READER FAVORITE: Airmoto Tire Inflator Portable Air Compressor. #CommissionEarned
February 23, 2026
SOMETHIN’ AIN’T RIGHT IN TEXAS: Irving, Texas, former home of the Dallas Cowboys and to this day still the home of the University of Dallas, a superb, orthodox and conservative Catholic liberal arts university, today has two Sharia courts operating??? I spent three and a half great years at UD in Irving and I suspect there weren’t three people in the whole city who had ever heard of a Sharia court. Check out this post on X.
WELL, YES: Drones ‘change everything’ about combined arms combat, US Army aviation chief says.
While Army aviators are no strangers to unmanned systems, drones being fielded today are immensely different from those developed over the last two decades, many of which tended to be larger and required more manpower to operate, Gill said.
“In the last five to 10 years I would say we have seen a complete shift in what drone technology is and how it can be used,” Gill said. The net result, he added, is that drones are “no longer just the purview of Army aviation.”
“I would argue now with the proliferation of small drones and how cheap and effective they can be that Army aviation is just one minor user now. … Everybody is going to have drones in the airspace to some degree.
“It’s going to change everything. The nature of war is the same. It’s always an endeavor of human conflict. But the character of war is just fundamentally different.”
Whoever figures out first how to use drones to enhance maneuver warfare instead of shutting it down (as in the Russo-Ukraine War), probably wins the next major war.
TITANIA MCGRATH: The warmth of the collective.
Now that we’ve reached 2026, surely it’s time to try this system again. Our new era has already begun, with Zohran Mamdani taking over as Mayor of New York. For those who don’t know, Mamdani is a devout Muslim who has promised to make New York a “sanctuary city” for the LGBT+ community. It’s what the Prophet Mohammed would have wanted.
Some bigots have argued that homosexuality is incompatible with the Islamic faith. But in fact, homophobia is extremely rare in Muslim-majority countries. This is why there isn’t a single LGBT+ community centre in the whole of Afghanistan. Everyone is so tolerant that there is simply no need for them.
Since taking power, Mamdani has declared that “we will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism”. No sane person could possibly argue with this logic. If it’s a choice between being warm or frigid, I know which I’d prefer. Indeed, during Stalin’s time he built a range of holiday camps called “gulags”, where residents often slept shoulder-to-shoulder in crammed rooms. Just imagine how warm and non-frigid that was.
Heh, indeed. Though given how much global warming New York received today, perhaps hizzoner should dial back on that whole “warmth of collectivism” thing. No need to speed up the heating up of the planet and/or Fun City:
GAVIN NEWSOM EXERCISING POWERS HE DOESN’T HAVE: Governor bans Kid Rock from his state: ‘Not what you want around our children!’ I’ve seen what you want around children, Gavin, and so I’m not impressed.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: BAFTA Meltdown Captures Woke Mind Virus to Perfection.
It should have been a magical night for John Davidson.
His life, specifically a long battle with Tourette syndrome, inspired the BAFTA-nominated film, “I Swear.” The British awards gala invited Davidson to Sunday’s soiree to see if the film might go home a winner.
It did – actor Robert Aramayo won Best Actor honors over Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio – and the film itself won two other awards.
Yet Davidson’s chronic swearing – the signature issue facing those with his condition – swamped the event in more ways than one. Davidson’s profanity could be heard during early segments of the show, even though he wasn’t on-stage at the time.
Host Alan Cumming gracefully explained the situation to the audience, apologizing for the profanity and asking for compassion. Those with this condition utter inappropriate phrases without control or filter.
“You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience…Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”
The matter might have ended there.
Except Davidson uttered the N-word when black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo of “Sinners” fame graced the BAFTA stage to present an award.
Read the whole thing.
TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE ALWAYS MAD ABOUT SOMETHING: The Left Is Big Mad at Kash Patel for Celebrating the Gold Medal Win With USA Hockey.
WELL, THEY’VE BEEN OVERSOLD: Patients want bigger benefits from statins before they consider taking them, finds new study. “Even at a moderate risk (10%) of developing a heart condition within the next 10 years, 42.9% of US adults and 42.4% of Japanese adults declined to take statins after knowing how effective the drug is and what side effects it can have.”
WANT A JOB AT FIRE? NOW’S YOUR CHANCE! When I started at FIRE, I figured I’d have to leave and make a “real” career in biglaw after a couple of years. That was 23 years ago! You never know where your career will take you.
MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS SPIKE AS U.S. PULLS ‘NON-EMERGENCY’ STAFF FROM BEIRUT: “While the State Department offered no official explanation for ordering the evacuation, there are reasons they’d want as few Americans in the area as possible if a strike on Iran is in the works. Namely, the terror group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has recently been shoring up its presence in Lebanon.”
JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: The end of work? Not yet—maybe not ever. “Calm down. Artificial intelligence can already do plenty, but work is bundled, economies have bottlenecks, and rising prosperity tends to create new kinds of labor rather than eliminate it.”
I certainly agree that these are reasons why predictions that jobs and work will be largely gone by 2030 or 2035 are at the very least premature. I wonder, though, if the combination of AI and robotics won’t have a much bigger impact than the introduction of other technologies in the past, making prior technological revolutions an inadequate model.
Upgraded of NT301, 2-in-1 FOXWELL NT301 Plus OBD2 Scanner Car Battery Tester. #CommissionEarned
HEH, INDEED:
BREAKING: Canada awarded gold medal after receiving two late mail-in goals at 3:00am pic.twitter.com/ewbkqfGKi0
— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) February 23, 2026
TRIM YOUR NAILS: 360° Rotating Toenail Clippers. #CommissionEarned
LA COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH DEPT: Filed claims totaling in excess of $8 billion with Medicaid between 2018 and 2024, according to an unprecedented deep-dive data analysis by Open the Books.
MAYBE THAT’S THE GOAL: Mayor Mamdani’s spending frenzy will lead NYC into a rapid decline. Looting the West and wrecking it is a logical policy for people who like money and hate the West.
IF ANYBODY WANTS TO MAKE A PREQUEL TO ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’ (BUT PLEASE DON’T), MAYBE THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS: NYPD officers harassed, doxed by agitators in Mamdani’s NYC.
PHIL HAMBURGER: When Is a Tax Not a Tax? When it’s a taking, like California’s proposed wealth levy.
California’s proposed billionaire tax is unconstitutional. The ballot initiative calling for one-time retroactive 5% tax on the net worth of the state’s billionaires has prompted much unease, but the legal arguments against it have remained elusive. It’s therefore important to recognize that this tax is an uncompensated taking or at least a deprivation of property without due process, contrary to the Fifth and 14th amendments.
Disgruntled taxpayers often grouse that taxation is state-sanctioned theft, and libertarians frequently complain about regulatory takings. But the billionaire tax is a problem for more basic reasons—reasons that are crucial for all of us, not only the hyperwealthy.
Although taxes are generally lawful, that isn’t true of everything called a tax. Consider a hypothetical Bill Gates Tax (imagined by legal scholars Calvin Massey and Eric Kades) that imposes an income tax of 100% on Mr. Gates and no one else. In form, it’s a tax; in reality, it’s a confiscation.
The example of the Bill Gates Tax is extreme in demanding 100% of income from one person. It’s less extreme, however, than the California tax in taking only income, not wealth, and in being prospective.
Three considerations coincide to make it especially clear that the California proposal is confiscatory.
It’s also an admission that the California machine has stifled growth and now has to confiscate available wealth in order to maintain desired levels of fraud and defalcation.
(Archived version here.)
THE POLITICO IS NOT HAPPY: RFK Jr.’s billionaire running mate is making a comedy about the pandemic.
Covid contrarians tight with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pitching Hollywood on an unlikely leading man: National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.
Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign, is searching for investors to fund a movie that pokes fun at the pandemic response with a star based on Bhattacharya, who rose to prominence with his anti-lockdown manifesto and relentless tweets opposing social distancing.
The script for the satirical comedy, “The Rash,” is by renowned author Walter Kirn, who wrote the novel “Up in the Air” that became an Oscar-nominated movie starring George Clooney. The new Kirn screenplay stars a “no-nonsense” public health professor at a Stanford-like California university — mirroring Bhattacharya — who speaks out against mass hysteria amid a mysterious outbreak of a contagious skin condition.
I’m not at all sure that this is the team to be making it or if the results will be watchable, but given how elites acted and continually reversed their decisions in 2020, there’s a huge opportunity for a black humor comedy along the lines of Dr. Strangelove, Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H or The Death of Stalin.
Fauci and Birx as James Bond supervillains, lockdown obsessives having trysts, cocktail parties – and sex parties – celebrities singing “Imagine” from their mansions, newspapers siccing social media mobs on those celebrities who refused to go along with lockdowns and vaccine mandates, healthcare officials who pivoted on a dime from lockdowns to championing riots in the street – there’s so much material here to mine.
CHEATING TAKES TIME THAT JUST COUNTING LEGITIMATE BALLOTS DOESN’T: Virginia Democrats Push Extended Deadline for Counting Absentee Ballots 3 Days After Election Day.
WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Newsom Tells Black Audience ‘I’m Like You…960 SAT…I Cannot Read a Speech.’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Racist) basically told a group of black voters in Georgia, Vote for me. I’m stupid just like you!
While out promoting his autobiography and his likely 2028 presidential campaign, Newsom started out with the usual-usual pandering Democrats employ with black voters. Then it quickly devolved into the kind of racist condescension we’ve seen from modern-day Democrats, reaching back to when they created the Jim Crow South.This is really something…
Gov. Newsom to a black crowd in GA: "I am like you. I'm a 960 SAT guy. I can't read." pic.twitter.com/4Gk0WKbIYz
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 23, 2026
I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you I’m like you. I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy. And I’m not trying to offend anyone; trying to act all there if you got 940. But literally a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe I’m in the wrong business to be in.
The highest possible SAT score is 1600, and here Newsom is slowing his speech, talking in bite-sized pieces, and saying to black voters, I’m just like you. I had a lousy SAT score, and I have trouble reading.
That’s what he honestly thinks of black people. That’s what he sees when he sees black people… He sees a dumb and uneducated underclass.
Unbelievable… Actually, it’s not if you know anything about the modern Democrat Party.
Rap superstar Nicki Minaj tore into Newsom.
“His way of bonding with black ppl is to tell them how stupid he is & that he can’t read.” She wrote on X. “He’s not just TELLING them that they’re all probably stupid & probably can’t read, he’s LITERALLY SLOW-ING-DOWN-HIS-SPEECH to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!!!!”
The corporate media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) will do their best to spin this away. I can already see Abby Phillips on CNN saying, Newsom was obviously relating to and showing empathy with everyone forgotten and left behind in this racist country. Whatever. The problem for Newsom is that it’s not 2009 anymore. That clip will never stop haunting him and is tailor-made for a 30-second campaign ad.
Flashback to last week, when Newsom (or the staffer who writes his tweets) claimed he was dyslexic because Ted Cruz (or the staffer who writes his tweets) called him historically illiterate:
I didn’t say you couldn’t read, you 🤡
I said you were “historically illiterate”…
….because you apparently have no idea that Eisenhower federalized the national guard to stop Dem governors from defying federal law.
Specifically, on September 23, 1957, President Eisenhower… https://t.co/63z3botBKs
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2026
Exit question:
So I guess he was just looking at the pictures? pic.twitter.com/b1N1GobI9G
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) February 23, 2026
HE TURNS OUT TO BE RIGHT ABOUT A GREAT MANY THINGS: Trump Is Right About the Mexican-American War,
After more than a century and a half of virtual apologies and silence from America’s leading political figures, President Trump finally broke one of the oldest taboos in American politics by issuing a statement celebrating the 178th anniversary of America’s victory in the frequently maligned Mexican-American War. Although the war was condemned at the time and in later generations as a land grab perpetrated by President James Polk, in truth it was brought about by Mexico: Mexican double standards, Mexican chauvinism, Mexican intransigence, Mexican belligerence, and a Mexican attack on the army of the United States.
The road to war was set in motion by the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which had been de facto independent since at least 1836 but over which Mexico still claimed sovereignty. Few, however, are familiar with the history of that time and the many factors muddying questions about the justice of the war, including Mexico’s status at the time, claims of Texan independence, and the effect these facts would have on later Mexican claims.
Some good history here, well told.
