Archive for 2026

January 7, 2026

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: FireAid Funneled Cash to Podcasters, Illegals and Fungus Planting.

“Top Gun: Maverick” actor Miles Teller shared an emotional promise during last year’s FireAid benefit concert.

“All of the money raised will go directly to people who need it now.”

Early reports suggested that was hardly the case. Last September, The New York Post revealed that of the $100 million raised by musicians such as Joni Mitchell, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Billie Joe Armstrong and more, some of the funds went to nonprofits with very little connection to fire safety or reparations.

Think:

  • The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation
  • Podcasters discussing the wildfires
  • Sanitizing pre-schools
  • NAACP Pasadena
  • My Tribe Rise
  • The CA Native Vote Project
  • The Los Angeles Black Worker Center

Now, Rep. Jim Jordan has released a scathing update on the FireAid money matter.

The Ohio Republican’s assessment confirms that some of the money in question didn’t go directly to the victims of last year’s Palisades fire as promised.

Indeed:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 7th, 2026

NOTHING IS CERTAIN: Is Iran Losing Control Of Kurds and Lurs?

A friend sent a video showing police joining protestors as a sign the regime was crumbling.

Tiny problem: The city of Ilam is overwhelmingly Kurdish and very far from Tehran. So we can’t use Ilam as proof that the mullahs are on the brink of losing power, as much as that is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

But it’s an interesting data point, as is Kanal 13’s video on the Islamic regime losing control of Abdanan as well.

More at the link, but until Khamenei is confirmed on a flight to Moscow, I’m not getting my hopes up.

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green on Jan 7th, 2026

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Air Force says AI tools outperform human planners in ‘battle management’ experiment.

In the service’s latest “DASH” experiment this past fall, the Air Force pitted AI tools from half a dozen companies against military personnel from the US, Canada and UK and asked each to solve hypothetical “battle management” problems, from standard Air Force tasks like planning an airstrike or rerouting aircraft whose home base had been damaged, to more obscure scenarios like gathering intelligence on an anomalous electromagnetic signal or protecting a disabled and drifting Navy vessel.

When the Air Force evaluated the resulting proposed Courses of Action (COAs), it found that at least one of the AI algorithms not only generated more COAs in less time than the humans, but it actually made fewer errors than the humans did as well.

“These machine-generated recommendations were up to 90 percent faster than traditional methods, with the best in machine-class solutions showing 97 percent viability and tactical validity,” said Col. John Ohlund, director of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team (ABMS CFT), according to an official article published by the Air Force on Monday about DASH-3 (Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming).

The article said that human-generated courses of action took about 19 minutes, with 48 percent of the options “being considered viable and tactically valid.”

“And our team didn’t observe hallucinations during the experiment,” Ohlund said.

This is exactly why the AI arms race with China is real, and not just something dreamed up by sci-fi writers.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green on Jan 7th, 2026

BERLIN OUTAGE: The Consequence of Ignoring Leftist Extremism.

The German authorities knew for months that the capital’s power network was at risk of an attack by left-wing activists, because plans were laid out in a pamphlet published in August.

Yet as the weekend’s arson-induced outage—which plunged large parts of Berlin into darkness and left tens of thousands of residents without electricity amid freezing winter conditions—revealed, these same authorities simply were not prepared.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said this “blatant failure” was telling of “the politically motivated prioritisation” of the security authorities:

Instead of combating real threats, they target blameless citizens and the country’s largest opposition. With devastating consequences for our infrastructure and the safety of the people.

Separately, she pointed the finger at Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his coalition partners, saying “the CDU/SPD Senate bears the responsibility with its inaction” and warning that “the renewed left-terrorist attack on the power grid”—indeed, this was the second left-wing extremist attack on the city’s power infrastructure in just four months—“shows where the state’s downplaying of left-wing extremism leads.”

Can it get worse? It’s Germany – of course it can get worse: Thanks to Germany’s Insane Green Energy Laws, the Berlin Blackout Just Got More Dangerous.

Yesterday morning, we told you how a Leftist, Antifa-linked eco-activist group in Germany sent Berlin into a blackout during the freezing winter. The Vulkan Group published a letter taking responsibility for the terrorist attack on Berlin’s energy infrastructure, writing, “In the greed for energy, the earth is being depleted, sucked dry, burned, ravaged, burned down, raped, destroyed. The aim of the action is to cause significant damage to the gas industry and the greed for energy.”

It also said it was “cutting off power to those in power.” How harming innocent Berlin residents and businesses is harming those “in power” is beyond us, but the Left doesn’t care who they hurt in pursuit of their agenda.

And, thanks to Germany’s already insane “green” laws, the city is now at risk that its “eco-friendly” heat pumps might actually explode thanks to the terrorists.

Because much of the media subscribes to the notion of “no enemies on the left,” and are terrified of promoting any news that benefits the “far right” AfD, there’s been plenty of anti-journalism to bury the story, or at least the culprits:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 7th, 2026

HMMM: Trump’s capture of Russian oil tanker sets a perilous precedent.

The dramatic seizure of two Russian-linked oil tankers by American forces throws up complicated legal questions as well as the risk of reprisals, experts have warned.

The US Coast Guard on Wednesday swooped on two vessels it had been pursuing for weeks over alleged breaches of the naval blockade imposed on Venezuela.

The vessels – known as Bella 1 and M Sophia – are thought to be part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” and are accused of flying false flags and carrying out sanctions-busting activities.

But they were seized in what Russia claimed were international waters, a controversial move that would raise complicated questions of international law, shipping industry insiders have said.

US and UK officials have claimed they acted lawfully.

US and UK officials, you say?

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 7th, 2026

THE YEAR IS YOUNG: This is the Worst Anti-Gun Story of 2026… So Far. “The New Year’s Day story was written by the wonderfully named Jude Folly, who according to his short bio, ‘explores politics, art & the human condition. Featured in Sensual Enchantment, Politics: Fast & Slow, Inky Blue Allusions, & The Innovation.'”

Why is it that the most earnest and committed lefties always sound like rightwing parodies of lefties?

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green on Jan 7th, 2026

COMMIE THEATER KID HAS THE SADZ: NYC mayoral aide Cea Weaver who says whites owning houses is racist bursts into TEARS when asked about her mother’s $1.4m Craftsman home.

A woke aide to New York City‘s new socialist mayor burst out crying when confronted over her assertion that it is racist for white people to own homes – despite her own mother owning a $1.4m Craftsman house.

Cea Weaver, who runs Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants, was overcome with emotion when confronted outside her apartment in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning.

The 37-year-old began running down the street after seeing a Daily Mail reporter outside her home, then said ‘No’ through tears when asked if she wanted to comment on her professor mother Celia Appleton’s ownership of the $1.4 million property in fast-gentrifying Nashville.

Weaver appeared to be walking towards a nearby subway station, but then turned back and ran inside her home, which has a ‘Free Palestine‘ poster taped to one of its windows.

She was subsequently seen peering out the same window with the poster in it.

Weaver previously tweeted that ‘homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy’ and that ‘homeownership is racist’ in social media posts that also urged people to ‘impoverish the white middle class.’

In another Twitter missive from 2018, Weaver wrote: ‘There is no such thing as “good gentrifier,” only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t.’

Weaver further called on people to ‘seize private property’ and called for the election of communist lawmakers.

I’m so old, I can remember when Communists were made of much sterner stuff than this:

On the other hand, given the path the DNC-MSM cleared for her boss last year, I can understand her confusion that there are now journalists asking questions about his staffers. Not to mention the massive cognitive dissonance that can occur the first time your worldview is called into question:

Also, perhaps the most terrifying concern of all is that the CIA’s cloning program is making considerable strides:

UPDATE: Mamdani Taps Prep School Socialists for Senior Press Roles.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 7th, 2026

BYRON YORK: Jack Smith reveals Jan. 6 committee charade.

Then, in June, [Cassidy] Hutchinson changed lawyers and offered the committee a really big story: On Jan. 6, she said, then-President Trump demanded that the Secret Service drive him to the Capitol, and when agents declined to do so, Trump physically attacked his own Secret Service detail in an effort to grab the wheel of the presidential limousine and point it toward the Capitol.

* * * * * * * *

Smith did not say that he had eliminated Hutchinson as a witness, but his words suggested that if he were trying to present a concise, compelling case to a jury, he would not include Hutchinson’s hearsay version of events. “If I were a defense attorney and Ms. Hutchinson were a witness, the first thing I would do was seek to preclude some of her testimony because it was hearsay,” Smith said.

With that, the final molecules of air leaked out of the Cassidy Hutchinson balloon. It is hard to remember today just how wildly agitated many in the press became when Hutchinson told her story, unchallenged, to the Jan. 6 committee. It’s an old saw that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put on its shoes. That’s certainly what happened in this case. It would be months and years before the public learned about problems with Hutchinson’s testimony.

Now, from the improbable source of Jack Smith, we have the final word — not just on Hutchinson’s account, but on the misleading methods of the Jan. 6 committee.

Still though, maybe the real January 6th were the friends we made along the way: Technical Difficulties! Even the Democrats’ Own Video Feed Died From Their Performative J6 Cringe.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Jan 7th, 2026

ABSOLUTELY. NO AMOUNT OF ONLINE YAMMERING ABOUT ISRAEL, OR INTERNAL CHANGES AT HERITAGE AND OTHER THINK TANKS, WILL DECIDE THE ELECTION. Results will.

Posted at 12:59 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Jan 7th, 2026
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