MAYBE THE WONDER IS THAT THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN MORE OFTEN: American Airlines 737 plane found with apparent bullet hole after flight from Miami to Colombia.
February 26, 2026
TIME TO SHUTTER NASA? Well, spend a few minutes comparing the records of NASA on its Artemis II project with that of the private sector-based Space X. And for those who recall the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the recurring problems with liquid hydrogen and leaking seals raise multiple red flags.
The Issues & Insights crew observes:
“And what has been happening elsewhere while NASA has been fumbling around with leak-prone, decades-old rocket technology and failure-prone heat shields? Private companies are leaving it in the dust.
“Just since April 2023, SpaceX has launched 11 test flights of its cutting-edge Starship – the most powerful rocket ever built. The first stage is powered by 33 Raptor engines that have been redesigned twice in the past decade. And, unlike the old Artemis rocket, it will all be reusable. SpaceX even managed to catch the 20-story booster in a pair of ‘chopsticks.’
“When NASA last went to the moon in 1972, it was using cutting-edge technology developed at breakneck speed in the midst of the Cold War. Today, it looks like a dinosaur ready for the boneyard.”
DALILAH’S LAW: U.S. Senator Banks introduces commercial driver’s license-related bill announced by Trump during State of the Union.
Dalilah’s Law, a commercial driver’s license-related bill spoken about at length by President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, was recently introduced by U.S. Senator Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana.
The bill, introduced on Wednesday by Banks, prohibits states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to individuals who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States or holders of certain work visas.
Named after Dalilah Coleman, a first-grade student who was injured in a crash involving a semitruck driven by Partap Sigh, an Indian man who was driving a semi-truck in California, Trump spoke about the introduction of the bill during Tuesday evening’s speech.
“Many, if not most, illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs as to direction, speed, danger or location,” Trump said, according to a transcript of the State of the Union from the American Presidency Project. “That’s why tonight, I’m calling on Congress to pass what we will call the Dalilah Law, barring any state from granting commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.”
Much more like this, please.
I'm sure you remember, back home, how big a deal it was for a young person to get a CDL. It unlocked opportunities and higher pay. The test was challenging.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 25, 2026
I'm sure you remember, back home, how big a deal it was for a young person to get a CDL. It unlocked opportunities and higher pay. The test was challenging.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 25, 2026
IT HURTS BECAUSE IT’S TRUE: Salena Zito: ‘These people are crazy’ is the campaign Democrats should fear.
FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: FBI Raids Los Angeles Schools Superintendent, Reported Illegal Alien.
ICYMI: ROGER SIMON: EXCLUSIVE: Sigmund Freud Analyzes the SOTU. I guess it makes sense that Sigmund would watch on an old-style CRT TV.
February 25, 2026
OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.
BOTOX AND JUVEDERM, BABY! The sun hasn’t looked like this since 2022, what’s going on?
HE’S DRINKING A LOT, HE ISN’T SHOWERING, DOESN’T ANSWER THE PHONE, EVEN FOR HIS AGENT: Changes to One of The Largest Known Stars May Signal Destruction.
ROGER SIMON: EXCLUSIVE: Sigmund Freud Analyzes the SOTU. I guess it makes sense that Sigmund would watch on an old-style CRT TV.
HMM. Most US Women Could Have Cardiovascular Disease by 2050, AHA Warns. “Even children are affected by the shift.”
SEE ALSO “WHITE SUPREMACY.”
If you repeatedly tell people they can't have the basic requirements of the good life, such as "not being murdered by drug gangs", because that's fascism…
Then pretty soon they will conclude that fascism is the way to get those things, and it sounds like an excellent idea. https://t.co/sQom7nY0fB
— Devon Eriksen (@Devon_Eriksen_) February 25, 2026
STAY SAFE: DUCO Night Driving Glasses. #CommissionEarned
CULTURE:
Justina Ireland was known in the 2010s for starting Twitter mobs to get people's books cancelled. Justina and her friends ultimately destroyed YA publishing. The genre, which used to publish hits like "Twilight," "The Maze Runner" and "Divergent" is now a sea of joyless,… https://t.co/Bfe21yoDhs pic.twitter.com/rY1sDuhGb4
— Daniel Friedman (@DanFriedman81) February 24, 2026
GREAT MOMENTS IN ENVIRONMENTALISM: Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn’t We Be Celebrating?
There it was on the front page of Saturday’s New York Times: with a small assist from the United States, the island nation of Cuba has almost entirely ended the use of fossil fuels. Finally, we have the first country in the world to achieve the climate movement’s Holy Grail and nirvana — Net Zero! Or at least a very close approximation. This should be cause for a huge celebration.
You would think that the Times, which has been demanding the elimination of fossil fuels for at least a couple of decades, would be leading the celebrations. But weirdly, now that Cuba has finally shown the way, the Times chooses to put a completely different spin on the achievement. The headline and subheadline are (print edition): “U.S. Choking Oil Deliveries To Cuba Ports; Military Action Brings a Nation to Its Knees.”
The piece reports that the Trump administration is helping Cuba to achieve Net Zero by preventing oil tankers from landing there. Somehow in this piece, that is spun as a bad thing. It has brought Cuba “to its knees.”
The funny thing is that here in the U.S., it was just over a year ago that we had President Biden and an administration full of zealous environmentalists who were using every governmental power at their disposal to force Americans to stop using fossil fuels. By Executive Order 14057 of December 8, 2021, Biden had directed all federal agencies to pursue an aggressive “all of government” operation to achieve “net zero” on an accelerated schedule. Goals number 1 and 2 from that EO are “100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity on a net annual basis by 2030,” and “100 percent zero-emission vehicle acquisitions by 2035.” In 2023, the Department of Transportation released a “Blueprint” for eliminating all carbon emissions from the transportation sector. In 2024 EPA released a plan to eliminate fossil fuels from electricity generation. Similar initiatives were everywhere in the government.
Presumably, Trump helping Cuba reach Net Zero has the backing of the German Greens, who dusted off the Morgenthau Plan to return Deutschland to the Dark Ages, Scientific American, and Kamala Harris:
“THERE’S NOTHING MORE PATHETIC THAN AN AGING HIPSTER,” AS DR. EVIL ONCE SAID: Here’s Why U2, Springsteen Joined Anti-ICE ‘Resistance.’ “One look at recent Legacy Media outlets should reveal part of the answer. The rockers are generating endless headlines across the digital landscape.”