SWEET, SWEET MEMORIES:

THE LAST FEW HOURS OF:  The 2026 Spring Based Book Sale! Runs Now Through Tuesday February 17, 2026.

Lots of books for 99c or free by authors to the right of Lenin.

I have the first volume of No Man’s Land in it for 99c.  The price will change at midnight. Yes, that means you’ll see it at 3 or 4 am, but after midnight it’s iffy. I have no intention of putting it on sale for at least a year.

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

LOL, TERRY MORAN:

What’s really funny is that he made a fool of himself defending something that even Jasmine Crockett wouldn’t.

THEY TRIED TO ESCAPE X’S “TOXICITY,” BUT THEY WERE THE TOXINS:

IT KINDA WAS:

ONE TRICK DONKEY:

I’M SURE IT WILL BE UP TO THE QUALITY OF HIS OTHER WORKS: Red Flags Fly With the Announcement of Malcolm Gladwell’s Upcoming Book on ‘Gun Violence.’

Related: Follow the science!

TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH: Income tax bill passes WA Senate after hours of heated debate.

Senate Bill 6346, dubbed the “millionaires’ tax” by supporters, would impose a 9.9% levy on personal income over $1 million, or on combined household income of more than $1 million.

Opponents, including all Senate Republicans, argue the bill is unconstitutional and will drive wealthy residents and business investment out of the state.

Supporters of the legislation argue it will fix a regressive tax code, fund education and healthcare, and provide tax relief for working families.

The legislation would apply the 9.9% tax on business income more than $1 million, and the Chelan County Republican said in his farming business, there are good years and bad years.

Looks like Washington might be in for a run of bad luck.

SASHA STONE: AOC Crashes and Burns in Munich.

AOC makes the same mistake Kamala Harris always has. She tries to sound presidential and forgets to be herself. It’s okay to say you don’t know things or to laugh or to show humility, as Gretchen Whitmer attempted to do. But truth be told, both women came off so empty-headed that one can’t help but wonder why they’re there at all.

Mark Halperin says she did enormous damage to her political career.

AOC got her first real lesson in what it’s like to swim in the deep end. It was a good indicator that she is not ready to run for president. Unless someone else magically appears, it’s Gavin Newsom vs. Kamala Harris.

I did have to laugh at this paragraph in the Times story:

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued that efforts to make clips of “any five-to-10-second thing” from her remarks go viral online, especially in the conservative ecosystem, had been done to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.”

Now imagine that on repeat by every major news outlet in the land for ten years, and then she’ll get a tiny taste of what it’s like for Trump or any other politician on the Right.

Tellingly, the Gray Lady is doing major damage control for AOC: The New York Times Tries Impotently to Fix AOC’s Munich Disaster.

Elsewhere in his piece, [the NYT’s Kellen] Browning notes that Ocasio-Cortez was worried that, having been “microscopically dissected,” her message “was being lost in all the commotion.” But what she said was “her message.” One could dissect her words for the next ten years straight, with the best of intentions, and still one would not glean anything coherent or useful from them. This wasn’t the fault of “conservative social media” or “rocketing” or “speculation”; it was the fault of Ocasio-Cortez herself, who went to a security conference, was asked questions about security, and fell flat on her face at the first hurdle. The “commotion” doesn’t enter into the equation. What AOC said didn’t mean anything because AOC doesn’t know anything. Her ideas weren’t lost in translation. She didn’t “stall,” as Kellen Browning pretends she did. She wasn’t afflicted temporarily by madness or dehydration or anesthesia. She had no clue what she was talking about, so what she was talking about had no content.

Browning’s X homepage right now is absolutely loaded with AOC-friendly tweets, as if he’s her personal fixer at the Times. I know we frequently refer to journalists as “Democratic Party operatives with bylines,” but Browning is really living up to the meme right now.

CUBA LIBRE:

SCIENCE:

NOT EVEN TWO MONTHS IN OFFICE, MAMDANI HOLDS THE CITY HOSTAGE TO GET WHAT HE WANTS:

Not quite Bane, but give him time.