Welcome to the last Friday in February. It’s the 27th of the month, and I’ll be glad to see that month go.  It’s also National Polar Bear Day, celebrating Ursus maritimus, the world’s largest land carnivore. Here’s a photo I took in the Arctic at about 82° N last year, showing the world’s largest land carnivore dining on the carcass of the world’s largest sea carnivore, a sperm whale whose body somehow found itself atop an ice floe. (The photo was touched up by Mark Richardson):

It’s also National Kahlúa Day, National Protein Day, National Strawberry Day, and The Big Breakfast Day.  I like a shot of Kahlúa in my coffee on a chilly day, but drinking that after noon will keep me awake at night. I just found this in Wikipedia, though:

Since 2004, the alcohol content of Kahlúa is 20.0%; earlier versions had 26.5%.  In 2002, a more expensive, high-end product called “Kahlúa Especial” became available in the United States, Canada and Australia after previously being offered only in duty-free markets. Made with arabica coffee beans grown in Veracruz, Mexico,  Kahlúa Especial has an alcohol content of 36%, has a lower viscosity, and is less sweet than the regular version.

I wonder if the Especial is available around here.

Oh, and there’s an old Jesus and Mo “Friday flashback”, called “track”, showing the bigotry of soft expectation:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 27 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Oy!  A Cuban patrol boat, in a firefight with a speedboat from America, killed four people and injured six (all people in the speedboat). The Cubans claim the boat was carrying terrorists who wanted to infiltrate the island. Shades of the Bay of Pigs! (Article is archived here.)

The American speedboat that Cuban officials said opened fire on border agents Wednesday was carrying 10 armed Cubans who were attempting to infiltrate the country “for terrorist purposes,” the country’s Interior Ministry said.

Cuban authorities seized assault rifles, handguns, molotov cocktails, body armor and fatigues from the Florida-registered vessel, the ministry said in a statement late Wednesday. The men on board were Cuban nationals who had been living in the United States, the ministry said.

The speedboat was less than a nautical mile off Villa Clara province on Cuba’s northern coast Wednesday morning when Cuban border agents approached and asked for identification, the ministry said earlier. The men on the speedboat opened fire on the Cuban vessel, the ministry said, wounding its commander.

The Cuban forces returned fire, the ministry said, killing four men aboard the speedboat and wounding six. The wounded were evacuated to receive medical attention.

The Washington Post could not independently confirm Cuba’s version of events. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was traveling in the Caribbean, said earlier Wednesday that the United States would conduct its own investigation rather than rely on the account of the Cuban government.

“We will verify that independently as we gather more information,” he told reporters in St. Kitts and Nevis, “and we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Rubio said no U.S. government personnel were involved.

“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be, but I can’t say more because I just don’t know more,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters Wednesday.

The Cuban ministry said Wednesday the border agents acted in defense of the nation. “Cuba will defend itself with determination and firmness against any terrorist and mercenary aggression that seeks to affect its sovereignty and national stability,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a post to X on Thursday.

As you can see from this photo in the Post (author at bottom), the boat was right off the coast:

We need more information, of course, but it seems likely that the Cuban version is reasonably accurate given the surprised reaction of the American families of those on the speedboat. But what a stupid move if this is true! How can ten men infiltrate Cuba and do any damage. Even Castro’s infiltration that ultinmately succeeded involved 82 men on a boat.  Sadly, Cuba is a state in decline, and is worse off because the U.S. is preventing oil from getting to the country. I’d love to visit but Americans can’t just up and go there without a professional reason.

*Clickbait from Commentary by Seth Mandel, “Get used to saying it: ‘Israel was right again’.” Yes, it’s about our old friend, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), friend of Gazan terrorists:

In June 25, 2024, a man named Fadi al-Waddiya was killed by a strike in Gaza. Doctors Without Borders immediately claimed him as their own. He was “a medic, a physiotherapist, and a father of three children.” He was just trying to help people, and Israel “assassinated” him.

“This attack is yet another brutal example of the senseless killing of Palestinian civilians and health care workers in Gaza,” the group, also known by its French acronym MSF, thundered. Waddiya was killed “while on his way to provide vital medical care to wounded victims of the endless massacres across Gaza.”

Except Waddiya was the deputy head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s manufacturing unit. Israel posted about Waddiya’s less-than-humanitarian day job. MSF was unmoved. So Israel provided evidence to the group, which said it “had no prior knowledge of Al-Wadiya’s alleged involvement in military activities” and “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity.” It demanded “full transparency.”

This week, Palestinian Islamic Jihad included Waddiya on a list of commanders killed during the war. There’s no reason anymore to pretend, nor does PIJ have any incentive to continue protecting Doctors Without Borders’ reputation.

There is added importance to this story. After the cease-fire, Israel moved to tighten vetting requirements for NGOs seeking to continue operating in Gaza. Considering recent history, MSF should have welcomed the regulations in the interest of “full transparency,” not to mention the safety and security of the actual civilian doctors who work for the group. A simple “thank you” would have sufficed.

As you know, MSF is refusing to provide a list of its staff before they’re let back into Gaza to “help.”  Asking for names seems reasonable in light of its history, and Mandel adds this:

Israel’s position here is overly generous. An NGO that is, by its own implicit acknowledgement, incapable of vetting for terrorists should not be operating in a war zone, full stop. Instead of immediately banning MSF, the Israeli government is volunteering to do MSF’s vetting work for it.

But MSF won’t do it.  They have nothing to lose: Israel is even checking the list for terrorists. But of course MSF has hated Israel for a long time. Their loss.

*Casey Means, Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, revealed herself to be somewhat of an anti-vaxer.during hearings before Senators.

Dr. Casey Means, the president’s nominee for surgeon general, believes the US is a “nation with a broken heart” reckoning with unprecedented amounts of chronic illness and mental illness. But during a lengthy confirmation hearing on Wednesday, she said vaccine policy would not be her priority.

At one point, she sparred with a senator over the benefits of flu vaccination, dodging repeated questions on whether she thinks it’s effective against hospitalization and death.

Means was interrogated by senators from both sides of the dais about her positions on vaccines, abortion and contraception and pesticides. She also fielded questions about her qualifications, conflicts and even her personal use of psychedelic mushrooms.

She was an early ally of now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign and has several important backers within the Trump administration.

Along with her brother Calley, who serves as an adviser to Kennedy at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Means has championed healthy eating, limited pharmaceutical use and alternative remedies. Means is also a co-founder of a health tech company, Levels, that connects glucose monitors to a health tracking app on users’ phones.

. . . Advocates and some former officials have criticized Means’ nomination because the surgeon general is typically a physician with clinical experience; Means dropped out of her medical residency program, and her Oregon medical license is inactive. Means acknowledged on Wednesday that her license is not active and she cannot write a prescription. She said she has no plans to reactivate her license.

There’s more, but it’s mostly depressing (she does adhere to the MAHA’s salubrious stance on nutrition). Surely Trump could have found someone better, but someone better would not weasel on vaccines.

As evidence, reader Paul, horrified, sent me this Tik Tok video of Senator Tim Kaine (D, VA) questioning the nominee (this is the “sparring” mentioned above). It took her three minutes of persistent questioning before she admitted, “At a population level, I certainly think that [flu vaccines could reduce risk”  She is a horrible WEASEL who won’t discuss the evidence at all,  It would be a crime if she is confirmed! She is almost certainly more extreme than she let slip during the hearing.

@cnn

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine asked surgeon general nominee Dr. Casey Means whether she agreed with HHS Secretary RFK Jr. on his statements that there is “no evidence” that flu vaccines prevent serious disease or hospitalizations.

♬ original sound – CNN

*Representatives of the U.S. and Iran are in Geneva for nuclear talks. The NYT also discusses what Trump has to gain by a military strike in Iran, and, in a separate article, describes the national mood in Israel as it waits for the U.S. to decide what to do.

The United States and Iran began high-stakes nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday that could determine whether the two countries go to war or strike a deal.

Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, who is mediating the talks, said the two sides were “exchanging creative and positive ideas,” and would resume again after a break. “We hope to make more progress,” he wrote in a post on social media.

President Trump, in his State of Union address on Tuesday, said he preferred to resolve the standoff with Iran through diplomacy. But he added, “I will never allow the world’s top sponsor of terror, which they are by far, have a nuclear weapon, can’t let that happen.”

Iran, however, has said it will never totally give up nuclear enrichment. “Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” said the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in a social media post.

Iran is expected to offer a proposal designed to maintain some level of enrichment while also allowing Mr. Trump to declare victory. Four Iranian officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Iran would offer a suspension of nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium for three to five years. After that, the country would join a regional nuclear consortium while maintaining a very low level of enrichment, 1.5 percent, for medical research.

If Iran offers to do that, it would be lying, as it always has lied about its “nuclear activity”.  And it already has a level of enrichment of 60%, so it wouldn’t take long to get to the 90% needed for a nuclear warhead.  Given that they are sneaky liars about their weapons program, I don’t know what Trump would accept from Iran to make a deal.

Meanwhile, as the article above notes, worried Israelis are practicing medical drills and ensuring that bomb shelters are equipped and easily accessible.

*Finally, Hillary Clinton testified in the House that she had no knowledge of crimes by either Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told U.S. House lawmakers on Thursday that she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes at the start of two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.

“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein,” Hillary Clinton said in an opening statement she shared on social media.

The closed-door depositions come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee.

The Clintons agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the Oversight panel and its chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.

It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress — the latest sign that the demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of underage girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is grasping at straws to make her believe that it will soon be warmer:

Hili: The birds are singing.
Andrzej: Maybe they can already sense the approaching spring?

In Polish:

Hili: Ptaki śpiewają.
Ja: Może już czują zbliżającą się wiosnę?

*******************

From Louvre Art Memes:

From Now That’s Wild:

From America’s Cultural Decline into Idiocy:

From Masih, more documentation of the mistreatment of protestors:

⚠️ Violent seizure of a woman by armed, masked regime forces.
Received video with the note: “#Fardis, Alborz Province — Thu, Jan 8.”#Iran #فردیس pic.twitter.com/21fw0xatUS

— Vahid Online (@Vahid) February 24, 2026

Emma explains why people with Tourette’s aren’t really racists just because they yell the n-word when they see a black person (the latest dumb controversy):

Some thoughts.

At school, people are taught that nerves are how to make your body do stuff. This typically includes agency – you choose to do that thing.

But also that your body does stuff without brain input, but that is all buried away inside as heart beats and peristalsis.… https://t.co/96GfTDUR7Q

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) February 26, 2026

From Simon via J. K. Rowling. Simon says, “True indeed,” and I second him.

Yes. pic.twitter.com/u4VPW090L4

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 26, 2026

From Luana, a spoof video that, she says, shows that we’re “approaching The Matrix.”

Musk, Bezos, and Altman teaming up on an ambitious business enterprise.pic.twitter.com/o3StK5IWat

— i/o (@avidseries) February 26, 2026

One from my feed: a wonder video of cat revival by someone who knew what they were doing:

Que pedazo de historia !
La mejor que verás hoy

Por más corazones así 💞

Véalo hasta el final

Está es la verdadera humanidad pic.twitter.com/E8nSZX00Re

— Luis Aníbal Rincón Arguello. ® 🇨🇴 (@Rincon001A) February 25, 2026

One that I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was 13 years old. https://t.co/PKYQoqL7Fr

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 27, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb. First, I haven’t read the paper yet but it seems that this is considered a precursor to writing. More later:

New research: Paleolithic artifacts hint at earliest protowritingGeometric shapes on 40,000-year-old bone and ivory suggest early European Homo sapiens long possessed cognitive tools for language.www.science.org/content/arti…

— Nina Willburger (@drnwillburger.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T09:47:02.483Z

Matthew and I love weasels, stoats, fishers, and other predators of that ilk. Look at this beautiful stoat photo!:

Still my fav unplanned shot as this happened quick as a flash with no time to prepare for this beautiful little stoat. Not the best details but the best memories 👌🏿Canon R5 and RF 100-500mmSS1/5000 F7.1 ISO2500

— @macro_action (@birdzandbees.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T20:02:21.014Z

Welcome to a Hump Day (“יום הגיבנת” in Hebrew): Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and National Clam Chowder Day. Of the several varieties, I can recommend only one, the New England variety made with cream and plenty of clams. Avoid anything with tomatoes in it! Your bowl should look like this:

It’s also Let’s All Eat Right Day and National Chocolate-Covered Peanuts Day, which is NOT eating right.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I didn’t listen to the State of the Union address, as I couldn’t bear more braggadoccio and chest-thumping. Here’s a short summary from the NYT, and I’ll put the video below.

In his State of the Union address, President Trump didn’t bother to introduce a raft of new policies — unusual in a midterm election year with control of Congress on the line. He did not seem concerned with making the case that he gets it when it comes to the issue Americans are most worried about. “Affordability,” he said, was part of a “dirty, rotten lie” perpetuated by the Democrats.

Instead, with the slashing style of a natural campaigner and the instincts of a onetime reality television producer, he spent the better part of two hours baiting the ranks of incensed Democrats in the chamber and endeavoring to define them to the electorate as “sick,” unpatriotic and utterly out of step with the values of most Americans.

“These people are crazy, I’m telling ya, they’re crazy,” Mr. Trump said at one point, while relaying the story of a young person who had been forced to undergo a gender transition. “Boy oh boy, we’re lucky we have a country with people like this — Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.”

Several Democrats walked out and one was ejected. Here’s the full speech, nearly two hours of bombast:

*Peter Mandelson, Britan’s ex-Ambassador to the U.S., has been arrested because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

The British police said on Tuesday that they had released Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States, following an arrest the previous day amid allegations that he had passed confidential government information to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which began an investigation into Mr. Mandelson earlier this month, said in a statement on Monday, “Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.”

The statement added that the man had been taken to a police station in London to be formally interviewed. He was released on bail pending further investigation, the police said in an updated statement early Tuesday morning.

The police did not name Mr. Mandelson, in line with British rules that ban them from identifying suspects before any charges are brought. But footage broadcast by the BBC showed Mr. Mandelson being led from his home into an unmarked police car by plainclothes police officers and driven away, at around 4:30 p.m. local time. Mr. Mandelson was not handcuffed and was carrying a bottle of water.

The arrest is the latest dramatic development in Britain to follow the U.S. Justice Department’s release of files related to Mr. Epstein, and marks a new low for Mr. Mandelson, a veteran Labour Party strategist and one of Britain’s best known political figures.

It comes just days after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, on suspicion of the same offense — misconduct in public office, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

. . .Official guidance to British prosecutors says that the offense is committed when a public officer, such as an elected politician or government official, “willfully neglects to perform their duty” or “willfully misconducts themselves” in a way that abuses the public’s trust.

Previously a Labour lawmaker representing Hartlepool in northeast England, Mr. Mandelson served as a minister in Tony Blair’s government between 1997 and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010.

In September, Mr. Mandelson, 72, was fired from his diplomatic post in Washington when the depth and duration of his friendship with Mr. Epstein became clear after the publication of emails between them.

The release of new material by the U.S. Department of Justice on Jan. 30 increased the scrutiny of Mr. Mandelson’s relationship with the sex offender and provoked a political crisis for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The latest batch of documents appears to show that in 2009, when Mr. Mandelson was a senior cabinet minister, he gave potentially confidential and market sensitive information to Mr. Epstein.

Like The Andrew Formerly Known as Prince, the report says that Mandelson, though arrested, “has not been charged with a crime.” I guess those charges will come, but that we won’t know what they are until they are announced in court. I predict that Andrew won’t spend a day in jail (I don’t know about Mandelson).

*Because of reduced vaccination frequency, measles is making a comeback in the U.S. But the WaPo adds that nine other diseases could become more frequent as well.

There are more than 900 confirmed measles cases in the United States, as of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent weekly count. It’s less than two months into the year, “and we already have over a quarter of [the measles cases] we had all of 2025, so things are not great,” said Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.

. . .When vaccination rates decrease, the most highly contagious diseases pop up first, “and that’s why we call measles the canary in the coal mine,” said Wallace. Other vaccine-preventable infectious diseases could follow, the World Health Organization warned in a joint statement with UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, last year. Some already show a worrisome upward trend.

“Measles is the most contagious disease that we have, period,” Wallace said. “So as soon as we start to see measles, we know that the [vaccination] rates in that county or state are starting to drop, and so other diseases will follow on to that, but they just take longer to rip through the communities.”

Here are the other nine diseases poised for comebacks:

Pertussis (“whooping cough”). The frequency of cases is rising, but there is an effective vaccine.

Meningitis. “Meningococcal disease, or meningitis, isn’t as widespread or infectious as measles and pertussis. But cases have been increasing since 2021, and the meningococcal vaccine was recently removed from the CDC’s universal recommendation for adolescents.”

Polio. “Children receive four doses of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) starting at 2 months old. Poliovirus infection can be serious, leading to paralysis or death.”  There were still outbreaks when I was a kid, and they were plenty scary. We do NOT want it to return.

Rotavirus. “Rotavirus can cause babies and other young children to become rapidly dehydrated. Before the availability of rotavirus vaccines, which can be given by 15 weeks, ‘almost all children during the first two years of life would get rotavirus infection,’ Kotloff said.”

RSV. “Like rotavirus, symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are often mild. But certain people are at risk for severe illness, particularly kids who are born prematurely or have underlying diseases, such as heart defects, according to Kotloff.”

Tetanus. “Unlike many other vaccine-preventable diseases, herd immunity doesn’t exist for tetanus, a rare but potentially life-threatening infection caused by Clostridium tetani bacteria.”  I got a tetanus shot before I went to South Africa last year.

Rubella. “Like measles, rubella may be mild, with symptoms like a cough, fever and red rash. But serious complications can develop, too, particularly if someone contracts rubella during pregnancy.”

Hepatitis B. “Hepatitis B is a liver infection spread through bodily fluids, often from mother to child. Getting infected at a young age carries a high risk for developing cancer later on, ‘so early vaccination at birth is key to prevent this,’ Lo said.” I also got a Hep-B shot before I went to South Africa.

Diphtheria. “Diphtheria is no longer common in the U.S. But the bacterial disease still circulates in parts of the world with lower vaccination coverage, and there have been cases where it was brought back by travelers.”

The moral is this: get your shots and ensure that your kids are vaccinated (as always ASK YOUR DOCTOR. I believe I’ve had every one of these shots and I’m as healthy as a bull.

*Over at Quillette, Israeli historian Benny Morris discusses “Trump’s Iranian Dilemma“. The subtitle, and dilemma, is this “President Donald Trump must choose between a military strike on Iran, whose consequences no one can predict, and a deal that would leave the Islamic Republic still able to attack its own citizens, menace Israel, and export terrorism worldwide.”  Bolding is mine:

The Middle East—indeed much of the world—is currently waiting with bated breath to see whether the United States will attack Iran or whether it will agree to prolong the negotiations in the hope of achieving a peaceful resolution. Back in early January, President Donald Trump assured the Iranian masses protesting against their totalitarian rulers that help was on the way. But that help was not forthcoming, and, on the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the regime’s security forces, led by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia, proceeded to mow down some 32,000 protesters and arrest and torture tens of thousands, suppressing the incipient revolt.

Since then, Iran and the US have traded threats while Trump has steadily beefed up America’s offensive and defensive capabilities around Iran. This past weekend, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and its attendant battle group, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, thus completing the planned American deployment. For its part, Iran has carried out large naval and missile exercises around the Straits of Hormuz, implicitly threatening to close the waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean, and hence cutting off the main route for oil and gas exports, should America strike. The Iranians have also threatened to rocket America’s Sunni Arab allies and its bases in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Israel. Meanwhile reports suggest that Khamenei, advised by the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, has prepared the country for war, naming successors for himself and for the holders of top civilian and military posts in case of their deaths.

The Sunni Arab states abominate the Shi’ite regime in Tehran but fear its wrath and armaments and, at least publicly, they have pleaded with Washington not to loose the dogs of war. The Saudis especially remember Iran’s devastating drone and cruise missile attack on their oil installations in 2019 and the intermittent Iran-backed terrorist attacks on their cities. Iran has explicitly threatened to broaden any clash with America into a regional war. But while a closure of the Hormuz Straits would hurt the revenues of the Arab gulf states and cause a global chain reaction that would result in massive hikes in fuel prices, it would also halt Iranian oil and gas exports and possibly trigger an American or joint American–Israeli bombardment of Iran’s oil installations at Abadan and Kharg Island. Blocking oil exports from the gulf would also badly affect China, which is reliant on Iranian oil, though a hike in oil prices might please Russia, which is itself an oil exporter. But bluster notwithstanding, neither power is likely to come to Iran’s aid should hostilities break out between the Islamic Republic and the US.

Since the twelve-day Israel–Iran war in June 2025, during which the United States bombed key Iranian nuclear installations, Washington has tried to engage Tehran in talks designed to halt the country’s march toward nuclear weaponry. At first, Iran refused to play ball. However, the massive anti-government demonstrations last December and January, coupled with the American threat to intervene, propelled the ayatollahs to begin negotiating with Washington, albeit through Omani mediation. The Iranians refused to meet the lead American negotiators—Stephen Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—face to face, who both happen to be Jewish.

As Israeli officials feared, the Iranians have succeeded in dragging out the negotiations and have insisted that they be restricted to the nuclear issue. Washington is demanding the complete cessation of uranium enrichment on Iranian soil and has asked the country to relinquish the 400-plus kilogrammes of enriched material it already possesses. For their part, the Iranians have declared that they will never give up uranium enrichment—which they see as a natural right and a matter of national honour and pride—and are demanding the lifting of the American and European economic sanctions as a quid pro quo for whatever concessions they may make. Some of these sanctions were imposed before the multilateral nuclear deal of 2015: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) and the EU, which curbed Iran’s progress toward the Bomb. Further sanctions have been imposed since Trump pulled America out of the JCPOA in May 2018.

So long as the talks are limited to the nuclear issue, they will fail. The alternative is that they strike a “deal” in which Iran pretends to cut back on enriching uranium, and the U.S. pretends to believe Iran. That’s a bad bargain, and if Trump thinks he can pull it off, it may bring peace, but only at the price of more Iranian protestors shot dead and a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic looming over Israel.  I still think Trump will attack, but without U.S. soldiers in the country, there’s no chance of regime change.

*The BBC reports how Russian troops in the Ukraine wars are being executed by fellow soldiers for refusing to take part in “suicide missions” (archived link),.

In the documentary, The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War, men give detailed accounts about how they were tortured for refusing to take part in assaults they describe as verging on suicide missions. Russian troops call these attacks “meat storms” as waves of men are sent across the front line relentlessly to try and wear down Ukrainian forces.

For the first time, the BBC believes, Russian soldiers from the front line say on the record how they witnessed commanders ordering executions of their own men.

One of the men, whose job was to identify and count dead soldiers, provided detailed lists showing that he is the sole survivor from a group of 79 men he was mobilised with. Because he refused to go to the front line, he says he was tortured and urinated on. Others in his unit who refused would be electrocuted, starved and then forced into meat storms unarmed, he says.

The four men, who are on the run, told of the horrors they witnessed at an undisclosed location outside Russia.

Almost all public opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been stamped out in Russia. Official casualty numbers are not released by Moscow, but the UK’s Ministry of Defence says more than 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed or injured since the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.

. . . The detailed first-hand testimony from all four men also verifies reports of a breakdown of law and order on the Russian front line.

. . .All four men told us in graphic detail about the dreaded meat storm missions – part of the Russian military’s wider “meat grinder” tactic on the Ukrainian battlefields.

The storms are so deadly, they are likened to suicide missions.

“I saw them [commanders] send wave after wave, throwing men like meat at the Ukrainians, so they run out of ammo and drones and another wave can reach their objective,” says another former soldier, Denis.

“You send three guys, then another three. It didn’t work out, send 10. It didn’t work out with 10, send 50,” he says. “Eventually you will break through. That’s the logic of the military.

The Russians are, in effect, conducting “banzai” suicide charges, like the Japanese in WWII. They conscript criminals or anybody with a record, send them to the war to die, and execute them if they won’t go. And then the officers take their bank cards. And, as the article says, no criticism of the war is allowed in Russia.

*The drug wars around Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, have unnerved both vacationers and expatriate Americans who have retired there or plan to do so.

The violence in the Puerto Vallarta area is unnerving America’s community of expat retirees in Mexico, a destination popular with the growing number of people retiring abroad.

The Pacific coast tourist city is home to thousands of American retirees. They include Bill Huebsch, a 79-year-old New Yorker who spends about two months a year in nearby Nuevo Nayarit, also known as Nuevo Vallarta, where he purchased a condo with his late wife, Joanne, in 2012.

. . . More Americans are choosing to spend their golden years abroad, and the violence in Puerto Vallarta is underlining the risks. Advisers to people considering expat retirements are telling clients to consider the risks of natural and man-made disasters, from political upheaval to organized criminals. That is in addition to the financial and personal preparations that come with moving abroad.

. . . Ken Schmier, 75, said he and his wife recently purchased a $2.5 million condo on the beach in Puerto Vallarta. “I can see the thing depreciating in half in the last day,” said Schmier, before adding that he was joking. The real-estate developer, who also lives in Larkspur, Calif., said he believes the area is safe thanks in part to its thriving tourist economy.

I had thought of retiring abroad, but changed my mind. If I want to see foreign countries, I will travel, and I am comfortable enough to live my life in the U.S. But I do need to travel more, though I’m not contemplating any parts of Mexico in the near future. (France is more appealing.)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is reproving Andrzej, even giving him the STINK EYE! (Look at her picture, which I’ve made my Twitter avatar.)

Hili: Yesterday you did not write a single sentence.
Andrzej: I was reading a book.
Hili: That is not an explanation.

In Polish:

Hili: Wczoraj nie napisałeś ani jednego zdania.
Ja: Czytałem książkę.
Hili: That is not an explanation.

*******************

From Stacy:

From Things With Faces; it’s plenty scary!

From Cats Doing Cat Stuff:

From Masih, more protests in Iranian universities. I fear that the shooting and killing will resume. (Sound up.)

Today, Tuesday, February 24, students across universities in Iran, for the fourth consecutive day, held protest gatherings and chanted slogans against Khamenei and his regime.

At many universities, Basij forces attacked and beat students, leading to violent clashes. The… pic.twitter.com/iEzxDPM4UT

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 24, 2026

From Emma, highlighting this article.  A film called “I Swear”, about Tourette’s Syndrome (which sometimes causes it sufferers to yell out obscene or forbidden words), was up for a BAFTA Award when its subject shouted out the n-word inadvertently when several black people went onstage. The sufferer, John Davidson, was then demonized for something he could not control.  I just found another piece in the free press about the same thing: “It’s not his fault he used the n-word.” The article adds that “the audience had been alerted that someone with Tourette’s was in the building.”

“Only an industry located so firmly up its own backside could gather to honour a film illustrating the grim realities facing someone living with Tourette’s and then be so publicly aggrieved when the actuality of that illness – and the involuntary nature of its effects on those… https://t.co/tfdG9ANAH6

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) February 24, 2026

*Here the pious Cathlic Ross Douthat (author of a new book about why we should believe in God) debates atheist Phil Zuckerman on God.  I still haven’t found out the details for Steve Pinker’s debate with Douthat, which I thought was on Thursday. Stay tuned. I haven’t listened to this full debate yet, but the parts I have heard shows Douthat using the “fine tuning argument” and the existence of consciousness as evidence for God. Big yawn!

Should Everyone Be Religious? Phil Zuckerman, in conversation between Ross Douthat, eloquently explains why we shouldn’t. https://t.co/K3XuaZcC2j via @YouTube

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) November 8, 2025

From Susan, another inadvertent act:

Please give him one of the medals too😅🙏 pic.twitter.com/o5mA2aLaHa

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 22, 2026

One from my feed; a cat singing the feline blues:

The cat who sang the blues, a duet between this guitarist and his cat

📹Badu The Singing Cat

pic.twitter.com/tlBuqgeXBn

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 24, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was 13 years old. https://t.co/yrEEgKog0Z

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 25, 2026

And two from Dr. Cobb. First, a kot, with Peter O’Toole as its staff:

Peter O'Toole and a cat1962

— Marie Ruiz-Vidal (@ruizvidal7.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:44:05.475Z

And a famous Darwin quote, now repurposed:

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge…”This quote from Darwin's Descent of Man, published #OnThisDay in 1871, pretty much sums up the challenges the world is facing now, a century & a half later.

— Simon Fisher (@profsimonfisher.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T09:29:49.001Z

Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, February 24, 2026, and it’s National Tortilla Chip Day. Better with guacamole than with salsa, this comestible, the backbone of nachos, was popularized, if not invented, in America:

Ignacio Anaya used triangles of fried tortilla for the nachos he created in 1943.

The triangle-shaped tortilla chip was popularized by Rebecca Webb Carranza in the 1940s as a way to make use of misshapen tortillas rejected from the automated tortilla manufacturing machine that she and her husband used at their Mexican delicatessen and tortilla factory in southwest Los Angeles. Carranza found that the discarded tortillas, cut into triangles and fried, were a popular snack, and she sold them for a dime a bag at the El Zarape Tortilla Factory. In 1994, Carranza received the Golden Tortilla award for her contribution to the Mexican food industry

It’s also World Bartender Day and World Spay Day.

Tonight Trump delivers the State of the Union address before the Congress and members of The Supreme Court.  Will there be protests from Democrats?  The NYT has a column (archived here) in which three op-ed writers discuss, “After a big loss, what to expect from Trump at the State of the Union.”  The “loss” refers to the Supreme Court decision rejecting Trump’s tariffs, which he’s now trying to circumvent.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 24 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*NYT staff writer Jeneen Interlandi describes in a longish op-ed “The human cost of Trump’s war on science” (article archived here).

Thirteen months into the second Trump administration, science, medicine and public health have been hijacked by a cadre of grifters and ideologues and by the politicians in obvious thrall to both. Federal institutions have been all but dismantled. Researchers have been defunded en masse and the universities that support them deliberately destabilized. Discourse on crucial scientific questions and key public health challenges has been stifled. And, along the way, trust has been broken between scientists, the nation’s leaders — and the people that both are supposed to serve.

It’s tempting to view this undoing as temporary. Americans love science and revere innovation, almost as a rule, and politicians of every stripe have spent the better part of a century promoting and protecting both. However imperfect the resulting system was, hardly a modern convenience exists that can’t be traced back to it: central air conditioning, the internet and ChatGPT; polio vaccines, statins and weight loss drugs; the human genome sequence and CRISPR gene editing. The National Institutes of Health alone generates about $2.50 in economic returns for every dollar of investment. It’s also the largest government-funded biomedical research agency in the world, and until recently was the envy of scientists across the globe.

The president’s attacks on this legacy have been relentless and all-encompassing. He has turned the federal health department over to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent anti-vaxxer. For months, President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget all but froze operations at the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. His newly established so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fired thousands of civil servants from The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a process that was wildly disorganized, frequently unlawful and needlessly cruel. Global health initiatives were also eviscerated.

Stacked against these measures, the administration’s explanations — which focus on cutting waste and eliminating so-called woke politics from science — have been inadequate and disingenuous.

The bulk of the article concerns the Trump-induced tribulations of Kathryn Macapagal, identified as a “clinical psychologist and a faculty researcher at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who lost four grants and a quarter of her salary in the first flurry of Trump cuts in NIH and NSF funding. But her grants and salary have been restored. The article also concentrates heavily on funding for LGBTQ initiatives, but the cuts affect more than that:

In the past year or so, scientists funded through the National Institutes of Health have developed potential treatments for pancreatic cancer, broke the logjam on Huntington’s disease, shepherded a male birth control pill through clinical trials and saved a baby’s life with the first personalized gene editing procedure. In a different time and place, any one of those breakthroughs would have been hailed as the triumph of an epoch, and might have lured a new generation of talent to the cause of scientific research.

Instead, six years after the pandemic began and one year into the second Trump administration, we have the opposite: seasoned scientists fleeing the profession (or the country), and younger prospects deciding not to pursue it at all. It’s impossible to say what new medicine those minds might have developed or what wicked problems their efforts might have solved.

What seems clear is that Americans have entered a grim new era, one where science itself is a political weapon, rather than a tool for the collective good. It would be simplistic to argue that the two — science and politics — should be wholly disentangled (as a human endeavor that involves trade-offs and requires public support, science is inherently political). But real data and hard, neutral facts still drive the work that most scientists do, and the best of that work should still frame public discourse and ideally, inform public policy. And right now, it does not.

The title of the article is a bit misleading about its contents, which concentrate on a single researcher and on diseases prevalent in the LGBTQ community.  All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not doing research any longer.

*A new poll by ABC, the Washington Post, and IPSOS shows that Trump’s approval rating (just before the State of the Union address) has dropped, to only 39%, but the authors say that Democrats shouldn’t necessarily be ready to see their party winning a lot of elections.

As President Donald Trump prepares to address the nation Tuesday evening, Americans remain generally sour about his performance, with majorities disapproving of his handling of priority initiatives while saying he has overreached the authority of his office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

The president’s approval rating stands at 39 percent positive and 60 percent negative, including 47 percent who say they strongly disapprove. The last time Trump’s disapproval touched 60 percent was shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Among registered voters, Trump’s approval is 41 percent and his disapproval is 58 percent.

Here’s a graph from the Post, though note that the Y-axis is between 40 and 60%. The upper line is the disapproval rating. which has gone up 7% in a year.

*Reader Peter from Australia reports that a group of lesbians are fighting in court to keep trans-identified men out of their events.

A long-running legal battle over whether a lesbian group can exclude transgender women from its events has made its way to the Federal Court.

The Lesbian Action Group (LAG) is appealing a decision by the Human Rights Commission, which ruled it could not legally exclude transgender women.

The case, described as a “clash of rights”, will determine whether the rights of cisgender lesbians come at the expense of trans lesbians.

The Victorian-based LAG says it subscribes to the philosophy of lesbian feminism and does not believe humans can change sex.

It wishes to hold public political and social events exclusively for “lesbian-born females” that would exclude all males irrespective of whether they identify as women.

The group requires an exemption to do this in order to avoid breaching the Sex Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to exclude someone on the basis of gender identity.

The LAG was denied a five-year exemption in 2023, when it applied to the Human Rights Commission.

It then lodged an appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal, which found “overt acts of discrimination” should not be allowed and the exemption could have a detrimental impact on trans women.

The group has now appealed to the Federal Court after running a crowdfunding campaign that raised close to $40,000, with donations made by people from around the world.

Today the LAG’s lawyers told the court the group had the freedom to associate in a way that catered to their own needs.

Counsel Leigh Howard said there was “no human right to be invited to the party” and that the exemption should be granted on the same basis that female-only gyms were given exemptions.

This wouldn’t fly in the UK where they have legalized a definition of “woman” based on biology.  In Australia your sex is apparently defined solely by your “gender identification”, whether or not you’ve had transitioning treatments like hormones or surgery. I can understand the anger of lesbians, who presume that a lesbian must be a woman, not a trans-identified man. This may be an additional example of a clash of rights between groups with biological women (lesbians in this case) are entitled to their own “space.”

*Mark Gustafson’s WSJ column is called “The diminishing risk of an Iran attack,” but by that he means that the risk of Iran attacking other countries is lower, not that the risk of a U.S. attack on Iran is lessening. Gustafson is identified as “White House chief of intelligence (2021-22) and head of the Situation Room (2022-25).” It’s clear he thinks that the risk of U.S. action is smaller than it was during the Biden administration, though there are palpable dangers, like creating chaos in the Middle East.

A lot has changed in two years. The risk of regional war has greatly diminished. Several factors have put the regime on its heels:

• Iran’s regional strength has weakened. Sustained Israeli and U.S. strikes have significantly degraded its proxy network of Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi Shiite militias, the backbone of Tehran’s deterrence strategy. Iran has struggled to resupply them, limiting its ability to mount coordinated retaliation.

• The regime faces profound domestic strain. The economy is in free fall. The rial has lost more than 90% of its value since 2018. Inflation has hovered near 50% annually. Corruption has drained the revolutionary fervor that sustained the state’s legitimacy. Last month the regime killed thousands of protesters in a few days.

• U.S. military capabilities have advanced significantly. Precision strike systems, cyber tools, missile defenses and offensive drones can impose costs without a ground invasion. In Venezuela last month, new tools to disable the electric grid, destroy missile-defense systems, and facilitate cyberattacks helped ensure a successful operation.

• Iran’s leadership is fractured. Last year, Israeli operations killed many of Ali Khamenei’s most loyal security officials, leaving behind tenuous alliances and a supreme leader who is almost 87.

• Iran’s military capabilities are hamstrung. Last year, Israel destroyed most of Iran’s long-range missile infrastructure, advanced air defenses, ammunition depots and radar sites.

• Tehran’s response to Israeli and U.S. attacks last year was tepid. It could muster only a missile barrage against a well-defended U.S. base in Qatar. This time around, the U.S. has deployed more-advanced air defenses to protect its bases and almost doubled the naval and air assets it deployed last year.

For the Trump administration, the upside of acting at a moment of Iranian vulnerability is plainly alluring. It could further erode proxy networks, blunt the nuclear threat, and help tip the global balance of power in America’s favor.

Meamwhile, the U.S. continues to amass troops and weapons around Iran, at the same time that many Iranians, according to the Washington Post’s morning report, are fearful, defiant, exasperated, and divided in their feelings about a possible U.S. attack, but “joyful” or “hopeful” are not words that were used.

Our armaments and troops around Iran:

Will the U.S. attack? I still think so, but it’s not so clear now, for if we really want regime change, I don’t think we can get this without U.S. boots on the ground. And that means a real war, and that in turn means that Congress should really declare it—though Trump’s ignored that Constitutional stipulation over and over.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s asking, “Where’s the beef?”. And her photo is especially cute today:

Hili: All is lost.
Andrzej: What happened?
Hili: Today we ate the last piece of tenderloin.

Look how sad she is!

Hili: Wszystko stracone.
Ja: Co się stało?
Hili: Zjedliśmy dziś ostatni kawałek polędwicy.

*******************

From Things with Faces, two houses conversing:

From Now That’s Wild, a new phylum:

From CinEmma:

From Masih, who in this tweet answers a challenge from an Iranian official. This is very moving:

Wow. The Foreign Minister of the Islamic regime admits to killing 3,117 Iranians.

That’s his defense on international television, then says: If you think it’s more, add one name.
We accept your challenge.We won’t bring one name.
We will bring thousands.
pic.twitter.com/hI4gUTB01U

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 23, 2026

From Luana. If this is real (what he said appears genuine), Newsom is a condescending twit. How could he say such guff?  There is a community note that he wasn’t addressing blacks (the audience was mixed), and that may well be true, but it doesn’t matter: what he’s telling people is “I understand you because I’m as dumb as you are.”

Gavin Newsom is absolutely KILLING IT with the black crowd in Georgia:

“I am like you. I’m a 960 SAT guy. I can’t read. Hopefully that doesn’t offend you.”

Yikes.
pic.twitter.com/psIkJLbtrl

— Jack (@jackunheard) February 23, 2026

From The Pinkah; I haven’t read the article yet, but Sally is good, and this is worth a look:

Can You Really Be ‘Addicted’ to Social Media? Addiction expert Sally Satel @slsatel examines the complexities and suggests that social media overuse is not like heroin addiction after all. https://t.co/K8hE1MMRYU

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) February 20, 2026

Titania has as a new (sarcastic) article in The Critic inspired by Mayor Mamdani. It’s about the need for communism and why Islamic countries are not homophobic (she says this: “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.”

Communism is the only guarantee of human happiness.

Zohran Mamdani is our saviour.

My latest column for @TheCriticMag.https://t.co/ojp0B7Huz2

— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) February 23, 2026

One from my feed, showing again how awesome corvids are:

A crow removing several metal anti-bird spikes from a building ledge. pic.twitter.com/mVZLQhM04s

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 23, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This Dutch Jewish girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was 12 years old. https://t.co/PCx1p3XaW7

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 24, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb. His great niece just won a world championship in bicycling. That’s some sprint she puts on at the end!

My great niece, Erin Boothman, just became UK Women’s Champion in the Elimination track race (in Elimination 18-odd riders whizz round the track, then, every other lap, the last rider is eliminated until there are just two left.). She is only 19, beat some of the best in the world. Hooray!

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-02-22T17:17:43.545Z

Here are the last few minutes of the race. She’s in purple.

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-02-22T20:29:05.453Z

Welcome to the last Monday of the month: it’s Monday, February 23, 2026. In a week it will be March, the Month of Ducks Arrival. It’s also National Tootsie Roll Day, the candy that looks like dung. Here’s a mini:

Here’s an ad for the candy in 1918, when the boys, who fought for America, return and get their rewards:

The candy was invented by an Austrian Jewish immigrant. From Wikipedia:

The first candy that Hirschfield created was Bromangelon Jelly Powder. He completed the invention of Tootsie Rolls in 1907 after patenting a technique to give them their unique texture. He named the candy after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was “Tootsie.”  The first Tootsie Rolls were marketed commercially in September 1908. Hirschfeld became vice-president of the company, which changed its name to Sweets Company of America in 1917, around the time of the retirement of founders Stern and Saalberg. Hirschfield resigned or was fired in 1920 and subsequently started Mells Candy. On January 13, 1922, in his room at the Monterey Hotel in Manhattan, he shot and killed himself, leaving a note saying that he was “sorry, but could not help it.”

I don’t like them. Bromagelon was the first commercial dessert made of gelatin, preceding Jello-O by several years but driven out of business by it.

It’s also Curling is Cool Day, International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day, National Banana Bread Day (good with cream cheese), and National Rationalization Day (see a later post today).

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 23 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

First, the U.S. men’s ice hockey team won Olympic gold by defeating Canada in overtime by a score of 2-1. One player got his front tooth knocked out, and kept playing as blood dribbled on the ice.

But all told, another miracle on ice!  Here is a video of the highlights (watch the first goal: it’s amazing):

*As predicted, Trump isn’t going to accept the Supreme Court’s erasure of most of his tariffs. He is, instead, raising global tariffs to 15%.

President Trump said on Saturday that he would raise his new, global tariff to 15 percent, a day after he took steps to replicate some of the punishing duties that had been struck down by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Trump announced the sudden change in a post on social media, and said the policy would take effect immediately, as he signaled that he would press ahead with his aggressive trade strategy despite suffering a major legal setback.

For some countries, such as Britain and Australia, Mr. Trump’s new 15 percent tariff will actually be higher than the rates that previously applied to their exports to the United States. For others, like China, Vietnam, India and Brazil, the new rate will be significantly lower. The previous set of duties were invalidated on Friday, after a majority of the court’s justices found that the president did not have the authority to issue them.

Mr. Trump had initially set his replacement global rate at 10 percent, using a provision in a law — never before invoked by a president — that allows him to impose an across-the-board tariff for 150 days unless Congress agrees to extend it. In the directive, he indicated it would take effect after midnight on February 24.

The statute caps the rate at 15 percent, limiting the president’s ability to lift it again, though Mr. Trump has signaled he plans to use other trade powers in the coming months to add further taxes on imports.

Here are the old a new tariff rates now from the NYT (click to enlarge):

Look, all tariffs are BAD. Period.  But Trump uses his usual caps when he touts his new decision, which may not stand up to court rulings:

“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been “ripping” the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again — GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” he continued.

*The Washington Post reports that the Secret Service shot and killed an armed man who entered the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

According to Bradshaw, the officers confrontedMartin, who was White, around 1:30 a.m. and orderedhim to put down the gas canister and the gun. He put down the canister and “raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said.

“At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons” and shot and killed the man, who died at the scene, Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw said the incident happened “just inside the inner perimeter” of Mar-a-Lago, near the estate’s north gate.

What is this–the third attempt on his life? You’d think that an assassin would at least check to see that the President was at home before trying to kill him.  I’m sure there are people saying, “Damn, they failed again!”, but, much as I detest Trump and his actions, I will not say I want him killed. Hard as it is to believe, I’m sure there are people who love him, and Trump surely loves himself.  Besides, do you think Vance would be an improvement? I favor waiting it out for the end of his term, promoting good Democratic candidates, and hoping Trump continues to scupper his own approval rating.

*Pictures taken from above reveal a lot of American war planes parked at an airbase in Jordan. You know what that means.

New satellite imagery and flight tracking data show a base in central Jordan has become a key hub for the U.S. military’s planning for possible strikes on Iran.

Imagery captured on Friday shows more than 60 attack aircraft parked at the base, known as Muwaffaq Salti, roughly tripling the number of jets that are normally there. And at least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, according to flight tracking data. More fighter jets could be parked under shelters.

The satellite images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen there. Several drones and helicopters are also seen.

Soldiers also installed new air defenses to protect the base from incoming Iranian missiles.

Jordanian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that the American planes and equipment are deployed there as part of a defense agreement with the United States.

The changes at the base in Jordan are part of a large U.S. military buildup across the region, which comes amid negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. On Friday, President Trump told reporters he was considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran into a deal.

The Jordanian officials said they hoped negotiations between the United States and Iran lead to an agreement that would prevent war in the region. Over the past month, officials from Jordan — as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — praised the talks and said they barred attacks on Iran from their soil.

If Jordan bars attacks on Iran from their soil, where will the U.S. planes take off from if they attack Iran? Also, it doesn’t seem so great for the press to tell Iran where the planes are, allowing Iran to attack them with missiles. But of course the MSM is largely on Iran’s side in all this.

Here’s a tweet with some of the photos:

These satellite images were captured today, and includes more modern aircraft, like F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. More fighter jets could be parked under shelters. https://t.co/gb1iIKkIxk pic.twitter.com/30Ah33iUnX

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) February 21, 2026

*Speaking of Iran, the WSJ says that the Islamic Republic isn’t getting a lot of help from its so-called allies.

Iran has sought for years to build closer military ties with China and Russia, but its powerful friends are proving reluctant to step forward as the regime faces the most acute U.S. threat to its survival in decades.

Russia and Iran conducted small-scale joint naval training in the Gulf of Oman this past week, a show of force dwarfed by the U.S. firepower assembled in the region at sea and on land. An exercise involving ships from China, as well as Russia and Iran, is planned to take place soon in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media.

Iran has also sought to rebuild its missile stockpile, air defenses and other capabilities with help from both China and Russia, according to analysts, after those elements of its military power were battered in a 12-day war against Israel and the U.S. in June.

But Beijing and Moscow have shown little willingness to provide direct military assistance if President Trump does order an attack on Iran, analysts said.

“They’re not going to sacrifice their own interests for the Iranian regime,” said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli military intelligence official and now a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. “They are hoping the regime will not be toppled, but they are definitely not going to counter the U.S. militarily.”

For Beijing, aligning too openly with Tehran risks damaging a critical relationship with Trump, who is scheduled to travel to China in March for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China is Iran’s biggest oil customer and an important market preventing its heavily sanctioned economy from collapsing. Beijing shares with Tehran a desire to counter U.S. power but fears that aligning too closely with the Islamic Republic could jeopardize its relations in the Persian Gulf region, according to analysts.

For Moscow, the calculation is similar but even more urgent: Not alienating Trump and driving him close to Ukraine takes precedence over helping Tehran.

It’s not clear whether our expensive positioning of ships and planes in the Middle East is preparatory to an attack, or is a giant bluff to get Iran to give up its nuclear program, but once again I repeat that they never will, and if they say they will they are lying.  Perhaps a Big Bluff could work to do that, but I doubt it.

*Oy! The skeleton of St. Francis of Assisi is going on display in the town for which he’s named. There are photos at the Guardian site as well as in this tweet from Matthew:

We have come such a long way since the Bronze Age veneration of the dead.

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-02-22T11:11:19.897Z

From the Guardian:

Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on full public display from Sunday for the first time, in a move that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Inside a nitrogen-filled case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (the body of Saint Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hillside town’s Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

St Francis, who died on 3 October 1226, founded the Franciscan order after renouncing his wealth and devoting his life to the poor.

Giulio Cesareo, the director of communications for the Franciscan convent in Assisi, said he hoped the display could be “a meaningful experience” for believers and non-believers alike.

Cesareo, a Franciscan friar, said the “damaged” and “consumed” state of the bones showed that St Francis “gave himself completely” to his life’s work.

His remains, which will be on display until 22 March, were transferred to the basilica built in the saint’s honour in 1230. But it was only in 1818, after excavations carried out in utmost secrecy, that his tomb was rediscovered.

Apart from previous exhumations for inspection and scientific examination, the bones of Saint Francis have only been displayed once, in 1978, to a very limited audience and for only one day.

Usually hidden from view, the transparent case containing the relics since 1978 was brought out on Saturday from the metal coffer in which it is kept inside his stone tomb in the crypt of the basilica. The case is itself inside another bulletproof and anti-burglary glass case.

I’m willing to accept that St. Francis was real—there’s certainly enough evidence for that!—but not that he performed miracles (e.g., preaching to the birds, healing the sick, and getting stigmata), nor that there were later miracles in his name that led to his canonization. And they don’t even mention that he’s the patron saint of animals!

Here’s Jan van Eyck’s painting (ca. 1430) of St. Francis receiving the stigmata (yes, he’s said to have them, but they may have been from disease, and probably not in the right places unless self-inflicted.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is sick to death of winter, just as she always is:

Hili: It’s time for a change in the weather at last.
Andrzej: I feel the same way.

Hili: Najwyższy czas na zmianę pogody.
Ja: Też tak sądzę.

And I found two nice photos from yore. First, Andrzej and Malgorzata taking a break on their front steps with Cyrus and Hili:

And Hili and the late d*g Cyrus, leading us on our daily walk to the Vistula:

*******************

From Ariane, an English lesson:

From This Cat is Guilty:

From Now That’s Wild:

Masih has a video of people protesting the arrest of a teacher for his political views. And the degree of the protests got him freed from jail! Perhaps the Iranians are scared

This is the power of unity and public rage in Iran.

I received this message and videos from Iran:

“Hi Masih, Yesterday, regime forces raided the home of Yaghoob Mohammadi, a teacher in Abdanan. They beat his family with batons and violently arrested him. But the people did not… pic.twitter.com/gIKqssZEY6

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 22, 2026

From Stacy.  The explanation doesn’t make sense, as Israel has far more LGBT people than does Palestine. If Allah hates gays, then Hamas should have won:

Islamic scholar blames the LGBT community for Palestinians losing the war to Israel. He argues that too many LGBT support the Palestinian cause and brought bad luck with them, because Allah hates them.

What will ‘Queers for Palestine’ think? pic.twitter.com/TqQZWiV4ht

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) February 21, 2026

From Simon; Greenland helps the U.S., and Trump responds with his usual lack of grace and absence of gratitude:

This Trump post is frankly unreal in its cynicism and gaslighting:

He posted this because a US nuclear submarine – whose very presence near Greenland is already deeply provocative given the context – was just rescued by Danish military forces after one of its sailors fell ill.… pic.twitter.com/IyAqCWHI41

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) February 22, 2026

From Ginger K.:

A NZ Govt Women’s Network is promoting a male who ID’s as a woman as their ‘inspiring’ keynote speaker for their Intl Women’s Day Event.

I wonder how many women find it inspiring that someone with a criminal history of fraud, also accused of stalking, is the best they could do? pic.twitter.com/lKX5XM3fFp

— Ro Edge (@rosey_nz) February 18, 2026

One from my feed; Science Girl has great tweets:

Still wondering how does this species survived in the wild.. 😅

pic.twitter.com/Wa3BGk9v68

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 22, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This French Jewish girl was sent to Auschwitz and died at the age of about seventeen. https://t.co/STxsMQM0zl

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 23, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb. First, amazing videos of blue whales (the largest creature known to have ever lived) eating krill.  They say it took seven years to make this short video:

This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen

— Steve Mullis (@stevemullis.net) 2026-02-22T08:55:24.356Z

This was a real LOL; I audibly chortled when I saw this:

someone waited their ENTIRE LIFE to write that headline…

— PAL (@paladin42.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T20:26:58.765Z

Welcome to Sunday, February 22, 2026, Sabbath for non-Jewish cats and National Margarita Day, celebrating everyone’s favorite frozen drink.  In fact, I could drink one now although it’s 5:30 a.m. on Saturday as I begin this post. Note that, according to Wikipedia, the history of this drink is “shrouded in mystery.”

It’s also George Washington’s Birthday, National Cook a Sweet Potato Day, National Wildlife Day, and World Thinking Day.  Here’s a thought exercise that my dad posed to me when I was a kid: “Jerry, think of the face of someone you’ve never seen before.”  I couldn’t do it; it always turned into the face of someone I knew. But AI can do it easily!

There’s a Google Doodle on this last day of the Winter Olympics. Click to see where it goes.

And don’t forget the men’s ice hockey finals; here are the details

Where to watch USA vs. Canada

Date: Sunday, Feb. 22 | Time: 8:10 a.m. ET
Location: Milano Santagiulia Arena — Milan, Italy
TV: NBC
Odds: Canada -125, USA +105

Here’s where to watch it. Most links aren’t available in the U.S. or will cost you $$,but the CBC Gem link might work:

• Men’s Ice Hockey Final: Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8.10am ET / 5.10am PT / 1.10pm GMT
• FREE streams: CBC Gem (Canada) / BBC iPlayer (UK) / 9Now (Aus)
• Stream USA vs Canada on Peacock (US)
• Unlock your stream with Norton VPN

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*After the Supreme Court struck down most of Trump’s tariffs two days ago, the Weasel in Chief, as predicted, is finding ways to circumvent the decision. (Article archived here.)

President Trump moved swiftly on Friday to resurrect his punishing tariffs and circumvent a stunning loss at the Supreme Court, ordering a new 10 percent tax on all imports along with other trade actions in a bid to preserve his primary source of economic leverage around the world.

Striking a defiant tone in the face of a legal defeat, Mr. Trump asserted at a news conference that he remained unbowed in a global trade war that has come to define his second term in office. The president even signaled that the tariffs he is now pursuing may yet prove more painful and lasting than those they are meant to replace.

“I can charge much more than I was charging,” Mr. Trump declared as he brandished his remaining trade powers, contending at one point that he could still “destroy foreign countries” by other means.

Mr. Trump said he would revive his tariffs using a series of authorities provided under the 1974 Trade Act. He took his first steps late Friday, invoking a provision of the law known as Section 122 to impose a 10 percent tariff starting on February 24. No president before him had invoked that provision.

Mr. Trump also said he would tap a second set of authorities under Section 301 to open investigations into other countries’ unfair trade practices, which would most likely yield additional tariffs. It was not immediately clear if the administration had commenced that process, or which countries it had targeted.

Together, Mr. Trump tried to frame the twin actions as a close substitute for his newly invalidated emergency duties, many of which he enacted on a historic scale during the highly disruptive rollout billed as “Liberation Day” last spring.

Well, we’ll see if this second “Liberation Day” stands up. The petulance shown in “I can charge much more than I was charging,” is typical Trump.  Remember: TARIFFS ARE BAD FOR AMERICA.  The longer they stay on, the more Americans will pay and the less they’ll approve of Trump. This puts us Democrats between a rock and a hard place. But I don’t want the tariffs on, as we shouldn’t punish consumers just to favor our own party.

And yes, he said he was raising global tariffs to 15%. What a stoat!

*Andrew Sullivan handles a hot potato in his Weekly Dish column: “What the Dems should say on trans rights.”

I had dinner this week with a young gay man who was castrated and had his endocrine system permanently wrecked as a result of “gender-affirming care” for minors. He was super girly as a kid and had an undiagnosed testosterone deficiency which delayed his male development. He liked playing with girls, seemed to act like one, and when he socially transitioned as a teen, he passed easily. Suddenly all the sneers of “faggot” he’d endured as a boy went away. In today’s “gender-affirming care” environment, that was enough.

“Compassion” and “science” took a gay boy, flooded his young male body with estrogen, and removed his genitals — because the docs and the shrinks determined he was too effeminate to be a “real man.” Only when he personally figured this out as an adult and got himself off estrogen and onto testosterone did everything change. He felt energy and mental clarity for the first time. And his life as a man could finally begin — although his body will never be fully repaired.

Readers keep telling me to shut up about this topic (I can hear your groans now). I’m obsessed, you say, and this is a trivial (boring) matter. I’ve lost some good friends who feel very much that way, and my social life has shrunk. But then I meet someone like Mike (a pseudonym) — and I’ve met many others, gay and lesbian — and realize not a single gay group or resource is on his side. In fact, the “LGBTQIA+” lobby all but denies he exists, or dismisses him as transphobic — a dreaded “detransitioner”.

I was thinking about Mike as I read the latest polling — out this week in a liberal online mag, The Argument. The poll shows what we well know: 63 percent of Americans want to protect trans people from discrimination. This isn’t a transphobic country. But, equally, 62 percent oppose transing minors (50 percent strongly), 60 percent support banning transwomen competing against women in sports, and 53 percent want to ban gender ideology in elementary schools. These numbers have gone up the more the debate has raged. The backlash is so intense it has even reversed the public’s previous opposition to bathroom bills.

Now check out the liberal response. Bluesky erupted in fury that the poll was published at all. “Please help us,” one X member tweeted with direct appeals to Tim Cook and McKenzie Scott, who have bankrolled this campaign. Jill Filipovic complained that the “Dems … should have focused on things like ending discrimination in housing and employment,” rather than sports and kids, unaware that the Bostock decision already did that with employment. Most liberals have literally no idea that trans people already have civil rights. Off-message.

In this air-tight ideological bubble, where Bostock is unknown, the Dems flounder. “This isn’t happening” was the first gambit. Good try. Then: “this has all been ginned up by the far right, and Dems did nothing.” Did they miss the Obama and Biden Title IX diktats, Admiral Levine’s removal of lower age limits for transing kids, Biden’s “nonbinary” official Sam Brinton stealing dresses, or other embarrassments like the White House invite to Dylan Mulvaney? Then they say it’s a tiny issue. But it helped Trump massively in 2024. And if it’s tiny, why not compromise? After that, it’s just MLK-envy all the way down, the desire to be the next Rosa Parks. But it’s odd to campaign for “civil rights” when you already have them.

After trying to debate, you come to realize it’s pointless. The woke mind is not really a mind; it’s more like a bunch of synapses. Presented with an actual argument, they snap shut. This is part of what Eric Kaufmann calls the “sacralization” of minorities. For the woke, the “oppressed” are sacred. And in the social justice hierarchy, no minority is as oppressed and thereby as sacred as trans.

The solution:

So what should the Dems do now? Nothing much — because there’s not much left to do but fight the military ban and discrimination in housing and medicine for adults, which are worthy enough goals. What to actually say? How about something like this:

Trans people are under attack today and we need to defend their dignity, equality, and civil rights. We strongly back laws protecting trans people from discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and the military. We support health insurance for adult transitions and believe children with acute gender dysphoria should get much more support, much more therapy, and boundless love. We must not leave them behind.

But we also believe medical interventions should be kept for adults, who alone can give meaningful consent. And we believe that, in the few areas where biology really matters — in sports, medicine and intimate spaces — sex trumps gender. That’s just common sense. We can defend women’s rights and trans rights. We are all in this together.

Maybe I’ll lose friends as well (remember that I’ve publicly been called “anti-trans” by the head of my department’s DEI Committee), but I think Sullivan is right overall.  I too am against against “the military ban and discrimination in housing and medicine for adults” against trans people; but that’s not enough to save you from demonization. If you oppose trans-identified men competing in women’s sports or residing in women’s prisons, you’re “anti-trans.”  There’s no discussion with such authoritarians.

*In a NYT op-ed c0nversation with John Guida, Nate Silver assesses the 2028 Democratic Presidential candidates, while on his own site he ranks them in order, though it’s paywalled and I can see only the top three (from the top down, Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and Buttigieg. Shoot me now;:  the only one of these three I like is the last! From the NYT

*The Torygraph reports more anti-semitism (as well as sexism and racism), and this time it’s in Oxfam! “Former Oxfam chief claims charity is ‘toxic and anti-Semitic’.” (Article archived here.)

Oxfam’s former chief executive has accused the charity of being toxic and anti-Semitic during her tenure.

Halima Begum resigned as the chief executive of Oxfam GB in December amid allegations that she was bullying staff.

Now she has accused the charity of having a disproportionate focus on Gaza compared with other world crises, and said it was too quick to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

Ms Begum, who is taking Oxfam to an employment tribunal over her departure, also accused the charity of racism and sexism from “board members” at “two board meetings”.

In her tribunal claim, she accuses the organisation of having a “toxic anti-Semitic culture”.

Ms Begum, who was appointed in 2024, told Channel 4 News: “It’s important to work around the rule of law and maintain that the international rule of law must not be compromised. But we have to show consistency with other crises in the world, and it always felt as though we were disproportionately working around the crisis in Gaza.”

Referring to Gaza, she added: “But other examples include quite strong pushback when we were not ready yet to use the word ‘genocide’.

“To use the word ‘genocide’, it has to be something we arrive at with consultation and evidence and good legal advice and to try and use that term before we are ready as an organisation feels quite risky to me.”

The charity adopted the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza in summer 2025 and accused the Israeli government of routinely blocking aid.

Ms Begum added that even “as a Muslim woman” it was difficult to hold on to “neutrality and impartiality” within the organisation.

She claimed that during the charity’s restructure, in which large numbers of UK staff were made redundant, a member of the senior team called the all-female leadership team a “bunch of s–ts.” In December, the charity’s board found Ms Begum’s £130,000-a-year position had become “untenable” after she allegedly created a “climate of fear”.

Oxfam has denied Begum’s claims, though Israel has banned dozens of NGOs, including MSF and Oxfam, from operating in Gaza because they wouldn’t comply with restrictions, including identifying members of their Palestinian staff (there’s a good reason for that given what UNRWA did).

*Finally, here are a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news-and-snark column in The Free Press, called this week “TGIF: Bad for business class.”

→ AOC’s big European tour: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up at the Munich Security Conference to debut as a world leader, and it did not go smoothly. She seemed tired (I get it) and stumbled over questions. As a forever Hillary Clinton voter, I’m biased, sure. Hilz would never stutter on a foreign policy question. Taiwan? If China sneezes toward Taiwan, if a tiny fishing boat accidentally turned two degrees left, Hillary would invade Beijing and go back to calling it Peking. It’s America’s world, and you’re Peking again. That’s what my Hillary would say, and she’d make sure the mic was nice and centered when she said it. In Munich, an interviewer asked AOC: “Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan, if China were to move?” AOC responded: “You know, I think that, uh, this is such a, you know, I think that this is a, um, this is of course a very long-standing, um, policy of the United States, uh, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.” Perfect. Stuck the landing.

Here’s AOC on Venezuela: “It is not a remark on who [Nicolás] Maduro was as a leader—he canceled elections, he was an anti-democratic leader—that doesn’t mean that we can kidnap a head of state and engage in acts of war just because the nation is below the equator.” But Venezuela is entirely north of the equator?! So it’s kosher now?

Call it a day, kids. It’s Gavin Newsom’s turn. . .

→ News of the Jews: There was an effigy of an “Israeli” at an annual carnival in Andorra, and partygoers strung it up in the air and shot at it. See, it had a Star of David on its face, but it wasn’t antisemitic, just political. This was criticism of a foreign government’s policies, silly, don’t you see that?

The whole scene is straight out of Borat. Who remembers “the running of the Jew”? And the Hamas tunnels are getting a major PR makeover. First, there’s a presentation at City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law: “This anthropologic investigation will examine the history and usage of tunnels in Gaza, focusing on land use and social organization in resistance to colonization.” U.S.-based Dutch artist Robert Roest is finding inspiration in Hamas tunnel glorification: “The light that may appear at some point might be the flashlight of an occupation soldier or a resistance militant, who then ends your life or saves it.” So hopeless, those in the tunnels, just waiting for the righteous flashlight of the resistance militant.

Meanwhile, Matt Lucas, a British Jewish actor/comedian not known for speaking about the conflict, was chased around and videotaped through the London Tube by someone demanding that he Free Palestine. All normal, political speech. Don’t go losing your head!

→ Loud and Clear Voice Woman: Minnesota lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan is a member of the White Earth Nation, which is a federally recognized Ojibwe tribe, and I need you to know her Native American name. “My Ojibwe name is Gizhiiwewidamoonkwe, which means ‘Speaks in a Loud and Clear Voice Woman’,” she told a podcast a couple weeks ago. A tribal leader was like, your name is going to be loud aggressive woman. He fully means it as an insult, and she fully takes it as a compliment. It’s beautiful. My Ojibwe name means ‘Woman With Woman No Husband Why, Maybe Tits Saggy.’ It’s so meaningful to me.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is doing a military-style inspection of the bedroom:

Hili: I see a hair from Szaron’s fur.
Andrzej: That’s terrible.
Hili: No, it’s proof that he was here too.

*******************

From This Cat is Guilty:

From: Bad Spelling or Grammar on Signs and Notices:

From Stacy:

From Masih, student protests in Iran, a country that the U.S. may well soon attack,

Students Rise Across Iran: “Death to Khamenei” Echoes Through Universities

On the very first day of universities reopening, students across Iran took to the streets and campus grounds, chanting slogans against the regime and directly against Khamenei.

Student protests, reported… pic.twitter.com/mT16SVkXUr

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 21, 2026

A good catch from Luana: Agustín Fuentes, in his book Sex is a Spectrum, appears to have presented as real data the results of a simulated example. Didn’t he check?

Incredible.

One of the people behind a nonsense book arguing that sex is a spectrum (it’s binary) seemingly didn’t realize that he was using simulated unrealistic data from someone else when he was making a point about height overlap. https://t.co/QrRkmgIH7R pic.twitter.com/ACuphi4il1

— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) February 20, 2026

J. K. Rowling tweets condolences to a Harry Potter fan shot in Iran by the government:

My deepest condolences to all who loved him.
Rest in peace, Sina Ashgbousi 🇮🇷🐍⚡️ https://t.co/gCVeFvr5HD

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 9, 2026

I get a mention from The Pinkah, but, more important, he enumerates all the once-liberal organizations that, like PEN America, have been ideologically captured:

Hard-left activists, particularly militant transgender ideologues and despisers of Israel, are laying waste to liberal organizations: ACLU, American Humanists, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation, and now PEN America. Jerry Coyne: PEN…

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) February 20, 2026

One from my feed: origami.  Remember that this involve just a single sheet of paper:

Il y a les origamis. Et puis il y a les créations en papier de l’artiste vietnamien Thien Dinh pic.twitter.com/8etJv1cGEz

— Nathalie Chalard bis (@BisChalard57545) February 21, 2026

I had to put this up because it’s so amazing. Look how gentle the elephant is with the kitten:

ลูกใครค้าาาาาาาาาาาาาา pic.twitter.com/IpMcazNnHi

— Eaaaw (@Eaaaw) February 20, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This French Jewish girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was five years old, and would be 88 today had she lived. https://t.co/sCAKWOcVsk

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 22, 2026

And an optical illusion from Dr. Cobb. Check for yourself with a ruler:

The strongest version of this illusion I’ve seen! Absolute head-wrecker!

— Kevin Mitchell (@wiringthebrain.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T16:36:43.829Z

Welcome to CaturSaturday, February 21, 2026, and Boiled Peanuts Day. If you ever see them for sale, as I did ion 2013 at this stand near Warm Springs, Georgia, buy them. They are terrific, especially when hot.  (Note that they use immature peanuts.)

It’s also National Sticky Bun Day, World Kombucha Day (again? I still haven’t had it), World Pangolin Day, and World Whale Day.

Today’s Google Doodle is on freestyle skiing. Click to see where it goes:

The Olympics end tomorrow, after the U.S. men’s ice hockey team play’s Canada. Will we have another “Miracle on Ice” after 46 years. I think so.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 21 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*I wrote last night about the Supreme Court ditching Trump’s recently-imposed tariffs. Whether he can circumvent that, as he pledges, remains to be seen.

*The WaPo reports that a poll of Americans show that most of us think Trump has gone “too far” with his immigration scheme. (Article is archived here.)

Thirteen months into President Donald Trump’s second term, a growing majority of Americans have soured on his handling of immigration, with 58 percent saying he has gone too far deporting undocumented immigrants, a rise of eight points since last fall, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

The survey finds that a slightly higher number, 62 percent, oppose the aggressive tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a result that comes after federal immigration personnel shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month. More than half the public is “upset” or “angry” about enforcement operations in that city.

*A group of faculty at the University of British Columbia is suing the school for promulgating social-justice initiatives that, they say, violates a provincial law requiring universities to be politically neutral.

Job candidates required to describe how they would advance “decolonization.” A video that suggests starting meetings by identifying oneself as a “settler” on unceded native lands. A political scientist who says he was instructed to teach game theory “from an Indigenous perspective.”

Each, a practice at the University of British Columbia, is now evidence in a lawsuit brought against the school by a group of professors who claim such social-justice efforts violate a provincial law requiring universities to stay out of politics.

The suit, filed last spring and currently under review by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, has set off a major legal and cultural battle at one of Canada’s top universities, in which each side accuses the other of trying to push an activist political agenda in the name of free speech.

The case underscores how Trump-era opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts has spread north to Canada. But more than a snow-covered battlefield in the culture war, the suit raises important questions about when public speech in a democratic society is political.

The professors who petitioned the court say the university’s measures promote a campus culture that punishes contrarian ideas and pressures academics to endorse progressive political positions with which they may disagree. They seek to ban the university from a broad range of actions that include requiring job applicants to commit to diversity principles; and the making of so-called land acknowledgments, ceremonial statements which often precede public events and that note Canada is the ancestral land of Indigenous people.

The professors’ case hinges on a decades-old provincial law, called the University Act, which mandates that universities be “nonsectarian and nonpolitical in principle.” But the law does little to clarify the bigger question before the court: What counts as political?

“In recent years, university administrators have given in to the calls to take political positions,” said Josh Dehaas, a lawyer for the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a libertarian organization, who is representing the professors suing the university. “In this particular era, the pressure they have given into is often progressive causes.” Before 2020, he added, an accomplished academic did not need “to commit to D.E.I. principles to become a professor at U.B.C.”

The four professors who brought the lawsuit declined to speak on the record while the case is under review by the court.

In a brief submitted to the court, the university argued the professors have not shown proof of harm to their careers or liberties, and denied that either land acknowledgments or D.E.I. policies constitute “political activity” under the law.

Well, that last bit depends on whether ideological activities, which DEI measures and land acknowledgments clearly are (they’re banned at the University of Chicago), count as political activities.  I predict the plaintiffs will lose on the grounds that they don’t have standing (is that a thing in Canada?). That is, they haven’t shown personal damages to themselves.  But at least at the University of Chicago all these activities are not permitted since they count as violations of institutional neutrality.

* Three articles from the NYT about the new ballroom that’s supposedly going to replace the already-demolished East Wing of the White House. And oy, vey!—look at the titles.

• A commission approved final plans for Trump’s $400 million ballroom addition to the White House, even as one member revealed that the public’s response to the plan had been widely negative.
• The final ballroom plan is notably different from earlier versions. See the changes (archived here).
• Trump has been dumping rubble from the project into a public park in Washington — part of his plan to turn it into a luxury golf destination.

Excerpts from all three:

An arts commission stacked with President Trump’s allies approved his $400 million ballroom on Thursday, bypassing the normal review process and fast-tracking the vote on a project that would transform the profile of the White House.

The vote came even as the panel’s longtime secretary — one of the only people involved who was not appointed by Mr. Trump — described mass opposition to the project, saying he had received more than 2,000 messages from across the country in one week.

The Commission of Fine Arts had been expected to hold only a preliminary vote on Thursday, but the panel chose to push forward and give its final approval ahead of schedule. Mr. Trump wants to have the ballroom built and open to guests within a year and a half.

You can see the newest plans at the second link above

In an earlier design released by Shalom Baranes — the new architect hired by Mr. Trump in December — the east and south porticoes each had a triangular pediment. The one on the south portico has been removed in the latest plan.

But the pediment on the east portico (not shown in the view above) remains and its height is about four feet taller than the roof of the executive residence. Critics have said the design would dwarf the existing White House.

. . . These are the first renderings that include details about a garden that would replace the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which was demolished with the old East Wing

Finally, the number and design of the arched windows on the new “wing” have changed. You can see the changes if you subscribe to the Post, or see them at the free archived page here.

As for the new golf course, it will be a luxury course that will replace the cheap public golf course on an island with both a nice park and the Jefferson Memorial. Here’s what’s there now:

It’s a neat place. There are hundreds of cherry blossom trees, a road for cycling that wraps around the perimeter of the island, and a primo picnic area at its eastern tip. Most of the park is taken up by an affordable golf course that has been there in some form since the beginning. The course, East Potomac Golf Links, is a bit shabby, but the prices are unbeatable: $42 for 18 holes.

This will be replaced by a much more expensive course, I think, and sue me if it won’t have Trump’s name on it. I am not sure if what he’s doing there is even legal. The plans:

“We’re going to make it a beautiful, world-class, U.S. Open-caliber course,” Mr. Trump said when asked about this last month. “Ideally, we’re going to have major tournaments there and everything else. It’s going to bring a lot of business into Washington.”

That would involve demolishing the adjacent park and replacing it with a course that would cost hundreds of dollars to play. And no, it may not be legal, but it’s already a fait accompli as debris is dumped all over the island.

*Daily college Jew-dissing. This one comes from Haverford College in the eponymous Philadelphia town, and was reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The excuse: an Israeli reporter was supposed to speak. (h/t Ginger K.)

During a talk by an Israeli journalist at Haverford College earlier this month, a group of about a dozen masked people sat and stood in the audience.

At one point, one of them began shouting through a bullhorn, “Death to IOF,” or Israeli Occupying Forces, a name critics use to refer to Israel Defense Forces, and “Shame,” according to a video of the incident and people who attended the event. The protesters’ faces were covered by masks or keffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian identity.

“When Gaza has burned, you will all burn, too,” the protester shouted at the audience of about 180 people, many of them members of the local Jewish community, according to another video viewed by The Inquirer.

An audience member grabbed at the bullhorn and appeared to make contact with the protester as the protester yelled in his face, according to a video. The college’s campus safety personnel ejected both the bullhorn user and the audience member and has since banned both from campus, college officials said, noting that neither is an employee, student, or alumnus of Haverford.

The event sparked renewed charges of antisemitism on the highly selective liberal arts campus, which already is under scrutiny by a Republican-led congressional committee for its handling of antisemitism complaints and is the subject of an open investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.

It will also lead to changes in Haverford’s policies. In a message to the campus after the event, president Wendy Raymond — who faced intense questioning from the congressional committee about the school’s response to antisemitism last year — said “shouting down a speaker whom one does not agree with is never acceptable and stands outside of our shared community values.”

College officials acknowledged that Haverford needs to upgrade its event policies and said changes would be rolled out no later than after spring break.

Some people who attended the event to hear journalist Haviv Rettig Gur said they were afraid because they did not know who the masked attendees were or what they had in their belongings, and in light of recent mass violence at Jewish events around the world.

Click on the screenshot below to see the screaming, unhinged (and, of course, masked) student on Instagram. You can see a different but equally disgusting video embedded in the Inquirer article. (Sound up, but not too loud!) Finally, you can hear the professor in the class talking sternly to the protestors here. Finally, if you want to write to President Raymond, her email is publicly available here. I’m writing to her in a minute.

*Finally, in Chicago news, a local man filed a lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings, arguing that their menu item “boneless chicken wings” was deceptive, as the “boneless wings” were not wings at all, but just breast meat formed into winglike shapes.  To me that’s deception, but a federal judge said that the term was okay.  Here’s an ABC news clip in which both reporters make as many jokes about chicken wings as possible:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej finishes Hili’s thought:

Hili: If we weigh it all…
Andrzej: Then the outcome could truly surprise us.

In Polish:

Hili: Jeśli zważymy wszystko…
Ja: To wynik może nas bardzo zdziwić.

*******************

From CinEmma, presumably photographed on Valentine’s Day:

From The Language Nerds:

From Cats, Coffee, & Chaos 2.0: A cat-loaf sandwich (is that cream cheese?)

From Masih, an ineffably sad post showing a ten-year-old boy whose mom was killed by Iranian cops:

“I wanted to become a police officer… but the police shot and killed my mom, I don’t want to be a police anymore…..My mom is dead. One bullet, and my whole life collapsed.”

These are the words of 10-year-old Ilya, standing at his mother’s grave on her 40th day in Iran and his… pic.twitter.com/JRUFyxW2j7

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 20, 2026

From Luana; this is horrific:

If public schools are going to be this explicitly political, they cannot be surprised when legislators treat them as such and start targeting their funding. https://t.co/lKd7CuREkZ

— Corey Walker 🇺🇸 (@CoreyWriting) February 18, 2026

From Malcolm, a cat wants into a Mercedes:

OPEN THE DOOR! 😾 pic.twitter.com/n5zB9wKG75

— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) January 31, 2026

Larry the Cat makes a funny:

Why does he look like he’s investigating my murder?! https://t.co/nFZ0KodbeP

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) February 14, 2026

One from my feed. Crikey, look at the Taliban’s new laws!

Afghan Taliban passes “domestic violence” law, but it’s not what it sounds like

Under the new law, men have the full right to beat their wives and children, as long as it doesn’t result in “broken bones or open wounds.”

A husband can face up to 15 days in jail if he seriously… pic.twitter.com/IiU5XkIDqP

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 20, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

Two Dutch Jewish sisters, the older one a ten-year-old, were gassed as soon as they arrived in Auschwitz. https://t.co/jr6j6tjB6R

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 21, 2026

Two from Matthew. First, the U.S. vs the UK:

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:42:02.342Z

And a lovely nudibranch:

Nudibranch Phyllidia #gili #giliislands #lombok #diving #scuba #trawangan #diveandstay #giliair #pets #ocean #sealife #marinelife #padi #seaslug #nudibranch

— Terumbu (@terumbudivers.com) 2026-02-18T10:22:22.000Z