February 6, 2026

ROBERT SPENCER: In Virginia, You Must Love Islam — Or Else. “In one sense, Saddam Azlan Salim is a classic immigrant success story. Born in Bangladesh, he grew up in northern Virginia and quickly demonstrated an aptitude for the political rough-and-tumble of his adoptive land. Now he is 36 years old, a Virginia state senator, and a rising star in that state’s now-dominant Democrat Party establishment. In another sense, however, Saddam Azlan Salim clearly retains at least some of the sensibilities of the land of his birth, and he wants to bring them to his new land: He has just introduced a bill to criminalize ‘Islamophobia’ in Virginia.”

Posted at 10:11 am by Stephen Green

HEY, BIG SPENDER: Amazon stock falls 10% on $200 billion spending forecast, earnings miss.

Amazon said it expects capital expenditures to continue to climb higher this year as it aggressively invests in data centers and other infrastructure to meet a surge in artificial intelligence demand.

The company projected capex to hit $200 billion this year, while analysts were expecting $146.6 billion, according to FactSet.

“With such strong demand for our existing offerings and seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, low earth orbit satellites, we expect to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026, and anticipate strong long-term return on invested capital,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.

During a conference call with investors, Jassy said that spending would “predominantly” go to AWS.

“We have very high demand,” Jassy said. “Customers really want AWS for core and AI workloads, and we’re monetizing capacity as fast as we can install it.”

Earnings misses happen, but that is one yuge capex for 2026.

Posted at 9:40 am by Stephen Green

WHATEVER THAT IS, IT ISN’T PEACEABLY ASSEMBLING:

Posted at 9:24 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: An Entertaining Treasury Secretary Is the Trump 47 Bonus Prize. “I was so caught up in enjoying the work that all of the above mentioned people were doing that I hadn’t yet gotten around to appreciating the way that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was handling the hostiles. Hey, I can only pay attention to so many people at once, but I’m noticing now.”

Posted at 9:09 am by Stephen Green

WHOSE KIDS ARE THEY, ANYWAY?

Posted at 8:53 am by Stephen Green

REAGAN REMEMBERED: Today would be Ronald Reagan’s 115th birthday were he still among us. Rod Martin republishes the superb obituary he wrote following Reagan’s death in 2004. Writing fitting obits about significant figures is a hugely difficult challenge, but Martin’s is one of the finest I’ve ever read on this great and humble man.

Posted at 8:50 am by Mark Tapscott

EXODUS EXPLORED, PART 4: This series from the John 10:10 Project exploring the historical and archeological evidence of the accuracy of the Biblical account of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt to the Wilderness and finally to the Promised Land just keeps getting more fascinating. Today’s installment on HillFaith examines the location of Mt. Sinai, one of the most crucial facts in the whole odyssey because if the Bible got that fact wrong, well ….

Posted at 8:41 am by Mark Tapscott

TONIGHT WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 1899: Murder rate hits lowest since 1900, Leavitt says Trump crackdown made it happen. “Leavitt goes on to list some of the Trump administration’s most prominent crime statistics such as the FBI increasing its violent crime arrests by 100% in 2025 compared to the year prior and also conducting more than 67,000 arrests since Trump’s inauguration. Compared to the same time period of the year prior, under the Biden administration, this marks a 197% increase in overall arrests, the administration said.”

Deporting criminal illegals helped, too.

Posted at 8:38 am by Stephen Green

EFFECTIVELY ENDORSING THEIR OWN LAYOFFS:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

“JOURNALISM”:

Seriously, no matter how much you despise these guys…

Posted at 7:51 am by Stephen Green

STAY SAFE:

Posted at 7:40 am by Stephen Green

“FINALLY,” INDEED: NASA finally acknowledges the elephant in the room with the SLS rocket.

The reality, which Isaacman knows full well, and which almost everyone else in the industry recognizes, is that the SLS rocket is dead hardware walking. The Trump administration would like to fly the rocket just two more times, culminating in the Artemis III human landing on the Moon. Congress has passed legislation mandating a fourth and fifth launch of the SLS vehicle.

However, one gets the sense that this battle is not yet fully formed, and the outcome will depend on hiccups like Monday’s aborted test; the ongoing performance of the rocket in flight; and how quickly SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn vehicle make advancements toward reliability. Both of these private rockets are moving at light speed relative to NASA’s Slow Launch System.

During the news conference, I asked about this low flight rate and the challenge of managing a complex rocket that will never be more than anything but an experimental system. The answer from NASA’s top civil servant, Amit Kshatriya, was eye-opening.

“You know, you’re right, the flight rate—three years is a long time between the first and second,” NASA’s associate administrator said. “It is going to be experimental, because of going to the Moon in this configuration, with the energies we’re dealing with. And every time we do it these are very bespoke components, they’re in many cases made by incredible craftsmen. … It’s the first time this particular machine has borne witness to cryogens, and how it breathes, and how it vents, and how it wants to leak is something we have to characterize. And so every time we do it, we’re going to have to do that separately.”

Good lord. We really could have used a WickWick Event before the first one ever flew.

Posted at 7:33 am by Stephen Green

OOPS:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

BILL AYERS AND BERNARDINE DOHRN SMILE:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll