, and any politicians associated with him to propel the Democrats to victory next November. Seriously, the platform is pro-violent criminals and anti-law enforcement. That’s what they’re going with.”

DON SURBER: Why They Want California Ruined.

IGNORE BASIC CYBERSECURITY AT YOUR PERIL:

“The @FT has identified 48 seemingly independent companies working from different physical addresses that appear to be operating together to disguise the origin of Russian oil, particularly from Kremlin-controlled Rosneft. The network was discovered because they all share a… https://t.co/Hu8DKlhFKy

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 20, 2026

CHANGE: The Global Revolt Against Greenism.

CHANGE? Ted Cruz believes it’s ‘entirely possible’ regimes in Cuba, Iran and Venezuela will collapse in six months.

“We are at an extraordinary moment in history. It is entirely possible, Sean, that in the next six months, we will see the regimes fall in Iran, in Venezuela, and in Cuba, and we could also see governments replace them that want to be friends with the United States of America,” Cruz said on “Hannity.”

President Trump has dramatically ramped up pressure on all three US adversaries over recent weeks.

Since last year, the US has maintained an oil quarantine around Venezuela. Trump also authorized the Jan. 3 Operation Absolute Resolve raid to capture strongman Nicolas Maduro.

Those efforts enabled the US to cut off Cuba’s key source of oil, putting a big squeeze on Havana.

More recently, Trump has massed US military assets, including two aircraft carriers, near Iran as a show of force while allowing negotiations with the regime to continue playing out.

The Axis of Resistance could potentially shrink down to just North Korea, China, and Russia — and Russia looks more and more like a liability to Beijing than an asset.

METAPHOR ALERT: Legendary director Steven Spielberg is latest billionaire to flee California in another blow to state.

Steven Spielberg, phone home!

The legendary “E.T.” director and California resident has moved to Manhattan amid a billionaire exodus from the Golden State — as voters eye a controversial wealth tax.

But the move, first reported by the LA Times, allegedly had nothing to do with the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.

“Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York-based children and grandchildren,” spokeswoman Terry Press said.

Press did not answer queries about Spielberg’s stance on the proposed tax, which would slap a one-time 5% tax on individual fortunes exceeding $1 billion.

The tax, if approved by voters in November, would apply retroactively to the beginning of this year.

Proponents argue it will raise tens of billions of dollars to go toward the state’s health care shortfalls, while opponents — including Gavin Newsom — argue it’ll force skinflint billionaires to leave the state.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants to kill the tax. He’s funding an effort to build more opponents by appealing to California’s voting masses, who so far overwhelmingly back the tax.

At Power Line, Bill Glahn writes, “Spielberg’s departure for New York alone won’t made that state significantly bluer or California any more red. But just once I’d like to see one of these fleeing lefty billionaires lament their part in creating the mess they are leaving behind.” Indeed. But when it comes to holding on to their own money, as Robert Conquest’s First Law of Politics states, “Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.”

LOL, TOM FRIEDMAN: New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman Plays His Readers for Fools—Again: Friedman cites phony Soros-PLO poll to smear Israel as apartheid pariah state.

Is he a useful idiot? Or just . . . useful?