Author Archive: Stephen Green
February 20, 2026
GOOD DOGS:
Tomorrow night in Times Square in New York, Muslims will gather to pray the Ramadan tarawih prayer, and New Yorkers will do this. pic.twitter.com/IuRtyQrt7U
— Dan Burmawi (@DanBurmawy) February 19, 2026
Every New Yorker with a dog should get involved. And what a great excuse to finally get a dog for those without.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Moon mission fueling test concludes with no major problems.
NASA and contractor engineers pumped more than 750,000 gallons of supercold propellants into the agency’s huge Space Launch System rocket Thursday without any signs of hydrogen leaks or any other significant problems in a major step toward launching four astronauts on a flight around the moon as early as March 6.
The practice countdown began Tuesday night, kicking off a carefully choreographed series of steps to ready the world’s most powerful operational rocket for what amounted to a simulated launch Thursday at 8:42 p.m. EST. Controllers then carried out additional tests to make sure the team can recycle, hold and restart an actual launch countdown as needed to handle unexpected problems.
The initial stages of the rehearsal countdown went well and at 9:35 a.m. Thursday, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave her “go” to begin the multi-hour process of pumping 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen fuel into the SLS rocket’s first stage. The second stage was loaded with another 22,500 gallons of oxygen and hydrogen propellants.
Unlike the rocket’s first fueling test earlier this month, when hydrogen leaks forced the team to call off the countdown, sensors detected no significant leaks the second time around and the rocket’s tanks were topped off without incident.
Well, good.
CHRIS QUEEN: Trump Returns to Red Georgia With Receipts. “Thursday’s event felt like a who’s who of MAGA Georgia. From Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running for governor, to University of Georgia legend Herschel Walker, currently our ambassador to the Bahamas, to current UGA great Gunner Stockton, Georgia’s conservatives are turning out for the president.”
February 19, 2026
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:
Wow I missed that Wesley Lowrey, the ex-WaPo reporter who won a Pulitzer and wrote a famous editorial urging journos to forgo objectivity in lieu of ‘moral clarity,’ was chased out of his journalism professorship for multiple sexual assault allegations.
It’s been a decade of… https://t.co/e7tGrnWUyW pic.twitter.com/y5TO7vphnE
— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) February 19, 2026
STARMER LIES:
Well, that's not quite true, is it?
Thousands of Pakistani child rapists in the UK haven't been arrested. Unlike the former prince, they're politically untouchable. https://t.co/rYurluyEo2
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) February 19, 2026
BREAKING: Judge Halts Virginia Gerrymandering.
LET’S GET BACK THERE BEFORE IT’S GONE: The Moon Is Definitely Shrinking, Newly Found Geological Features Confirm. “No other world in the solar system has tectonic plates and quakes like Earth, but it doesn’t mean that their ground doesn’t shake. Since the Apollo era, we have known there are moonquakes, and for about a decade and a half, we have known that the Moon is shrinking, losing 50 meters (165 feet) in its radius over the past 200 million years. Now, new evidence strengthens those findings.”
165 feet in 200 million years? I guess we’ve got some time left.
HE ISN’T WRONG, BUT AFTER HIS PERFORMANCE AS P.M., BORIS MIGHT WANT TO TAKE HIS OWN ADVICE: Boris Johnson Calls Out Europeans: ‘Put Up or Put a Sock in It.’
THIS DIDN’T USED TO BE NEWS: Hockey Olympian Who Scored Winning Shot Is Proud to Be American.
Previously:
GOOD NAME: X-68A LongShot Air-To-Air Missile-Carrying Drone Moves Closer To F-15 Launch. “General Atomics’ air-launched LongShot drone has made new progress toward its first flight with the completion of various tests on the ground, including a demonstration of its weapons release capabilities. LongShot, now also designated the X-68A, is set to be carried aloft first by an F-15 fighter. The goal of the program has been to explore how an uncrewed aircraft capable of firing air-to-air missiles could extend the reach and reduce the vulnerability of the launch platform, among other benefits.”
THERE’S A LOT OF THAT: ‘Violence Interruptor’ Programs Are Blue State Wishful Thinking, Not Crime Reduction.
After Pritzker touted his meetings with “community violence interventionists” and state-funded “peacekeepers,” praising these “trusted messengers” whose “genuine relationships with the community are crucial to mitigating violence,” some uncomfortable information emerged. As first described by CWB Chicago, one of the “peacekeepers” Pritzker was photographed one-on-one with was apparently wanted on outstanding criminal warrants in four states; worse still, six days after the photo-op, the man was allegedly involved in a high-value commercial burglary culminating in a car crash that killed an innocent motorist.
The awkward photo showing Pritzker grinning alongside the “peacekeeper” has now been removed from the governor’s website. Seeking transparency on how (or even whether) the participants in taxpayer-funded violence intervention programs are vetted, the activist group Judicial Watch initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information from the governor’s office on vetting, background or other checks, and selection criteria both generally and specifically with respect to the “peacekeeper” in the photo-op, including knowledge of his criminal history and warrants. Judicial Watch claims the governor’s office has all but ignored the request, leading to a lawsuit being brought this month seeking to compel disclosure.
There’s clearly no shortage of poor judgment when it comes to these questionable violence interruption programs, even at the nation’s capital.
Read the whole thing.
PROFESSIONAL TODDLERS, WORKING ON THE PUBLIC DIME: The Diaper-Filling Continues: Some Dems to Skip SOTU for Yet Another Rally.
JOANNE JACOBS: Parents say: Bring back pencil and paper.
A small but growing number of parents are opting their children out of using school-issued Chromebooks and IPads, writes Tyler Kingkade for NBC News. They cite “concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content.”
Parents “point to research showing that students who used computers at school performed worse academically and that information is better retained when read on paper,” he writes. They don’t believe using today’s devices will prepare students to use future technology.
“I want them to be taught through humans,” said Julie Frumin, who lives in a Los Angeles suburb. “I want the teachers to teach my kids — I think they know best.”
After some resistance, the school agreed. Her children get print-outs of assignments, writes Kingkade. ” Instead of playing games on their laptops during free time, they read books.”
“Computers are now ubiquitous in K-12 education,” he writes. Nearly 9 in 10 public schools provide a device for each middle and high school student, as do more than 4 in 5 elementary schools.
Students spend too much time on screens, says David Stein, a math teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland. It’s time to think what’s essential and what isn’t.
Indeed.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT PLANTS LIKE PLANT FOOD?
What a counterintuitive twist in the climate story.
The Sahara Desert of all places has shrunk by about 8% since the 1980s thanks to rising CO₂ levels fueling a remarkable global green renaissance.
Data from NASA’s AVHRR and MODIS instruments show that 25% to 50% of Earth's… pic.twitter.com/0q4FOL2oqA
— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) February 19, 2026
CHANGE:
Sec. Hegseth says Boeing Defense is relocating its headquarters from DC to St. Louis.
Defense jobs are shifting out of Washington and back to the heartland—where the work actually gets done. pic.twitter.com/2Du4XZrWSx
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) February 18, 2026
From the replies: “Less lobbying, more building.”
WAY BETTER THAN SKYNET: $200 Million Movie in a Day? Welcome to the End of Hollywood.
HERE IT COMES: Mamdani poised to ‘freeze the rent’ after stacking NYC board with likeminded lefty appointees.
Most of Mamdani’s picks appeared to fall right in his ideological wheelhouse.
Three were “public members:” Self described “disruptive” labor union leader and staunch anti-Israel activist Brandon Mancilla; nonprofit advocacy economist Lauren Melodia, who has authored studies arguing against interest rate increases; and new board chair Chantella Mitchell, a former city housing official with a history of work in affordable housing nonprofits.
Mamdani also appointed one of two landlord representatives, Maksim Wynn, also city Department of Homeless Services official who went on to manage affordable housing for a private developer.
Current tenant representative Adán Soltren, a housing attorney and lecturer, was re-appointed to his position after a history of being vocally anti-rent increase.
Made up of mayoral appointees — five public members, two tenant advocates and two landlord advocates — the board is meant to analyze data regarding both landlords and tenants in a non-partisan way.
All data indicate we must stick it to The Man, comrades!
DECLINE IS A CHOICE:
The European chemical industry – once a pillar of Europe’s competitive strength – has entered an existential phase of decline. INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe delivered the headline figure: since the previous Antwerp Summit in 2024, Europe has lost 101 industrial sites and…
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) February 18, 2026
SARAH ANDERSON: A Surprise High-Level U.S. Visitor Lands in Venezuela. “It’s hard to put into words just how historic this is, but it’s yet another win for the Trump administration. I just Googled it to see if the MSM is reporting on it — so far, it looks like just a few outlets, like the Jerusalem Post and Reuters, are the only others mentioning it. That could change tomorrow, but the media does not like to celebrate these wins. I will.”
I TAKE THIS TO MEAN THAT HARVARD STUDENTS AREN’T NEARLY AS LEFT-WING AS THE HARVARD FACULTY OR STAFF — NOT EVEN AFTER FOUR YEARS AT HARVARD:
The ease with which the few dominate the many, the helplessness of the many to protect their rights against the few — this is what happens when an astroturfed pseudo-consensus is enfranchised and the people are disenfranchised. What happens in microcosm even within Harvard has… https://t.co/scRqOFmsew
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) February 19, 2026
PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Hassett says authors of New York Fed tariff study should be disciplined: ‘Worst paper I’ve ever seen.’
White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Wednesday that the authors of a recent New York Federal Reserve paper that found U.S. companies and consumers are shouldering most of the tariff burden should be “disciplined.”
In a CNBC interview, the National Economic Council director ripped the report, saying that central bank researchers ignored key aspects of how the duties worked and instead simply focused on prices. Hassett said the research also should have included the upward impact on wages and benefits that U.S. companies see by bringing more production onshore.
“I mean, the paper is an embarrassment,” Hassett said during the “Squawk Box” interview. “It’s, I think, the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system. The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined, because what they’ve done is they’ve put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that’s highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn’t be accepted in a first-semester econ class.”
As long as wage increases continue to outpace price increases — which they generally did in 2025, and one helluva quick turnaround from the Bidenflation years — Trump’s policies are working as intended, no matter what the Fed says.
PROOF THE PETER PRINCIPLE IS POSITIVELY PANGLOSSIAN:
I hadn't realized that the same guy who screwed up in Flint (and if you dig deep on that it was because he didn't understand water chemistry) is now in DC.
Totally makes sense to me but I've been watching this shit for longer than most. https://t.co/fjpLpC3pjE
— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) February 19, 2026