TO BE FAIR, THEY’RE ALWAYS MAD ABOUT SOMETHING: The Left Is Big Mad at Kash Patel for Celebrating the Gold Medal Win With USA Hockey.

HMM: Austin Tucker Martin, gunman shot dead by Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago, was obsessed with Epstein files.

SKYNET SMILES: The Air Force’s Newest Pilot Takes Orders (For Now?) But Isn’t Human.

IF ANYBODY WANTS TO MAKE A PREQUEL TO ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’ (BUT PLEASE DON’T), MAYBE THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS: NYPD officers harassed, doxed by agitators in Mamdani’s NYC.

CHEATING TAKES TIME THAT JUST COUNTING LEGITIMATE BALLOTS DOESN’T: Virginia Democrats Push Extended Deadline for Counting Absentee Ballots 3 Days After Election Day.

HE TURNS OUT TO BE RIGHT ABOUT A GREAT MANY THINGS: Trump Is Right About the Mexican-American War,

After more than a century and a half of virtual apologies and silence from America’s leading political figures, President Trump finally broke one of the oldest taboos in American politics by issuing a statement celebrating the 178th anniversary of America’s victory in the frequently maligned Mexican-American War. Although the war was condemned at the time and in later generations as a land grab perpetrated by President James Polk, in truth it was brought about by Mexico: Mexican double standards, Mexican chauvinism, Mexican intransigence, Mexican belligerence, and a Mexican attack on the army of the United States.

The road to war was set in motion by the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which had been de facto independent since at least 1836 but over which Mexico still claimed sovereignty. Few, however, are familiar with the history of that time and the many factors muddying questions about the justice of the war, including Mexico’s status at the time, claims of Texan independence, and the effect these facts would have on later Mexican claims.

Some good history here, well told.

NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT:

Kash Patel celebrating USA Hockey Team historic win

Democrat Senator sipping margaritas with a foreign gang member and alleged human trafficker and wife beater

Guess which one Democrats are more upset over pic.twitter.com/LqCrl88exe

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 23, 2026

Based, indeed:

FBI Director Kash Patel got the murder rate to a 125 year low in America in only one year.

If he wants to celebrate with our gold medal winning hockey team, not only is it appropriate it's based as fuck!

This is what winning looks like.🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/DNlhEE95ok

— Brenden Dilley (@WarlordDilley) February 23, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: The Chicago Way Never Dies: Illinois CDL Scandal Demands Answers

DON’T BE A SOFT TARGET: Hope Isn’t a Plan: Is Your Church a Sitting Duck? “I’ve been to a handful of churches that have top notch safety teams and like many, I’ve been to churches that not only had multiple unlocked and unmonitored entrances — some dark by the way — that had no safety team at all. Unfortunately, unprepared or ill-prepared is still the norm. Yes, even at events and major religious holidays that bring crowds.”

PRIORITIES:

There are two Canadas: one where people with cancer have to wait 8 months for a CT scan and one where this happens. pic.twitter.com/yyImWqcezT

— Daniel Friedman (@DanFriedman81) February 21, 2026

2028 PREVIEW: Newsom Tells Black Audience He’s Just Like Them Because He Has a Mental Disorder.

VIDEO: Four Years Of Crashing Margin. “If we have a look at this table, it shows what’s been happening with producer prices over the past 12 months. And the scale on the right hand side here starts at zero and goes down to minus 4%. And as you can see, in every single one of the past 12 months, Chinese producers have been cutting their prices. This chart is also referred to as the factory gate prices. So this is the price of products when they’re leaving Chinese factories. And the latest data for January 2026 shows that year on year prices were down by 1.4%.”

THIS:

The left: Haha stupid rightwingers rooting for Alyssa Liu and she's totally woke.

The right: She proudly represented her country, wore her flag after winning, and put her hand over heart while singing our national anthem. Her politics are irrelevant.

The left: Her politics are…

— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) February 23, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: U-S-A! Yeah, That Was Fun. “These Olympic Games have seen an unfortunate share of pathetic, ungrateful Americans. Thankfully, our biggest winners have been red, white, and blue patriots. Our hockey champions have really carried the flag. The future of the United States of America is in great hands with the young men and women we’ve just seen win hockey gold.”

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Taliban Legalizes Wife Beating: Afghanistan’s Shocking 2026 Penal Code and the World’s Outcry.

In a move that has shocked the international community and deepened the plight of women in Afghanistan, the Taliban has enacted a new penal code that effectively legalizes domestic violence against wives and children — provided no bones are broken or open wounds inflicted. Signed by the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, on January 7, 2026, this 90-page document, titled the De Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama or “Criminal Procedure Code for Courts,” has been circulated to provincial courts for immediate implementation across the country.

The code not only permits husbands to physically punish their wives and daughters but also erects near-impossible barriers for any woman seeking justice — effectively making the family home a legal cage. The revelation, first published by Kabul-based human rights organization Rawadari on January 21 after they obtained the original Pashtu document, triggered an immediate global firestorm. The United Nations, world governments, human rights organizations, and prominent public figures lined up to denounce what many are now openly calling gender apartheid — a legally enforced system of sex-based oppression that has no parallel anywhere in the world in 2026.

This is the full story of what that code says, who it is already hurting, and why the world’s outrage — however loud — is struggling to find an answer powerful enough to reach inside Afghanistan’s courts.

Cue outcry from Western feminists in three… two… never.

RABBAI MICHAEL BARCLAY: Is Tucker Carlson Suffering from a Clinical Mental Illness?

STRENGTH:

The sad thing is, pretty much all of the people ripping on this have NO IDEA just how much respect the troops have for this.

No idea.

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) February 23, 2026

Much more at X, if you feel like clicking over.

CHANGE: Cuban security forces exit Venezuela as US pressure mounts.

Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has entrusted her protection to Venezuelan bodyguards, according to four of the sources, unlike deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late president Hugo Chavez, who both relied on elite Cuban forces.

Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the U.S. military attack that captured Maduro on January 3, according to the Cuban government. These soldiers and bodyguards were part of a deep security agreement between Caracas and Havana that began in the late 2000s in which Cuban intelligence agents embedded throughout the military and Venezuela’s formidable DGCIM counterintelligence unit, which was fundamental to weeding out domestic opposition.

“The Cuban influence was absolutely essential” to the survival of the Chavista government, said Alejandro Velasco, an associate professor of history at New York University and an expert on Venezuela.

Inside DGCIM, some Cuban advisers have been removed from their posts, according to a former Venezuela intelligence official. Some of the Cuban medical workers and security advisers have travelled from Venezuela to Cuba on flights in recent weeks, two of the sources said.

The Axis of Resistance’s western hemisphere outposts aren’t in such great shape these days.

CONSTITUENT SERVICE: Dem Congressional Candidate Refuses to Say He’d Deport a Single Illegal Alien.

Dems know who their voters are.

AND FLORIDA’S ROADS ARE CLEANER AND IN BETTER SHAPE:

Note that the $150 billion *increase* in California's annual budget in 6 years is larger than the *entire budget* of Florida. https://t.co/t8iDjLZbth

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) February 20, 2026

PLAYING WITH FIRE:

Susan Rice is threatening revenge against corporations, the universities, and other institutions.

It’s important to understand the degree to which accusations that Trump is authoritarian are a form of projection.

It’s also important for these entities, before they get their… https://t.co/LkVWuUSGA9

— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) February 21, 2026

BREAKING: Trump Responds to Supreme Court’s Decision on Tariffs.

UPDATE (From Ed):

Trump has already maxxmogged by finding multiple alternate bases for the tariffs, thereby reclaiming aura and rugging premature celebration by jestergooning Democrats. https://t.co/VzANtlpamB

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) February 20, 2026

I NEVER HONESTLY CARED, BUT GOOD TO KNOW! Think chicken is healthier than beef? New study says not so fast.

Red meat has long been blamed for raising blood sugar and diabetes risk, while chicken is widely seen as the healthier option — but a new study challenges that age-old advice.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Public Health–Bloomington and the Illinois Institute of Technology put a common dietary recommendation for people with prediabetes to the test.

They found that blood sugar levels, insulin sensitivity, cholesterol and inflammation markers did not change in any meaningful way when participants ate lean beef versus chicken, according to the research, which was published in Current Developments in Nutrition in December.

Light the charcoal — it’s flank steak again tonight.

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: How Canada became poorer than Alabama.

For eons, Canadians have viewed Alabama as a small state that, save for a few pockets, is dirt poor. All anybody seems to know about Alabama is that Montgomery and Birmingham were the centre of the civil rights movement. In 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he called Birmingham “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.”

So, it was a shock when Canadian economist Trevor Tombe and the International Monetary Fund ran the numbers in 2023 and 2024 and concluded that Canada had, in fact, become poorer than Alabama.

To measure this, they calculated gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In simple terms, it’s the size of the Canadian economy in a given year divided by the population. The same was done for Alabama. After adjusting for foreign exchange and some cost differences in both countries, the average for Canada’s 10 provinces was estimated at at US$55,000 in 2022, the same as Alabama. Shortly after, the IMF found Canada had actually fallen behind the southern state. (Canada has since edged ever-so-slightly higher than Alabama; the numbers are volatile from year to year.)

The timing was terrible for the Canadian psyche.

I don’t think Alabama made Canadians vote Liberal again and again — the damaged psyche is all on themselves.

Also, I doubt the Globe and Mail meant to do this, but this report makes Canadians seen awfully bigoted and ignorant. I think the paper was just trying to play to its Canadian audience.

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Pot Tax Was Supposed to Help Kids, but Look Where It’s Going Instead “Welcome to your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, covering the tidbits, outrages, and whoppers of Washington, Oregon, and California. And hoo boy, have we got some specimens for you this week. It’s a jump ball, however. Shall we lead with the pot tax to help 🎶 The Children 🎶 or do we begin with duplicitous Democrats who swore they’d never raise taxes? “