Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

February 23, 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

JACK DUNPHY: Nostalgia for George Gascón at the Los Angeles Times.

Gascón is not missed, except, that is, among the criminal class who benefitted from his lenient policies, and at the Los Angeles Times, where magical thinking on crime still predominates. In a story published Feb. 13, the Times laments that Hochman has been less zealous than his predecessor in prosecuting police officers who, in the eyes of the writers and editors at the paper, have transgressed.

“Police cases under L.A. district attorney ending in dropped charges, losses and plea deals,” reads the headline, which of course is crafted to imply sinister doings in the D.A.’s office. And the story’s opening sentences offer the barest distillations of three cases which, again in the Times’s judgment, were pursued with insufficient vigor. “All three cases had similar outcomes,” says the Times, “charges dropped or reduced to no time behind bars after a plea deal.”

It is well known among journalists that few people read beyond the headline of most news stories, so in beginning the story as he does, Times writer James Queally succeeds in perpetuating the narrative that Hochman has allowed himself to be blinded to cases of excessive force by police. Those who read on will discover that the law and the facts of these cases do not readily lead to the conclusions they would wish at the Times. Those who explore further into facts omitted in the story will find even more evidence that the cases are not cut and dried.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: Nutty professor who held machete to NY Post reporter’s neck tapped by NYC for $407K art installation: ‘Piece of junk.’

The unhinged ex-CUNY professor who savagely held a machete to the neck of a New York Post reporter now has a permanent, taxpayer-funded art installation in the Bronx.

The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs ignored Shellyne Rodriguez’s infamous past by green-lighting a $407,000 budget for her 23-foot-tall brick, steel and terracotta Marxist monstrosity called “Phoenix Ladder: Monument to the People of the Bronx.”

It was unveiled in November along Grand Concourse and Morris Avenue — a little more than two years after she copped a wrist-slap plea deal with Bronx prosecutors for her assault on veteran New York Post scribe Reuven Fenton.

Or to put it another way:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026

MAR-A-LAGO HORROR: Armed man is shot and killed by Secret Service after entering Mar-a-Lago in middle of the night.

An armed man was shot and killed by the Secret Service in the early hours of the morning after unlawfully entering the secure perimeter at Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Austin Tucker Martin, 21, was holding a shotgun and a fuel can as he tried to enter Trump’s Palm Beach residence near the north side around 1.30am on Sunday, the Secret Service said.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were in Washington, DC, last night attending the Governors’ Dinner.

Two Secret Service agents and one deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office ordered him to drop his weapons.

‘They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun. He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him,’ Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press conference Sunday morning.

Ed Morrissey links to an AP report on Martin, which notes, “He had been reported missing by his family a few days ago, and investigators believe he headed south and picked up the shotgun along the way.” Ed adds, “One has to wonder whether mental illness played a significant role in this plot. Of course, that aspect was apparent from the attempt itself already.”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026

‘OUT OF NOWHERE’ CANADIANS ARE NOW POORER THAN ALABAMIANS: The Reactions Have Been Pretty Funny.

Related: Heh, indeed:

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026

KAREN BASS’S POTHOLE PHOTO OP BACKFIRES SPECTACULARLY AS REPORTER HUMILIATES HER ON LIVE TV:

Now, we saw you fill a pothole with asphalt here just a few minutes ago, and you’re encouraging people to call 311, but guess what? We know people—I work with people—who called 311, nothing happened, the pothole was never repaired,” he charged. “They called several times over a couple of months.”

That’s when Bass began to squirm and clearly get a little testy, reiterating her 10,000 pothole claim and saying roads being in a state of disrepair is a result of a lack of infrastructure funding.

Former Presidents Obama and Biden both sent out ungodly amounts for infrastructure during their terms, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a road in America that isn’t falling apart, especially in blue cities like LA. Where did all that money go?

The KTLA reporter [Eric Spillman] then called out Keith Mozee, the StreetsLA General Manager, who had accompanied Bass for her big moment on the street. Mozee apparently bragged that 60 miles of roads would be paved in Los Angeles.

Spillman alleged that not one city street had been paved since last summer.

“I think it was you who was saying or somebody that they’re going to pave 60 lane miles of city streets this year,” he said, pointing to Mozee. “Well, there’s 22,000 lane miles in the city of Los Angeles. So it’s a tiny fraction.”

Bass responded that the 60 miles (0.27 percent) would be “an accomplishment” and continued to blame others for not investing in infrastructure.

“You’re running for reelection, and you’ve got a challenger,” Spillman fired back. “And, you know, they’re going to judge you based on what you have done.”

And not surprisingly, the judgement isn’t looking good:

Incidentally, why is Bass campaigning in a huge gas-guzzling 1950s convertible, instead of a modern day electric car? Why does Bass hate the environment so much?

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026

OLD AND BUSTED: “We shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth…and do it first before this decade is out.”

The New Hotness? Let’s try to orbit the moon sometime in this century, huh? NASA moon rocket hits new problem, delays trip to April.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Feb 22nd, 2026