DON’T GET COCKY: Democrats, You May Already Have Lost the 2028 Election.

It’s early, and the contest will attract upstarts, insurgents and opportunists. Such outsiders have seized the moment in the past—sometimes successfully (Barack Obama in 2008; Donald Trump in 2016), sometimes not (Howard Dean in 2004; Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020). No one knows who they will be.

But they won’t be conservative Democrats. There are hardly any left. Only 8% of Democrats call themselves conservative, according to Gallup. Fifty-nine percent consider themselves liberal or very liberal. A CNN poll last summer found that one-third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents think of themselves as democratic socialists like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. That share is 42% among those under 35.

Socialism’s rise raises troubling questions about the party’s future. The shift has electoral consequences. A radicalized base, animated by anti-Trump resistance, may be an asset in special and midterm elections. But open borders, social disorder and transgender ideology have hurt Democrats in presidential years. They will do so again if unchecked.

Success in 2028 thus depends on finding an appealing candidate who embodies change not only from Mr. Trump, but also from the Democrats’ reputation. That requires exactly the sort of self-examination Democrats are determined to avoid.

Bill Clinton emerged as the outsider, DLC-centrist in 1992, but only because the big names sat that one out, assuming George H.W. Bush was unbeatable following the 1991 Gulf War.

None of the big names — such as they are — seem likely to sit out 2028.

And none of those is anything like a DLC-style centrist.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Erection pills may have major benefits — for more than just sex: ‘Too many men are missing out’.

Viagra and other common erectile dysfunction medications are known as PDE5 inhibitors, meaning they block an enzyme that restricts blood flow by tightening muscles and narrowing blood vessels.

These medications relax the blood vessels, which increases blood flow throughout the body, including to the penis.

Researchers saw a link between medication use and better heart health, noting that the blood flow and relaxed muscles could play a role in cardiovascular benefits. The improved circulation and vascular function could also reduce the risk of strokes. . . .

Previous research has also found that taking erectile dysfunction medications could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Well, there you are.

CHARLIE DON’T SURF! How Robert Duvall, the Vietnam War, and a Yater Spoon Changed Surfing.

Oh, Colonel Kilgore, off you go without your Renny Yater Spoon. Your magical, trusty, beloved steed of a “very good board,” as you so plainly put it. And to have it pilfered by none other than a brother in fiberglass, foam, and fins? A professional, no less? What a crying shame. Yes, sir, we all know how hard it is to find a board you like, don’t we?

Here’s to Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore, United States Army Air Cavalry commander and bona fide surf nut. A wave seeker so devout and itinerant that he’d go to the ends of the earth—and his humanity—to land a helicopter, engage in heated combat, and ultimately napalm a village in order (at least in part) to sample its surf. Politics aside, how can you not admire that kind of conviction in a fellow surfer? And still with six hours of incoming tide to kill, at that. A true surfer wastes no time with getting priorities in line, and that you were, LTC.

From that very first exchange with professional noserider extraordinaire and (drafted) Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Lance Johnson, we knew, instinctually, that not only were you one of ours, but you had soul.

You had the kind of intrepid spirit that deems no peak too hairy for a little waterborne R&R.

Apocalypse Now screenwriter John Milius, an avid surfboarder in his younger days, wrote Duvall’s incredible dialogue. He told Surfer magazine in 2010, that in his mind, “the Vietnam War was a California war. It was a clash of cultures between the United States and this far off Asian land. But even more than that it was a clash between California culture and Asian culture. There was California music, and Hells Angels flames on Huey gunships. It was a California war. I guess the surfer is a cliche for the Vietnam War in the same way that the kid from Brooklyn stuck in the B-29 tail-gunner position was the World War II cliche.”

MATH IS HARD: Reconciling Two Shock Polls: 58% Say Dems Are Now ‘Too Liberal’ — Yet Biden Defeats Trump in a Rematch?

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Drone with Camera for Adults. #CommissionEarned

THE FLOW: Palantir Shifts HQ to Miami From Denver After Protests.

CORRELATION ISN’T CAUSATION…: Is Giving Cross-Sex Drugs to Mentally Ill People Resulting in Trans Killers?

“We know the children who identify as ‘trans’ are among the most vulnerable groups – some are highly disturbed. And yet we’re not investigating this, we’re told to simply ‘affirm’ them.

“As soon as a child declares they are ‘trans’, all underlying issues are ignored and the child is denied proper mental health care – in fact, the activists claim this would be ‘conversion therapy’.’’

Davies-Arai says she is concerned about what so-called “gender affirming care” is doing to the physical and mental health of these young people. Studies have found that there is a higher rate of suicide among trans people compared to the population at large.

“What happens when we give mentally ill children blockers to disrupt their development and powerful cross-sex hormones their bodies were not built to function on? We need a proper investigation into the risks of giving young people large doses of the wrong sex hormone.

…but there’s been enough correlation that maybe now would be a good time to put a pause on these injections.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE:

Lewiston shooting incidents 2019-2025

Lewiston shooting incidents post-ICE surge https://t.co/DEBsF7aPg9 pic.twitter.com/Zf2KNJW2a5

— Steve Robinson (@SteveRob) February 18, 2026

JEFFREY SINGER: A good place to start Trump’s new health care plan: More drugs over the counter.

Watching a TV commercial for Primatene Mist — the over-the-counter inhaler that uses epinephrine (adrenaline) to treat asthma attacks — I found myself wondering why people with asthma can buy that drug but not albuterol. It’s a question that goes straight to the heart of President Trump’s “Great Healthcare Plan.”

Epinephrine is a blunt instrument. It stimulates the heart and blood vessels and can raise blood pressure and heart rate. Albuterol, in contrast, is more targeted. It acts mainly on the bronchial system and has fewer effects elsewhere in the body.

Yet in the U.S., the cruder drug is available over the counter, whereas the cleaner one is locked behind a prescription. In much of the world — including Australia, South Africa and large parts of Latin America — patients can buy albuterol without a prescription.

Just one example of many. BTW, Epinephrine is good for severe allergic reactions. I used to keep some Primatene Mist in my first aid kit for that reason, but they took it off the market for a while because its propellant depleted ozone (no, really) and I didn’t put it back when it returned because I just didn’t get around to it.

OUR LEADING INSTITUTIONS, AND THOSE WHO LEAD THEM, HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE OVERWHELMINGY DEPRAVED AND CORRUPT: The Chomsky Moment And The Cracks In Cultural Hegemony.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Fingers Crossed! NASA Is About to Try Fueling the World’s Leakiest Rocket (Again).

IT AIN’T OVER YET: Warner Bros rejects revised Paramount bid, but remains open to a final offer.

Warner Bros Discovery on Tuesday rejected Paramount Skydance’s latest $30-a-share hostile bid, but gave the Hollywood studio seven days to come up with a “best and final” offer for the owner of HBO Max and the “Harry Potter” franchise.

Paramount informally broached an even higher per-share price of $31, Warner Bros said, apparently enticing the board to the table. But its response to Paramount indicates ‌Warner Bros prefers its deal with Netflix, and the odds of a switch are long.

Paramount has until February 23 to make a new offer, which Netflix is allowed to match under the terms of the merger agreement, ‌Warner Bros said.

Stay tuned…

MEET THE GERONTOCRACY:

Mitch McConnell is a no vote on the SAVE ACT.

Over 90% of his constituents would vote yes.

But his owners don’t want it.

Can’t barely walk.
Has no clue where he is.

Everything wrong with politics.

Congress was not meant to be a crooked nursing home.pic.twitter.com/iBI3PB2Pt2

— C3 (@C_3C_3) February 18, 2026

If the Founders had known how long people would eventually live, and how un-(small-r)-republican our elites would become, they might have included age caps for elected office.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH OR WHATEVER: Illegal Alien Attempts to Drown Complete Stranger, Chills Out With Weed and Vodka.

READER FAVORITE: The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom. #CommissionEarned

OH, GROW UP:

Remember how everybody in the White House had to wear all black the next day?

Theater kids.

And Obama was the Theater Kid-in-Chief. https://t.co/uayWZG0Uam

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) February 18, 2026

And since I still have the late Robert Duvall on the brain, here’s a quick glimpse of him as Tom Hagen in a tough-love moment from The Godfather that Obama could have used, long before he got into politics.

HMM: Iran and US agree on ‘guiding principles’ of nuclear deal, Tehran says.

American and Iranian negotiators have hashed out “guiding principles” for an agreement during the second round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“We were able to reach a general agreement on a set of guiding principles, based on which we will proceed from now on and move toward drafting a potential agreement,” Araghchi told state TV from Geneva, where the talks were held.

“This does not mean that we can quickly reach a final agreement, but at least the path has begun.”

A US official agreed that “progress was made, but there are still a lot of details to discuss. The Iranians said they would come back in the next two weeks with detailed proposals to address some of the open gaps in our positions.”

The Trump administration has insisted that Iran expand the talks to cover its ballistic missile program and the treatment of anti-regime protesters — topics that Tehran has insisted are off the table.

“Jaw, jaw is better than war, war,” but with a second CVN on the way to the region, this story feels a little more like “The art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can pick up a rock.”

We’ll see.

FIGHTING BIGOTRY: Former UCSB student government president sues school alleging antisemitic harassment.

THE SCIENCE IS NEVER SETTLED, BUT GOVERNMENT MONEY SURE CAN LOCK IT INTO PLACE:

For decades there was one person who essentially controlled all Federal Alzheimer function. This was very similar to Fauci's position. His sole interest was chemicals to clear plaque. Anyone who suggested anything else not only could not get Federal funding, he and his goons… https://t.co/zQbHObCpxg

— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) February 18, 2026

CIVIL RIGHTS: Look at the Defensive Gun Uses that Hawaii Wants to Criminalize.

SIDES: Harvard undergrads prepare asylum claims, law students fight deportations of illegal aliens in court.

SKYNET SMILES: Mission autonomy software by Collins and Shield AI was integrated on the YFQ-42 and YFQ-44 CCAs by using the government-owned A-GRA architecture.

The testing focuses on proving that mission software can be rapidly ported between platforms, creating what the Air Force describes as a competitive and adaptable ecosystem for future autonomous air combat systems. The service explains this validates a core principle of the new acquisition strategy: decoupling software from hardware through an open, modular architecture to accelerate innovation and avoid dependence on a single vendor – the so-called “vendor lock.”

“Verifying A-GRA across multiple partners is critical to our acquisition strategy,” said Col. Timothy Helfrich, Portfolio Acquisition executive for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft. “It proves that we are not locked into a single solution or a single vendor. We are instead building a competitive ecosystem where the best algorithms can be deployed rapidly to the warfighter on any A-GRA compliant platform, regardless of the vendor providing the algorithm.

The Air Force’s CCA concept envisions large numbers of uncrewed aircraft operating alongside crewed fighters such as the F-35 and the future F-47. Once known as “loyal wingmen,” these aircraft are now expected to perform missions ranging from reconnaissance and strike to electronic warfare and decoy operations. The service has previously noted it intends to field in the long term at least 1,000 CCAs in different configurations.

We’ve come a long way from “kick the tires and light the fires.” But 1,000 seems low for CCAs meant to be “attritable” when the piloted aircraft is at risk.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Jesse Jackson and the Golden Age of Not Getting Along With Each Other. “esse Jackson was a polarizing figure, to be sure. However, his peak polarization days came during a time when we all weren’t so quick to get bent out of shape about things like that. Political Americans knew how to not get along better back then, if that makes any sense. People were just as passionate about politics then, but we didn’t have social media or 24 hour political news offerings on television. We would get our political fixes, then do other stuff. I used to golf in those days. It’s impossible to fret over the likes of Jesse Jackson when one has a short game that’s trying to give you a heart attack.”

“WELL KIDS, I’VE GOT TO DO IT AGAIN.” Lara Trump reveals Trump’s unexpected reaction to leaving White House in 2021 on ‘Pod Force One.’

Like Gandalf after the Balrog, he came back stronger and better.

THE ART OF THE DEAL: Trump renews threat to cut funding for $16B Gateway project.

In a fiery social media post, Trump reiterated his opposition to the proposed rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City under the Hudson River as New York and New Jersey leaders demand the release of tens of millions of dollars in federal funding frozen by his administration.

“I am opposed to the future boondoggle known as ‘Gateway,’ in New York/New Jersey, because it will cost many BILLIONS OF DOLLARS more than projected or anticipated,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. “The project will be financially catastrophic for the region, unless hard work and proper planning is done, NOW, to avoid insurmountable future cost overruns.”

Trump said the federal government is willing to meet with New York and New Jersey officials to discuss funding for the project.

I’m not sure what local officials might fear more: Losing all their federal funds, or having a developer like Trump come in to look at their books.