NEVER CHANGE, DEMS:
Democrats are about to go to court to force taxpayers to keep paying welfare to illegals.
Gonna be an optics disaster. But they have no choice. Ask yourself why. https://t.co/Shkez5RaHm
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) February 20, 2025
Give them this much credit: Washington Democrats understand who their most important constituents are, and are willing to service them despite fierce public opposition and legality that doesn’t even rise to questionable.
BELMONT CLUB: The Arrival of Kash Patel. “What Rudi Dutschke failed to realize when he advocated the ‘long march through the institutions’ (German: der lange Marsch durch die Institutionen) was that the parasites would kill the institutions themselves.”
NOPE, STILL NOT SICK OF ALL THE WINNING: Citi Scraps Diversity Goals, ‘DEI’ Term Under Trump Pressure.
The bank will no longer have “aspirational representation goals” except as required by local law, and abandon a policy for diversity in candidates and interview panels, according to a memo to staff from Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser seen by Bloomberg News.
It will also rename its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement”, Fraser said.
“The recent changes in US federal government policy, including new requirements that apply to all federal contractors, call for changes to some of the global strategies and programs we’ve used to attract and support colleagues from various backgrounds,” she said in the memo.
The language in the memo, which fails to accurately describe what DEI is, tells me Citi plans to skirt Trump’s new colorblind requirements.
AMERICANS: “Do you think Democrats learned anything from their historic loss last November?”
Democrats: Colorado Wants to Prohibit Dead-Naming Dead People.
THIS IS CNN:
Is that the condition we actually leave a rental space in?
— Another X'd Patriot 🇺🇸 (@Dr912) February 20, 2025
DOGE ought to charge them for the cleanup and any required refurbishment.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: JD Vance Keeps Groin-Kicking Dem Sacred Cows. “For far too long, the Republican party has elected people who were more worried about upsetting the editorial board at The New York Times than they were about failing the people who voted for them. President Trump has assembled a team full of people who don’t suffer from that problem. The anti-Romneys, if you will.”
WINNING: Panama says many migrants deported from the US agree to be returned to home countries.
Panama’s security minister said on Tuesday that more than half of the migrants deported from the United States to transit point Panama in recent days had accepted voluntary repatriations to their home countries, largely in Asia or the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration deported the migrants on three flights, part of his crackdown on unlawful migration.
The 299 migrants have been staying at a hotel in Panama City under the protection of local authorities and with the financial support of the United States through the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency, Security Minister Frank Abrego said.
“Today I can tell you that 171 of the (migrants) have accepted to return voluntarily,” said Abrego, adding that the others will leave gradually when the U.N. provides them with their return transportation.
In the interim, those migrants will likely be transferred to a shelter near the Darien Gap jungle in southern Panama that connects Central America with South America.
The New York Times, of course, had to make “camps” the focus: Migrants, Deported to Panama Under Trump Plan, Detained in Remote Jungle Camp.
Passing through the Darien Gap on your way to the U.S. is a human right but passing through the Darien Gap on your way back home is some kind of torture.
RUY TEIXEIRA: One Simple Question for Democrats.
Democrats are roaming in the political wilderness and seem bewildered on how to find their way out. More resistance? More moderation? More lawfare? More denunciations of fascism/authoritarianism/lawlessness? Look for ways to compromise? Don’t look for ways to compromise? Shut down the government? Don’t shut down the government? Better messaging of Democratic positions? Actually change Democratic positions? It’s all so confusing!
It needn’t be. There’s one simple question—a sort of test—that would illuminate the path forward for Democrats.
What would the working class say (WWWCS)?
Let me explain.
The WWWCS test is not so hard to do but it does entail getting outside of the liberal college-educated bubble so many Democrats live within, particularly as experienced on social media, in activist circles and within advocacy, nonprofit, media and academic institutions. Look at actual public opinion data—not as summarized by someone you know or something you read. Look at focus group reports. Talk to actual working-class people—there are lots of them! Listen to your intuitions about how working-class people would likely react to policies and rhetoric currently associated with the Democrats —not how you think they should react. Think of family members or people you grew up with who are working class. Try to get inside their heads. They are less ideological, more focused on material concerns, more likely to be struggling economically, less interested in cutting edge social issues, more patriotic and generally more culturally conservative. All this makes a difference.
It’s solid advice, straight out of the Trump playbook.
But the reason Trump was able to copy the Democrats’ playbook is that today’s “liberal college-educated bubble” Democrats signal their virtue to one another via their disdain for the working class and working-class concerns.
Dana Loesch wrote a decade ago that “You Can’t Run a Country You’ve Never Been To,” and nothing has changed since.
THIS IS HOW THE WAR ON BOYS ENDS, OR AT LEAST BEGINS TO END: JD Vance to Young Men: Don’t Let Them Turn You Into ‘Androgynous Idiots.’
AMERICANS: “Do you think Democrats learned anything from their historic loss last November?”
Democrats:
Denver City Council member discusses using tax dollars to raise the budget for a legal defense fund to protect criminal illegal aliens pic.twitter.com/yte5gGUFgb
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 19, 2025
MY THURSDAY VIP ESSAY: Politico Finally Notices That Maybe Bidenomics Wasn’t so Great, Ackshully. “The Democrat party’s in-house newsletter, Politico, today asked a question that must have felt to them like an acrophobic making his first skydive with bamboo shoots under his fingernails — an almost unbearable combination of fear and torture.”
VIP members asked for more longer-form content, and I’ve been happy to oblige.
AMERICANS: “Do you think Democrats learned anything from their historic loss last November?”
Democrats:
Trans-identified man who was appointed as head of an endometriosis charity compares a female nurse who doesn't want to take her clothes off in front of a male colleague to a convicted child killer. https://t.co/v1Rz7e0x8e
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 20, 2025
WHEN YOU’VE LOST THE GRAND MUFTI…
🔴 Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia:
"What we saw today in Gaza is a disgrace to Islam, an act of blasphemy against Allah." pic.twitter.com/hPKi7T8QNN
— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) February 20, 2025
It was a Nuremberg rally in celebration of murdered children and their mother.
When are we Europeans going to stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?
Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor.
Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945.
Of course Zelenskyy’s ratings are not 4%. They are actually about the same as Trump’s.
Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action.
In particular the US can see $300bn of frozen Russian assets – mainly in Belgium. That is cash that could and should be used to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support.
Why is Europe preventing the unfreezing of Putin’s cash?
The US believes Belgium, France and other countries are blocking. It’s absurd. We need to get serious and fast.
The first rule of Trump Says Something Outrageous is to spend at least 24 hours figuring out what he’s actually trying to accomplish. The second rule of Trump Says Something Outrageous is that the Very Online People usually ignore the first rule for fun and profit.
SEVEN OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN COMMUNIST CHINA: These universities have the most retracted scientific articles. “Many other Chinese hospitals are retraction hotspots. But universities and institutes in China, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan and Ethiopia feature in the data as well. Retractions can be for honest mistakes and administrative errors, but evidence suggests the majority of cases in these data are related to misconduct.”
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK (AND PLAY):
Department of State contract (2022)
Recipient: Miscellaneous Foreign AwardeesAmount: $133,472
Purpose: FAC – replace the tennis court surface at Rilindja Ridge
Country: Albaniahttps://t.co/eRkLoqmQGv
— RandoLand.us (@RandoLand_us) February 19, 2025
The income taxes on ten couples with no kids making $120,000 wouldn’t be enough to pay for resurfacing that Albanian tennis court.
Although I suspect most of that $133,472 lined various pockets rather than resurfacing anything.
LAUGHING WOLF HAS SOME THOUGHTS on a “Post NATO” Europe and what’s worth defending.
I’m unsurprised to already see a comment on the Suicide of NATO post pointing out logistics problems with a new NATO with the Baltic States. My inner smartass is tempted to say “No Bleep!” while my inner book promoter notes that someone apparently hasn’t read Cauldron as those issues are discussed there at length. Both responses, however, need to be set aside so as to focus on the fact that “a new NATO” is the last thing we should be doing. To repeat failure is arrant stupidity.
First up, why should we set ourselves up as a tripwire again? What benefit for the U.S. is there in so doing? Against whom are we playing tripwire, Russia or the EU?
The fact is, the former Eastern Bloc are the countries most enthusiastically embracing and encouraging freedom and the concepts of Western Civilization. Are they doing so exactly on our model? No, thank goodness. Each is taking a different approach, and in that regard they are acting much like the founding Fathers envisioned the states in the United States. Each was free to try different things, and the things that worked could then be adopted by other states while avoiding the things that failed.
Much more at the link, including Germany and the UK’s “energy suicide.”
Bonus Link: Asteroid Threat? X-Prize It. “In the long run, it will be a lot less expensive and likely to drive development of some key industries — not to mention creating new and innovative technologies and applications — than trying to run it as yet another government program.”
Hell, just dare Elon Musk to knock an asteroid around, and he might do it for kicks.
FOLLOW THE MONEY:
"Texas State Rep. James Talarico is employed by Maya Consulting"
Maya: "We are a team of consultants who support school districts"
"$1,503,573.75 was paid by districts to Maya Consulting" https://t.co/PJ6jQh1KjH
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) February 20, 2025
Exit Question: Where does Maya Consulting get its money?
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