February 26, 2026

OPEN THREAD: You know what to do.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

REPORT: Paramount Skydance victory in Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war came after failed Netflix exec visit to win over White House.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos failed Thursday to convince a skeptical Trump administration to approve his proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery – and with that, his nearly done deal to buy WBD’s streaming service and studio went into a death spiral.

Late Thursday, WBD deemed a revised bid of $31 a share from rival Paramount Skydance a “reasonably superior offer,” forcing Netflix to pull its bid thus ending a six-month takeover battle that has captivated Wall Street and the media business.

The backdrop of the announcement was the increasingly insurmountable regulatory hurdles Netflix faced in dealing with the Trump administration. As first reported by The Post, earlier Thursday, Sarandos sat with a skeptical Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Justice Department antitrust officials to try to convince the administration not to oppose the deal on antitrust grounds.

* * * * * * * *

The head of its news division, former opinion journalist Bari Weiss, will now likely control a combined news division that includes WBD’s cable news network CNN.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when Weiss meets with Christiane Amanpour.

In the meantime, some on the left aren’t taking the news very well:

 

Posted at 8:57 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT WAS OBVIOUS EARLY ON THAT SURGICAL MASKS, CLOTH MASKS, AND OTHER “FACE COVERINGS” WERE JUST FOR SHOW, AND THAT ONLY N95 MASKS DID ANYTHING SIGNIFICANT: Pro-Maskers Accidentally Admit Masks Don’t Work, Debunking Anthony Fauci And Years Of Mandates.

In a new letter to the WHO head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, several mask fanatics, in an effort to promote the use of N95 respirators, claim that surgical masks do not “provide adequate protection against flu-like illnesses including COVID,” according to The Guardian. The letter says that there is “no rational justification remaining for prioritizing or using” surgical masks, because they provide “inadequate protection against airborne pathogens.”

Hilariously, one of the organizers of the letter, Professor Adam Finkel of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, also debunked one of the most popular pro-masking arguments. Anyone who argues against masking on social media has come across someone responding, “Well, if masks don’t work, why do doctors wear them?” Ignoring, of course, that not all doctors wear masks, only surgeons do.

But Finkel specifically highlights that those masks were never supposed to stop viruses or respiratory infections, but were “invented to stop doctors and nurses from sneezing into the guts and the hearts of patients.”

Finkel went further, saying that surgical masks are to respirators as typewriters were to computers. Those masks, he continued, are “obsolete.”

So the forever maskers now admit that cloth or surgical masks do not stop airborne viruses. They admit that surgeons do not wear masks to stop respiratory viruses, and that wearing lower-grade masks, the exact type worn by the vast majority of the world for years on end to stop COVID, could not have possibly stopped COVID.

N95 masks only work if they’re fresh, clean, and discarded after a few hours of use. One that you pull out of a pocket or purse is little better than a surgical mask. Masking was about compliance, not health.

Posted at 6:18 pm by Glenn Reynolds

WATERGATE WAS A THREAT TO OUR REPUBLIC BECAUSE REASONS, BUT THIS IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:

Related:

More to come, I’m certain.

Posted at 5:10 pm by Stephen Green

I love that Jack Hughes did not apologize for the joke with Trump like the other guys on his team. Good for him.

Posted at 5:02 pm by Helen Smith

SPACE: SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule heads for home after historic ISS-boosting mission.

The robotic Dragon departed on schedule today at 12:05 p.m. EST (1705 GMT), ending a roughly six-month orbital stay during which it demonstrated a novel ISS-boosting capability.
…
“During its time docked to the station, Dragon performed six reboosts — five in 2025 and a final maneuver on Jan. 23 — before preparations for its departure began,” they added.

Such reboosts have historically been done by Russia’s Progress freighter. It’s unclear, however, if Russia will remain an ISS partner through the lifetime of the orbiting lab, which is expected to be deorbited in late 2030.

If Russia leaves the consortium early, other reboosting methods will be needed. Dragon just showed it can handle the job, and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft has done so as well.

It’s a shame what’s become of Russia’s space program, but those wounds are self-inflicted.

Posted at 4:53 pm by Stephen Green

SONY’S MISTAKE, ACCORDING TO OBAMA:

Michael Lynton was the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment when it greenlit Seth Rogen’s film The Interview. You’ve most likely never seen it because it displeased the Supreme (Communist) Leader of North Korea and led to North Korea’s hack of the company’s emails, confidential scripts, and his family’s personal information. Sony limited distribution of the film in order to mitigate the damage.

The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt of Lynton’s memoir in its February 21 Review section. In the excerpt Lynton blames the malformation of his character for what he deems a monumental corporate mistake. I was disgusted to read President Obama’s concurrence in Lynton’s assessment:

Eight months later, after it became clear that the North Koreans had hacked Sony, and after the studio had lost its relationships with many of its most important stars—including Will Smith, Adam Sandler and Angelina Jolie—I spoke to President Obama about the whole incident. Unsurprisingly, he asked the right question: “What were you thinking when you made killing the leader of a hostile foreign nation a plot point? Of course that was a mistake.”

I read the excerpt that Saturday. My first thought was I am so glad Obama isn’t president. My second thought, as to both the memoir and Obama’s contribution, was sometimes it’s better to keep your mouth shut. My third thought was I blame Obama — the Supreme (Communist) Leader sized him up for a chump. I was surprised the Journal published the excerpt without some reflection on its contents. It is pitiful.

Back in 2007 and 2008, then-Senator Obama was frequently compared to JFK. But the real JFK had no problem had no problem with Frank Sinatra and John Frankenheimer making a movie which depicted the assassination of an American presidential candidate at Madison Square Garden:

In an interview [Angela Lansbury] said many people asked her what it was like to work with Frank Sinatra and she always tells them she doesn’t know because they didn’t have any scenes together other than a quick one where they were getting their coats on.

It wasn’t until later she learned that Frank Sinatra was an integral part of making sure the movie was made.

“I know that Frank wasn’t the easiest person for John to work with,” she said. “But they seemed to have an alliance. I think Frank understood what a tremendous opportunity it was for him to play this role. He knew that his friend (President) John Kennedy adored the book. Frank talked to JFK about the role and one of his questions oddly enough was ‘who’s playing the mother?’”

I’ve heard that tale told before with Kennedy asking Sinatra, “Who’s playing the Red Queen?” In any case, as Lloyd Benson would say, Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

DR. OZ’S PRESCRIPTION: “We learn via X that Dr. Oz has deferred $259.5 million of quarterly federal Medicaid funding in Minnesota to prevent payment of questionable claims while further investigation is completed.”

Much more like this, please.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

LAW AND ORDER: Another Anti-Gun Police Chief Busted, This One in Connecticut. “For years, this guy was a face of “gun violence” prevention, cozying up to anti-gun groups like Connecticut Against Gun Violence. He preached about treating gun ownership like a public health crisis, all while pushing programs to disarm the little people under the guise of safety. Because guns are icky and he has his. But lo and behold, safety crusader Karl has been slapped with first-degree larceny charges for (allegedly) swiping almost a hundred grand in police department funds. Some of the money was for earmarked for…wait for it . . . youth programs for ‘at risk’ kids. Thanks, Karl.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THERE GOES MY “LIBERTARIAN” GOVERNOR AGAIN: Gov. Polis eyes taxpayer refunds as budget wound band-aid.

While the most obvious and effective way to address the state’s budget would be to tackle Medicaid’s perverse incentives that drive bloated costs, there is no shortage of creative ways the legislature can try to dig deeper into Colorado taxpayers’ pockets.

One proposal, as suggested by Polis’ office, is to reduce the amount of over-collected revenue refunded to Coloradans under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28, thereby increasing General Fund revenue by approximately $296.1 million across both budget years.

They argue that the state government is entitled to recoup some of the TABOR refunds paid in FY2025-26 because of the immediate state revenue losses caused by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

While Polis’ office is apparently confident in the legality of this reasoning, JBC analysts remain unconvinced, saying the scheme poses significant legal risk and that if the state were to lose the legal battle, it could be required to make substantial repayments to Colorado taxpayers, with interest, potentially exacerbating the state’s structural budget issues.

Per capita state spending has risen more than 25% in inflation-adjusted terms since Polis took office, and what’s left of the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) is the only thing slowing that down.

Colorado didn’t seem to be suffering from a lack of government all those per capita dollars ago, I can’t think of anything that’s gotten better, particularly in education — and the roads certainly seem to be worse.

Heckuva job, Jared.

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green

HAVE EMPLOYERS FORGIVEN COLLEGES? “[S]eventy percent of employers have either ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in U.S. higher education,” according to Morning Consult. I am gonna have to press X to doubt this finding given what Americans generally are thinking:

Posted at 3:08 pm by Robert Shibley