February 27, 2026

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Vanderbilt investigates math professor over anti-Israel calculus problem. “Assume Palestine as a state with a rectangular land shape. There is Mediterranean Sea on the west and Jordan River on the east. The height (from south to north) is 2.6 times width (from east to west). From river to the sea, Palestine (…) was approximately 100 km in 1946. The land decreases by 250 km2/year due to the occupation by Israel. How fast is the width of the land decreasing now?”

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

HERE WE GO:

Exit quote: “When an ambassador tells his own people to leave the country he is assigned to, he is not managing risk. He is clearing the blast radius.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Paramount Wins — This Is HUGE.

Related: CNN Anxiety Mounts as Paramount Nears Control: ‘People Think It Could Be the End.’

When CNN anchor Jake Tapper broke into coverage on Thursday evening with a major Warner Bros. Discovery sale update, he remarked that the news “affects everybody I’m looking at right now in the studio.”

Anxiety is high inside CNN, as staffers grapple with the growing likelihood that Paramount’s David Ellison — who appointed Free Press cofounder Bari Weiss to reshape CBS News and has recalled having “great conversations” with President Donald Trump about acquiring CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery — could ultimately take control of the cable news channel.

“It’s concerning,” one CNN staffer told TheWrap, noting how Ellison posed days earlier alongside Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, each giving a thumbs up before attending the State of the Union together. The unease comes alongside reporting that David Ellison has promised the White House changes to CNN, while his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has talked about the possibility of axing specific hosts.

While CNN may not be the most coveted property in the WBD stable — rival suitor Netflix only desired HBO and the studio assets — it is the most politically radioactive. Trump has bristled at CNN’s coverage for years, blasting stars like Jim Acosta during his first term and Kaitlan Collins in the second. He made clear in December that the news channel, rather than TNT or the Food Network, was front of mind in the WBD sale saga, declaring that “it’s imperative that CNN be sold” and placed under new management.

“People think it could be the end of CNN,” a second staffer told TheWrap. “ As much as people say that’s not possible, what’s to say that’s not possible?”

The fallout from the New York Times’ 2020 struggle session over Tom Cotton’s op-ed continues to be massive. I hope it was worth it back then for all concerned.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™: Members List of Secretive ‘Bohemian Grove’ Men’s Club Is Leaked “Your humble columnist didn’t have the leak of the roster for the ‘Bohemian Grove’ secret society on her radar, yet here we are. While we await the denials to come pouring in, allow me to officially welcome you to this week’s West Coast, Messed Coast™ column that brings you the titillating outrages, wokeness, and weirdness of California, Oregon, and Washington.”

Posted at 2:19 pm by Stephen Green

THE MASKS CAME OFF OVERNIGHT POST-ELECTION:

Posted at 2:12 pm by Glenn Reynolds

AND THAT’S JUST THE UPPER STAGE:

Posted at 2:03 pm by Stephen Green

FOR CERTAIN REPUBLICANS, THAT’S A MIGHTY BIG IF: If GOP Wants To Win The Midterms, They Need To Pass The SAVE Act. “While Trump’s policies are really popular, the Republicans in Congress themselves are not that popular and Trump isn’t on the ballot. So you’ve got Dems all jacked up to … vote against Republicans, but what Republicans need to do is to deliver on the things they said they were going to do.”

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

CHATGPT – IT’S NOT JUST FOR COLLEGE TERM PAPERS ANYMORE! Mark Oppenheimer: Kitty Kelley was assigned a review of my Judy Blume biography, but did she read it?

Kelley writes:

Judy Blume began life in 1938 as Judith Marcia Sussman, an Orthodox Jew born “scrawny and underweight” in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

I write the opposite: the Sussmans, far from being Orthodox, were secular and non-observant, and they seldom went to synagogue. (Also, I did not write that she was born scrawny, but rather that “Judy was the smallest child in the ­ house—​­brother David was four years ­ older—​­and she was scrawny, chronically underweight.” So the quotation is wrong, and the meaning is wrong—she was an underweight child, not an underweight newborn.)

Her father was a dentist; her mother kept house for Judy and her older brother. After Hebrew school and a bat mitzvah, Blume graduated from New York University with a B.A. in education.

In the book, I explain why Judy did not have a bat mitzvah.

“I married at twenty-one…everyone did,” she recalled.

This quotation is not in my book. The first part—“married at twenty-one”—exists, in a different context, but the stuff after the ellipsis is an invention.

Feeling “suffocated” in her first marriage, Blume divorced after several years and immediately rebounded to a second husband. She left him two years later and “cried every day,” she said. “Anyone who thinks my life is cupcakes is all wrong.” She married George Cooper in 1987, and they remain together to this day.

This is all fiction. “Several” years? She and John Blume were married over 15 years. There is no usage of “suffocated” to refer to her first marriage. Blume did not leave her second husband after just two years. She never said she “cried every day.” I don’t know where Kelley got all this, but not from my book.

And that line about cupcakes? It is not in my book either. So far as I know, Judy Blume has never used a baking-related metaphor, or any dessert-related metaphor, to describe her life. She has not compared her life to cupcakes, éclairs, gateaux basque, or Cinnabons. If she has, it’s news to me, and it’s not in my book.

(Update: on further Googling, I do find that cupcake quotation attributed to Blume on several websites, including a British astrology site that has Blume filed under “Capricorn research.” But the quotation is not in my book. So did Kelley decide to chuck my book aside and do her own Blume-related research, turning, as one does in such situations, to internet astrologers? And then attribute her research into my book?)

Well, she wouldn’t be the first woman writing for a high-profile Washington publication to break out the Ouija board, but as Oppenheimer rhetorically asks near the beginning of his Substack:

The month before your book is published is, for any writer, a stressful time. We ask ourselves many questions: Will it be reviewed? If so, will it be reviewed favorably? And, “Will legendary celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley kick back in her Jacuzzi, tell Alexa to ‘play smooth jazz,’ sip some bubbly, fire up ChatGPT, and insert its madcap hallucinations into a review of my book?”

It certainly sounds like the latter is exactly what happened.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Vanguard reaches settlement with Texas in key case on ESG investing.

Vanguard has reached a settlement with Texas and other Republican-led states that accused the asset manager and its biggest competitors of conspiring to suppress coal production in a key case about environmental, social and governance investing.

The asset manager will pay $29.5mn to settle the litigation, leaving BlackRock and State Street to fend off the case alone. Vanguard, which manages $12tn in assets, did not admit wrongdoing.

Texas and several other states sued the three companies in 2024, accusing them of using the vast influence they derive from managing passive funds to push for net zero carbon emissions.

The states argued the three biggest US index fund managers did this through proxy votes and other forms of influence, which in turn pressed coal companies to cut production, pushing energy prices higher.

Meanwhile, the asset managers have argued in court that there is no evidence they directly sought to limit coal output or worked together to push companies to reduce their carbon emissions.

Vanguard decided to settle the litigation to avoid the potential for tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and to get rid of the “distraction”, said people familiar with the matter. BlackRock and State Street have not reached a settlement and the litigation continues.

“We’ve reached a resolution to put this matter behind us,” Vanguard said, adding that it “reaffirms our longstanding practices and standards and the passive nature of our index funds”.

* * * * * * * *

“This sets a new standard for institutional investors that every company should follow,” said Ken Paxton, attorney-general of Texas.

Coal is “an essential industry to support America’s ever-growing energy demands, and my office will continue to uproot and destroy any attempt by investment giants to push a woke agenda that puts American energy at risk”, he added.

Paxton’s statement comes as the White House has tried to revive the fortunes of coal as a vital part of the country’s energy mix.

Well, good. Let’s see how things turn out in Cuba before going Net Zero in the US: Cuba Becomes The First Country To Reach Net Zero. Shouldn’t We Be Celebrating?

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

MINNESOTA NOT-SO-NICE: Hoplophobic Harridans Plan to Protest Minnesota High School Clays Fundraiser This Weekend… Here’s What You Can Do.

You read that right. A bunch of teenagers who like to shoot clays for sport and are conducting a fundraiser for their club will likely face a passel of hoplophobic harridans and a sprinkling of hen-pecked beta males this weekend. These scolds think that’s the perfect venue to scream about “gun violence,” as if these kids are somehow the equivalent gang-bangers that turn cities like Minneapolis into war zones.

It’s odd that these gun-haters never pull these stunts in crime-ridden urban neighborhoods, isn’t it?

Nothing says “imminent threat to society” quite like a 16-year-old in safety glasses yelling “Pull!” before busting a clay bird. We’ve all seen the shocking videos of these clean-cut trap and skeet shooters looting convenience stores, robbing pedestrians or carjacking big city residents with their 12-gauge pump shotguns, right?

Let’s get real for a second. High school trap shooting is statistically one of the safest sports out there. Safer than football, wrestling, cheerleading and pretty much everything else including P.E. class. Zero school killing sprees have been carried out by a school trap team member. These kids are drilling discipline, focus, responsibility, and—gasp!—proper firearm safety under strict adult supervision. It’s a lifeline for some bookish types who’d otherwise warm the bench in other sports, giving nerds, quieter kids, and future engineers a place to shine, build confidence, and learn that tools aren’t toys. To say nothing for young people with disabilities.

But we can’t have that, can we? Because guns are icky. And scary. So instead of cheering on kids who are literally doing everything right, these lame lefties choose to harass teens and their families at a fundraiser to support their sport. Because nothing screams “protect the children” like intimidating actual children who are just trying to pay for ammo and targets.

So here’s the play for Minnesota gun owners and normal humans within driving distance: show up this Sunday.

Details at the link.

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green

RICH LOWRY: Candace Owens hits new low with ‘depraved’ Erika Kirk conspiracy madness.

Usually, conspiracy theories spring up around assassinations that are hard to fathom, or have some ambiguity about them.

It is clear that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing JFK, but it’s understandable that there have been questions about the event.

It is the depraved achievement of Candace Owens to make a bonkers true-crime drama, with all sorts of mysteries and twists, out of an open-and-shut murder case.

Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler Robinson, had a motive, left a trail of damning evidence, and confessed to multiple people.

To dismiss all this and call for Erika Kirk to be frog-marched into a police station is so mad, it makes Owens’ conviction that both the moon landing and dinosaurs are fake look well-grounded by comparison.

It is a symptom of our time that such malevolent buffoonery is rewarded with a huge audience.

It’s impossible to discredit Owens because she’s not in the credibility business to begin with.

The Washington Post used to at least nominally be in the credibility business a long time ago, but in recent years, they’ve decided to completely abandon it for clicks, grins, and ginning up the leftist base:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

JEFFREY BLEHAR: Netflix Is Out on Warner Bros.

I’ll admit, I missed big by predicting something “delightfully sordid.” Instead, we got something unpleasantly sordid: The final nail in the coffin for the Netflix bid was almost certainly board member Susan Rice’s ill-timed appearance on a podcast hosted by Preet Bharara on February 20, where she promised “accountability” for Trump administration wrongdoers once the Democrats took office. This was interpreted by MAGA’s most agitated online voices as a promise of lawfare against the administration — the irony of complaining about this is apparently completely lost upon them — and led to Laura Loomer loudly demanding the former national security adviser resign her position on the board of Netflix.

Since Loomer has Trump’s ear, that meant that Trump himself began to instantly parrot Loomer’s line, demanding Rice resign from Netflix or “pay the consequences.” That put Netflix in an impossible position — they were not going to earn the eternal wrath of progressives by caving to Trump and firing Rice, not for a bid they were going to have extreme difficulty getting Trump’s approval on anyway. So they have bowed to the inevitable and cut their losses.

The upshot is that Netflix’s competitor Paramount — owned by Trump ally David Ellison — now seems all but assured to win the battle to purchase Warner Bros. You will read plenty of shrieking about the dangers of “media consolidation” in the coming days from journalists who all secretly pray to one day work a salaried position at the New York Times; little of it will be worth listening to. On an aesthetic level, some will celebrate the fact that the soulless Netflix will now no longer yank Warner Bros. movies out of theaters — but the death of the theatrical experience can only be delayed, not denied.

I agree with the last statement; as John Podhoretz wrote in December:

But yesterday morning, hours before the WBD-Paramount merger was officially announced, “George MF Washington” published his latest substack: One Step Closer to the Edge.

There is no good option here… Hollywood losing its most storied movie studio is bad for the movie business however you try to slice it. But when I consider the matter of Warner Bros and its two suitors Paramount and Netflix, there are only two things I care about…1) which potential buyer is more likely to treat the Warner Bros library with the respect it deserves… and 2) which suitor is committed to preserving the institution of theatrically released movies, which I still believe is good for the soul of America. What no one in Hollywood’s artist or executive community ought to be doing is rooting for one side or the other because Orange Man Bad.

Instead we ought to remember that oppositional defiance of the Orange Man was one of the main drivers of broad Hollywood support for closing movie theaters in order to protect audiences from a bad cold in 2020. Our industry was certain that we could casually press pause on a wildly successful 100-year-old business model in order to bring about a desirable political outcome, and then simply switch it back on whenever we wished without having to face any economic consequences.

How’d that one turn out?

One of the themes that emerges from left-leaning author Ronald Brownstein’s 2021 book, Rock Me on the Water: 1974 – The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics is how utterly obsessed Hollywood was with Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and how that obsession and paranoia was reflected in their work. Talking about Warren Beatty’s 1975 film Shampoo, Brownstein writes:

The movie presents Nixon’s election as the collective result of Americans’ personal corruption and hypocrisy*. All the televised snippets from Nixon and his vice president, Spiro Agnew, about rebuilding respect, upholding law and order, promoting unity, and restoring the nation’s “moral code” are deeply ironic by the time audiences hear them in the movie. And yet this message is delivered in a tone more of sorrow than anger, one that underscores the complicity of the electorate in choosing leaders capable of such immorality. Lester, the businessman who symbolizes America’s establishment, is presented as a figure worthy of understanding, not disdain, when he tells George, “I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore.”

Sound familiar? And yet, Nixon eventually began to garner strange new respect from leftists years after they forced him out of office, and Hollywood produced some pretty good movies in the early to mid 1970s, before Steven Spielberg and George Lucas showed industry executives that the real money lie in depoliticizing their product and remembering how a happy ending does wonders at the box office. In contrast, Hollywood’s hatred of the Bad Orange Man during his first term may have hastened the big screen’s demise by a good decade or so.

* Time magazine’s 1969 Man of the Year collectively smiles.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

HARDBALL: Pentagon officials sent Anthropic best and final offer for military use of its AI amid dispute.

Pentagon officials on Wednesday night sent Anthropic their best and final offer in negotiations for use of the company’s artificial intelligence technology, just ahead of a government-imposed deadline, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

It was unclear whether the offer substantially changed what the government has been seeking from the AI startup, or whether the company had agreed.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set a deadline of Friday evening for the company to grant all lawful use for its AI technology or face the loss of its business with the U.S. military, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.

I guess Tuesday’s Pentagon meeting didn’t go very well.

Posted at 11:44 am by Stephen Green

JOANNE JACOBS: No need to listen, read, write or think: AI will do college for you.

Going to lectures, reading and writing aren’t necessary, reports Matthew Gault on 404. Companion claims to have developed an agentic AI tool called Einstein that will log into Canvas, a popular edtech platform, to complete assignments, participate in discussions and take tests with no input needed from the “student.”

I suspect it’s not real. The link to Einstein’s website doesn’t work for me, and I wonder if it’s a way to scare professors away from using edtech platforms that are susceptible to cheating. But, these days, who knows?

“Universities…by and large adopted a transactive model of education,” said Matthew Kirschenbaum, a University of Virginia professor, who’s written about the impact of artificial intelligence. “Students see their diploma as a credential” that will be “the springboard to economic stability and prosperity.”

If students are paying for the credential — not for learning — then why not have AI do the work?

That’s the real question, isn’t it?

Posted at 10:42 am by Stephen Green

THE COLONEL JESSUP EFFECT STRIKES AGAIN:

Related thoughts from the Critical Drinker:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll