February 9, 2026

JOSH BLACKMAN: Seven Pages Of Nixon Grand Jury Testimony Reveal The Real Threat Of the Deep State. Nixon’s enemies within his own administration were spying on and trying to subvert the elected President. “The biggest takeaway is that an Air Force officer, Yeoman Radford, who worked in the White House, was a mole. No, not for the Soviets, but for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He would routinely make copies of documents from Nixon administration officials and share them with people in the Pentagon. Radford would pilfer documents from Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig and make copies of them. . . . The purpose of this espionage was to check the incumbent president from taking actions that the deep state opposed. You have to read through a lot of background to get to this shocking takeaway. Here is the key excerpt, where Nixon reveals to the prosecutors about the deep state ‘can of worms’. . . . Do you see what happened? Nixon was fully aware that there was a deep state in his own administration. He employed the ‘Plumbers’ to plug those leaks. But he would only reveal the depth of the deep state before a secret grand jury investigation. The Watergate Prosecutors, who were part of the DOJ deep state, did not want Nixon to talk about the Pentagon deep state. And for five decades, this testimony was sealed, until Rosen reported on it.”

Posted at 8:15 am by Glenn Reynolds

ICYMI:

Posted at 8:07 am by Glenn Reynolds

ROBERT SPENCER: Mamdani Has a Terrific Idea for How the U.S. Should Handle the Immigration Issue. “Hizzoner started out, however, by magnanimously invoking the wisdom of a different religion, in an apparent effort to throw his critics off the scent and dispel growing suspicions that he is a far more hardline Muslim than he ever gave any hint of being during his campaign.”

Posted at 8:03 am by Stephen Green

WELL, BYE:

Related:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHADDYA MEAN NOT TONE POLICING THE RIGHT? THAT’S CRAZY TALK.

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: With Purge, Xi’s Military Control Rises—and so Do the Region’s Risks.

The investigation of the officers, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, marks one of the most consequential political military purges in China’s armed forces in decades. Zhang, a Politburo member and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu, chief of staff of the commission’s Joint Staff Department, sat at the apex of China’s military system. Their sudden removal for alleged disciplinary and legal violations has hollowed out the military’s most important governing body and no doubt shaken the armed forces’ senior leadership.

The immediate effect is stark. The seven-member Central Military Commission has been effectively reduced to just two figures—Xi Jinping himself and political commissar Zhang Shengmin.

Zhang Youxia’s downfall is particularly striking. Long viewed as untouchable, he was a red aristocrat with revolutionary pedigree, deep personal ties to Xi, and rare combat experience. He was among the oldest senior commanders to have fought in China’s 1979 war with Vietnam. Unlike much of today’s Chinese military leadership, whose experience is shaped overwhelmingly by exercises, simulations and political work, Zhang had seen the realities of combat. He was widely regarded by observers as one of the few generals who was likely capable of telling Xi what he needed to hear, not simply what the party leader wanted to hear.

With this move, Xi has reinforced a central truth of Chinese civil-military relations: the military is not a national army; it is the armed wing of the Communist Party and ultimately an instrument of Xi’s personal authority. The purge confirms that no pedigree, no combat record and no past loyalty confer immunity when control is at stake.

Exit quote: “A military preoccupied with internal discipline campaigns, loyalty checks and political rectification is unlikely to press aggressively for major external operations. Over time, however, the risks begin to accumulate.”

Stay tuned…

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green

JOURNALISM:

Related:

They’ve been scraping along the seafloor of the Marianas Trench for a while.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY:

Posted at 7:15 am by Ed Driscoll

KURT IS A GENIUS:

Posted at 7:09 am by Glenn Reynolds

RULE OF LAW: A Earthquake Ruling From The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals On An Important Immigration Issue — Detention of Aliens Without Bond Is Lawful.

Until Friday evening, the effort by the Trump administration to engage in “mass removals” of illegal aliens — a Trump campaign promise — has suffered from two primary hampering factors: 1 ) limited bed space in detention facilities that created a bottleneck; and 2) a practice in place for nearly 30 years that illegal aliens arrested in the interior of the country were almost always released back to their lives while being given a Notice to Appear to initiate removal proceedings against them at some time in the future. . . .

The math said that nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens released on bond would not appear for their removal hearing before an immigration judge.

Late on Friday night, the Fifth Circuit’s 2-1 decision in a closely watched case held that the Trump Administration has the authority under the immigration statutes to detain — with no bond hearing required — any illegal aliens taken into ICE detention at any location in the country.

Stay tuned.

Posted at 7:02 am by Glenn Reynolds

HAD ENOUGH COLD, SNOW AND ICE? What if you, like the Wood Frog and Japanese Macaques, had to live with it most or all of your life? Check out the amazing ways such creatures are adapted to living in the Earth’s fridge.

Posted at 7:00 am by Mark Tapscott

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution to lay off about 50 employees as it restructures for growth. “The cuts represent about 15% of the AJC’s total workforce. Roughly half of the affected positions will come from the newsroom, which is the organization’s largest department. President and Publisher Andrew Morse said the decision follows several years of investment as the AJC transitioned from a traditional print newspaper into what it describes as a modern media company.”

So even after abandoning print, they’re having to slash. Here’s an idea how to restructure for growth: Tell people the truth about things they need and want to know. I know, crazy talk. . . .

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds