February 22, 2026

HARSH TRUTHS:

Posted at 5:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds

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

SO MAYBE BEDWETTING EVOLVED AS A PROTECTIVE MEASURE? Water is bed bugs’ kryptonite: The parasites avoid wet surfaces at all costs. “‘Bed bugs have extremely flat bodies and small respiratory openings called spiracles on their belly sides. “If they physically contact a body of water, they’ll get stuck to its surface, blocking their respiratory openings,’ Choe said. ‘Due to its strong adhesive power, water could be very dangerous from a bed bug’s perspective. So, it’s not surprising to learn that they’re extremely averse to moisture.'”

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

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

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

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