Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

February 24, 2026

TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE:

Trump and Vance would be very wise to separate themselves from Tucker — beyond the midterms, unless there’s a Sister Souljah moment from Vance over Tucker, he will be used to tank Vance’s chances in 2028: The Last Temptation of JD Vance.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

HOW THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT EMBRACED RADICAL ISLAM:

In 2006, in a public discussion of Israel’s assault on Lebanon, the feminist scholar Judith Butler characterized Hamas and Hezbollah as “part of the global left.” Butler’s remarks provoked a scandal at the time, but after the October 7 attacks, it became common to hear Western leftist protesters chanting slogans like “long live Hamas!” How did Middle Eastern terrorist groups rooted in radical Islamic ideology come to occupy such a central place in otherwise secular left-wing politics? In The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, journalist Jason Burke takes up this question, exploring the historical roots of the Palestinian national movement and situating its rise within the transition from 1970s left-wing radicalism to the emergence of radical Islamism, which reshaped global politics in the 1980s.

Burke’s account brings to life the central figures of this transnational revolutionary movement: Leila Khaled of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Fusako Shigenobu of the Japanese Red Army, Ulrike Meinhof from the German Red Army Faction, and “Carlos the Jackal,” the nom de guerre of the sociopathic Venezuelan-born gun for hire Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. These leftist militants moved fluidly across borders, traveling from sympathetic regimes in the Middle East to hubs of revolutionary fervor, most notably the PLO’s refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. They hijacked airplanes and marched with Kalashnikovs in the desert. Inspired by the revolutionary tracts of Frantz Fanon, Régis Debray, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong, they forged a transnational network of anti-colonial insurgency and solidarity.

These left-wing radicals took Mao’s dictum that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” to heart and concluded that electoral politics and peaceful protest were insufficient for taking on the global forces of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism. But this analysis also created its own problems. The enemy these militants fought was not a single politician, national government, or corporation, but a vast, complex global political and economic system, so it was always unclear how a small number of assassinations and kidnappings could defeat it.

This is part of why Israel became their primary target. The radicals of the era viewed the Jewish state as the most egregious manifestation of capitalist decadence and settler colonialism, but also as small and weak enough to be brought down through violent direct action. By doing so, they believed they could hasten the inevitable collapse of a rotten Euro-American imperial system.

As Mark Steyn wrote 20 years ago, “our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people’s intolerance, which is intolerable. And, unlikely as it sounds, this has now become the highest, most rarefied form of multiculturalism. So you’re nice to gays and the Inuit? Big deal. Anyone can be tolerant of fellows like that, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists.”

QED:

Meanwhile, in Old Blighty:

Speaking of which: While Serving as UK’s Top Prosecutor, Keir Starmer Routinely Let Off Grooming Gang Rapists With… A Warning Letter.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

TALKING POINTS HAVE GONE OUT:

Martha’s Vineyard, you say?

 

 

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

#HIMTOO?

Posted at 12:36 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

NEWSOM’S COMM SHOP CONTINUES TO FLAIL:

Because the will to power runs through victimhood on the left, Newsom’s going to wring every last drop that he can out of that “dyslexia:”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

UNEXPECTEDLY: SF Homeless Nonprofit CEO Charged with Nine Felonies for Allegedly Misappropriating over $1M in Public Funds.

The former CEO of a San Francisco-based homelessness nonprofit was charged Monday with nine felony counts after allegedly misappropriating more than $1.2 million in public funds.

Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, is the former CEO of the United Council of Human Services. Charges against Westbrook include misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and filing four years of false tax returns.

According to prosecutors, Westbrook misappropriated the $1.2 million through unauthorized payments to herself, improper cash withdrawals, and fraudulent reimbursements from 2019 to 2023. Prosecutors also claim Westbrook directly stole $91,000 from the United Council of Human Services. Court documents show that other large amounts of money are also missing from UCHS accounts.

The nonprofit has long faced scrutiny for its practices.

A 2022 audit by the city controller’s office found deeper issues with the group. UCHS, which had received close to $28 million in city funds, failed to place tenants in appropriate housing, failed to accurately calculate rent prices, and disregarded required hiring processes.

In 2023, “Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to end San Francisco homelessness [marked] 20-year anniversary.” Along the way, in December of 2009, SF Weekly had this classic Fox Butterfield-esque line: “Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, [San Francisco’s] homeless problem is worse than any comparable city’s.”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM AND BRYLCREEM?

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

THE TORPEDOES THE DEMOCRATS PUT IN THE WATER FOR TRUMP KEEP CIRCLING BACK ON THEM:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 24th, 2026

February 23, 2026

CARTEL SHOOTS UP PUERTO VALLARTA; WOMEN, CHILDREN, 2SLGBTQIA+ CANADIANS HARDEST HIT: Member of Parliament Especially Concerned for 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians in Puerto Vallarta.

As our own Just Mindy reported on Sunday, Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination, exploded into chaos after Mexican forces killed the country’s most powerful drug kingpin, El Mencho. Flights to Puerto Vallarta were canceled, and the Toronto Star reported that Canadian tourists were being ordered to shelter in place amid the violent unrest.

Canadian Member of Parliament Heather McPherson of the New Democratic Party expressed special concern for members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community. (For those who don’t know, the 2S stands for two-spirited, and because it represents indigenous transgender people, the 2S got pushed to the front of the line.)

Flashback to 2022, when the Gay Pride flag looked like images Keir Dullea would see while hurtling through the stargate in 2001: A Space Odyssey: Microsoft just dropped the latest Pride flag design, and yes, IT’S REAL 🤣

I have no words.

This flag combines 40 different flags from LGBTQIA+ communities around the world, including: Abrosexual, Aceflux, Agender, Ambiamorous, Androgynous, Aroace, Aroflux, Aromantic, Asexual, Bigender, Bisexual, Demifluid, Demigender, Demigirl, Demiromantic, Demisexual, Gay/MLM/Vinician, Genderfluid, Genderflux, Genderqueer, Gender questioning, Graysexual, Intersex, Lesbian, Maverique, Neutrois, Nonbinary, Omnisexual, Pangender, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Polysexual, Transgender, Trigender, Two Spirit, Progress Pride, Queer, Unlabeled.

The woke cultists just keep on going to new levels of madness!

In accordance with the prophecy:

Exit question: Does the London Daily Mail consider the 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians to be a contingent of the “spoiled tourists” trapped there?

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

THE ATLANTIC’S GOT A FEVAH, AND IT NEEDS MORE NAZISM!

Previous Nazis detected by the Bletchley Park decoders at the Atlantic include that raving National Socialist, Mitt Romney, with a June 2012 headline, “Romney’s Odd Reference to Hitler:”

I used to think Romney’s klutziness was overstated. His much-ridiculed musing about how the trees in Michigan are “the right height”–struck me as a kind of earthily poetic way of saying that home always feels like home. But then three weeks ago BuzzFeed dug up a clip of Romney answering a question about energy policy and managing to drag Hitler in from left field:

The YouTube clip is now private, but it’s like a reference to this Romney quote from the 2008 campaign, which Time magazine spotted under the headline, “Romney’s Reich Turn:”

“Liquefied coal, gosh. Hitler during the Second World War — I guess because he was concerned about losing his oil — liquefied coal. That technology is still there.”

—Romney, ruminating on Hitler’s scientific achievements unprompted, in a Q & A about energy policy. As the New York Sun’s Ryan Sager said at the time, you wouldn’t think that anyone running for president would have to be told, “Don’t mention Hitler in a positive light.”

Of course, the winner of the 2008 GOP primaries was John McCain. After the election was over, a CNN host looked at footage from the GOP convention in Minneapolis that year and pretended he was watching a Nuremberg rally: CNN Host D. L. Hughley: Republicans ‘Literally Look Like Nazi Germany.’

CNN host D.L. Hughley turned to the standard left-wing tactic of playing the Nazi card against Republicans on his program on Saturday evening: “The tenets of the Republican Party are amazing and they seem warm and welcome. But when I watch it be applied — like you didn’t have to go much further than the Republican National Convention….It literally look[s] like Nazi Germany.” He went on to say that blacks weren’t welcome in the party: “It just does not seem — like not only are we not welcome — not only are we not welcome, but they don’t even care what we think.” He later described the GOP as “reactionary.”

* * * * * * * *

Steele responded to this by correcting Hughley’s timeline, at least as it related to himself: “There was a Michael Steele before there was a Barack Obama. I mean, the reality of it is, I had established — I was the only black lieutenant governor in the country at the time. I was the only statewide black elected official when I was lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. And then Obama got elected in 2005. And so that wasn’t about, you know, oh, geez, let’s do this because of Obama.”

This isn’t the first time Hughley has expressed his disdain for Republicans on cable TV. In March 2006, the comic went on an obscenity-laced tirade against President George W. Bush on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher: “If I hear one more person tell me how this man is a man of faith, I think I’ll lose my mother-f***ing mind….When thousands and thousands of people were being, dying in New Orleans, this son of a bitch didn’t do sh*t, and that’s very un-Christlike to me.”

Flash-forward to CNN in April of 2023: Donna Brazile: Bush came through on Katrina.

And speaking of Bush, along with his VP, the late Dick Cheney, this was the left while they were in office for most of the first decade of 21st century:

These two were so Hitler-y and dastardly and despicable and the very font of evilness that Kamala Harris’s staffers fought tooth and nail for them to endorse their boss in 2024 — and won an endorsement from Cheney, despite Joe Biden being quoted by Reuters in 2008 that “Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history.”

In 2007 at the late lamented Weekly Standard, Noemie Emery wrote:

As Jonah Goldberg noted this winter when Gerald Ford died, lauded by a media that had little good to say of him while he was president, each Republican president is a fool, a bigot, and a dangerous warmonger while he is in office, responsible for sexism, racism, ageism, and general misery. Once dead, however, he acquires a Strange New Respect. In time, the jibes thrown at him are airbrushed away, and he is seen as a statesman, a true conservative, with all the best values, all the more so when compared with whatever Republican is now in office, who is seen in comparison as someone who really is dangerous, a warmonger, bigot, and fool. In their turn, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush the Elder have become harmless and loveable figures, cherished for their good humor, their prudence, and tolerance–and for their distance from today’s modern conservatives, who have run their cause into the ground.

This pattern will not alter: In a few years, when President Rudy or Commander in Chief Thompson begins knocking heads, watch out for the press to express its Strange New Respect for Bush 43, whose government was nothing if not diverse as regards race and gender, and who at least made a pretense of being compassionate. In 2027, if Time is still around, will it run a cover, showing him shedding a tear?

Whatever is left of old media after 2028, their rehabilitation of Donald Trump will be both predictable and astonishing to watch.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

ON THE LEFT, THE WILL TO POWER DERIVES FROM VICTIMHOOD, especially for Gavin Newsom:

Tweet continues:

He desperately needed to surface some “oppressed” intersectional identity.

He’s going with “disabled” and will start “calling out” his opponents for “abelism” now.

The only other option he had was some “trans” identity like “nonbinary.” But he knows he couldn’t pull that off, and gender ideology is increasingly cringe and politically unpopular. Although I wouldn’t totally write off the possibility of him flirting with this.

His best bet was “disabled.” You could tell he was itching to bring it up, as his recent call-out was a serious stretch. The last time he mentioned it on X was 10 years ago.

Expect to see him bring it up more and more during his presidential campaign.

Along with his party’s operatives with Chyrons:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

PBS NEWS: Why New Deal-era art is disappearing from U.S. Post Offices (Video).

In 2017, when there was a flashback to “FDR Appoint[ing] KKK Member to U.S. Supreme Court. Hugo Black Came From The Klu Klux Klan Wing of the Democrat Party,” we asked, “Hey, When Do the FDR Statues Come Down? Should We Take Him Off the Dime? Rename the Island?” Until then, removing the artwork commissioned by his poisonous administration, which some saw as having fascist-adjacent language and imagery, and more than a twinge of antisemitism, seems like a good first step.

In 2022, NPR didn’t seem to lose too much sleep when artwork honoring FDR’s brother was memory holed: Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from American Museum of Natural History.

Why are they shocked over this?

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

TITANIA MCGRATH: The warmth of the collective.

Now that we’ve reached 2026, surely it’s time to try this system again. Our new era has already begun, with Zohran Mamdani taking over as Mayor of New York. For those who don’t know, Mamdani is a devout Muslim who has promised to make New York a “sanctuary city” for the LGBT+ community. It’s what the Prophet Mohammed would have wanted.

Some bigots have argued that homosexuality is incompatible with the Islamic faith. But in fact, homophobia is extremely rare in Muslim-majority countries. This is why there isn’t a single LGBT+ community centre in the whole of Afghanistan. Everyone is so tolerant that there is simply no need for them.

Since taking power, Mamdani has declared that “we will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism”. No sane person could possibly argue with this logic. If it’s a choice between being warm or frigid, I know which I’d prefer. Indeed, during Stalin’s time he built a range of holiday camps called “gulags”, where residents often slept shoulder-to-shoulder in crammed rooms. Just imagine how warm and non-frigid that was.

Heh, indeed. Though given how much global warming New York received today, perhaps hizzoner should dial back on that whole “warmth of collectivism” thing. No need to speed up the heating up of the planet and/or Fun City:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

CHRISTIAN TOTO: BAFTA Meltdown Captures Woke Mind Virus to Perfection.

It should have been a magical night for John Davidson.

His life, specifically a long battle with Tourette syndrome, inspired the BAFTA-nominated film, “I Swear.” The British awards gala invited Davidson to Sunday’s soiree to see if the film might go home a winner.

It did – actor Robert Aramayo won Best Actor honors over Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio – and the film itself won two other awards.

Yet Davidson’s chronic swearing – the signature issue facing those with his condition – swamped the event in more ways than one. Davidson’s profanity could be heard during early segments of the show, even though he wasn’t on-stage at the time.

Host Alan Cumming gracefully explained the situation to the audience, apologizing for the profanity and asking for compassion. Those with this condition utter inappropriate phrases without control or filter.

“You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience…Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

The matter might have ended there.

Except Davidson uttered the N-word when black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo of “Sinners” fame graced the BAFTA stage to present an award.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS SPIKE AS U.S. PULLS ‘NON-EMERGENCY’ STAFF FROM BEIRUT: “While the State Department offered no official explanation for ordering the evacuation, there are reasons they’d want as few Americans in the area as possible if a strike on Iran is in the works. Namely, the terror group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has recently been shoring up its presence in Lebanon.”

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

HEH, INDEED:

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

THE POLITICO IS NOT HAPPY: RFK Jr.’s billionaire running mate is making a comedy about the pandemic.

Covid contrarians tight with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pitching Hollywood on an unlikely leading man: National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.

Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate in the 2024 presidential campaign, is searching for investors to fund a movie that pokes fun at the pandemic response with a star based on Bhattacharya, who rose to prominence with his anti-lockdown manifesto and relentless tweets opposing social distancing.

The script for the satirical comedy, “The Rash,” is by renowned author Walter Kirn, who wrote the novel “Up in the Air” that became an Oscar-nominated movie starring George Clooney. The new Kirn screenplay stars a “no-nonsense” public health professor at a Stanford-like California university — mirroring Bhattacharya — who speaks out against mass hysteria amid a mysterious outbreak of a contagious skin condition.

I’m not at all sure that this is the team to be making it or if the results will be watchable, but given how elites acted and continually reversed their decisions in 2020, there’s a huge opportunity for a black humor comedy along the lines of Dr. Strangelove, Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H or The Death of Stalin.

Fauci and Birx as James Bond supervillains, lockdown obsessives having trysts, cocktail parties – and sex parties – celebrities singing “Imagine” from their mansions, newspapers siccing social media mobs on those celebrities who refused to go along with lockdowns and vaccine mandates, healthcare officials who pivoted on a dime from lockdowns to championing riots in the street – there’s so much material here to mine.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Newsom Tells Black Audience ‘I’m Like You…960 SAT…I Cannot Read a Speech.’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Racist) basically told a group of black voters in Georgia, Vote for me. I’m stupid just like you!
While out promoting his autobiography and his likely 2028 presidential campaign, Newsom started out with the usual-usual pandering Democrats employ with black voters. Then it quickly devolved into the kind of racist condescension we’ve seen from modern-day Democrats, reaching back to when they created the Jim Crow South.

This is really something…

I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you I’m like you. I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy. And I’m not trying to offend anyone; trying to act all there if you got 940. But literally a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe I’m in the wrong business to be in.

The highest possible SAT score is 1600, and here Newsom is slowing his speech, talking in bite-sized pieces, and saying to black voters, I’m just like you. I had a lousy SAT score, and I have trouble reading.

That’s what he honestly thinks of black people. That’s what he sees when he sees black people… He sees a dumb and uneducated underclass.

Unbelievable… Actually, it’s not if you know anything about the modern Democrat Party.

Rap superstar Nicki Minaj tore into Newsom.

“His way of bonding with black ppl is to tell them how stupid he is & that he can’t read.” She wrote on X. “He’s not just TELLING them that they’re all probably stupid & probably can’t read, he’s LITERALLY SLOW-ING-DOWN-HIS-SPEECH to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!!!!”

The corporate media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) will do their best to spin this away. I can already see Abby Phillips on CNN saying, Newsom was obviously relating to and showing empathy with everyone forgotten and left behind in this racist country. Whatever. The problem for Newsom is that it’s not 2009 anymore. That clip will never stop haunting him and is tailor-made for a 30-second campaign ad.

Flashback to last week, when Newsom (or the staffer who writes his tweets) claimed he was dyslexic because Ted Cruz (or the staffer who writes his tweets) called him historically illiterate:

Exit question:

 

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 23rd, 2026

February 22, 2026

PUERTO VALLARTA TOURISTS WARNED TO STAY PUT AT RESORT AMID MEXICO ‘CLASHES:’

Tourists in the Mexican seaside city of Puerto Vallarta were told not to leave their resort on Sunday as a government official warned of “clashes” in the area following a federal operation.

Photos and video shared with Fox News Digital capture billowing, dark smoke clouding the skyline of the city, which is located on Mexico’s Pacific Coast in the state of Jalisco.

Tourists at a local resort told Fox News Digital that they were urged to stay put at the resort. They said no reason for exercising the caution was immediately given.

The U.S. State Department later issued a travel warning for multiple areas in Mexico on Sunday afternoon, urging U.S. citizens to shelter in place until further notice due to “ongoing security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity.”

The travel warning was issued for parts of Jalisco state, including Puerto Vallarta, Chapala and Guadalajara; Tamaulipas state, including Reynosa and other municipalities; and areas of Michoacan state, Guerrero state and Nuevo Leon state.

More at our sister site Red State: Jalisco Cartel Chaos: Government Now Urging Puerto Vallarta Tourists to Lock Down.

It’s not clear whether it was a police-on-cartel operation that resulted in all this, but the cartels are certainly capable of this kind of mayhem. For that matter, not all of Mexico’s police and military are on the up and up.

This is yet another illustration of a major problem the United States faces right now: We have, on our southern border, what is essentially a failed narco-state, where the cartels hold enormous power, and the government seems unable – or unwilling – to dislodge them.

Further thoughts on that topic from CDR Salamander:

UPDATE: Cartels launch revenge attacks after Mexican military kills drug kingpin. “Mexico’s most powerful drug lord has been killed by the country’s military, sparking waves of revenge attacks by cartels. Officials said Nemesio Oseguera, known as ‘El Mencho’, died following an operation in the town of Tapalpa, Jalisco, on Sunday. He was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s richest and most violent criminal organisations. The country’s government had been under pressure to tackle the cartels by the US, which had placed a $15m (£11m) bounty on El Mencho’s head.”

Posted at 4:48 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026
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