Tex's Place

By Teri Christoph If ever there was a perfect story to sum up the disarray that is the Democrat Party circa 2026, it's this one. The party looking to solidify its messaging ahead of the midterm elections – they'd like very much to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives – is about to use the occasion of the State of the Union (SOTU), to be delivered Tuesday by President Trump, to serve up copious amounts of chaos and confusion to voters.  As RedState  reported  on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who's been in office just over one month, would be delivering the official Democrat rebuttal following the conclusion of Tuesday's SOTU.  Schumer praised the pick of Spanberger, claiming she is someone who "has always put service over politics. She knows Americans want lower costs, safer communities, and a stronger democracy — not chaos and corruption. Gov. Spanberger will lay out a clear path...

THE STATE DEPARTMENT registered the freedom.gov domain name in mid-January, though no launch date has been announced. By Ryan King The State Department is developing an internal portal to give foreign nationals in Europe and elsewhere a tool to skirt their home country’s governmental content moderation policies. Sporting the domain “freedom.gov,” the portal being developed is intended to help combat internet censorship around the world, including by European allies. “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs [virtual private networks],” a State Department official told The Post. The official stressed that the web portal, which was first reported by Reuters, is not specific to Europe and that there is no set date for when it will launch. At the moment, the website, whose domain was registered last month, features text proclaiming, “Freedom Is Coming” and “I...

By Ward Clark We focus a lot on the various forces of Islamic terrorism around the world, and that's justified; there are far too many jihadi goblins out there. But once in a while we are reminded that we have our own, home-grown nutjobs, too. One such is one Dawson Noah Maloney, who sent himself to his own just deserts after an aborted attack on a Las Vegas-area power substation. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) has  released some chilling details . Here's the thread: #BREAKING TERRORISM UPDATE – JOINT INVESTIGATION LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill was joined this afternoon by Chief Timothy Shea of the Boulder City Police Department and Special Agent in Charge Chris Delzotto of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office to provide an update regarding a… pic.twitter.com/8cC7huYthL — LVMPD (@LVMPD) February 20, 2026 The initial X post in the thread continues: ...to provide an update regarding a critical incident that began last night near Boulder City.  On Feb. 19, 2...

THE SUPREME COURT tariff ruling was a setback only for those who aren't paying attention to the international trade reset occurring behind the scenes. By Matthew Lynn It’s turning into a familiar ritual. President Trump imposes fresh tariffs, often announced on social media late at night, and within seconds the decision is condemned by officials and politicians from Brussels to Paris, Beijing, Berlin, and London. There are dramatic warnings about how trade wars benefit no one, accompanied by solemn declarations that Europe will not be bullied, and elegies for the “rules-based order.” The financial press dutifully chronicles the “chaos” and “unpredictability” of American trade policy, while CNN books another expert to explain why it cannot possibly work and the Financial Times runs yet another column about how the United States is only damaging itself. Then, a few weeks later, buried somewhere on page 17, a different story starts to emerge: Germany has agreed to new defense ...

By Scott Pinsker Assigning value to intellectual properties (IP) is always fraught with peril, because an IP is simply a building block:  Until you utilize it effectively, it’s worthless. I’ll give you an example: Today, the intellectual properties that comprise the Marvel Cinematic Universe — i.e., globally recognized brands like Iron Man, Captain America, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and more — are worth billions. Each of the aforementioned IPs has appeared in  multiple  billion-dollar film titles, and the MCU is the most lucrative film franchise in history. In 2024, it became the  first film franchise to earn over $30 billion at the box office . And Sony could’ve bought it all for just $15 million! Famously, Sony turned Marvel down. As  Yair Landau, then a junior executive with Sony, recalled it , "The collective team decided they didn't care about the other Marvel properties, that they didn't want to invest in them. I was told, 'Nobody gives a s*** about ...

By Chase Spears It’s the largest incident of liquid pollution in American history, with reports stating that roughly 250-million gallons of raw sewage has poured from the Washington, D.C., sewer system into the Potomac River over the last month. This biohazard tide infects much of the Chesapeake Bay and will eventually make its way along the eastern seaboard via the Atlantic Ocean. Astute observers in times past noted how it seems as if the beltway deliberately craps on Americans. As it turns out…  The national media has demonstrated remarkable restraint from reporting on this catastrophe as it continues in the national capitol region. Hundreds of millions of contaminated gallons spilled in highly populated regions, and spreading across essential fisheries, receives sparse mention. Compare that to the global outrage over the Exxon-Valdez in 1989, which spilled a comparatively paltry  11-million  gallons of crude oil into a remote region off the coast of Alaska.  ...

By Duke The race to replace Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is in full swing. We are already halfway through February, which means spring and the month of March are just around the corner. Up here in the semi-great white north, we get excited about simple things like this. Of course, what that means is that the calendar is ticking away, and we shall soon be into the summer and ticking towards the August primary, where the Michigan GOP and Democratic Party will decide who will lead them into the general election in November of 2026. How thrilling this all is.  Actually, this year will be more exciting than most I have observed in the past, and I shall explain why in a moment. Things are formally starting to heat up in the race to replace Whitmer. Below, I do a brief analysis of who is where, and maybe what we can expect. The  Detroit News  has some of the details about who has raised what. Democrat Jocelyn Benson raised the most money of the candidates running to be...

WELCOME to The Corral! This is an open chat forum like REVEILLE, but for Sat and Sun.  Have a wonderful weekend, and please be civil! TEX

By Jerry Dunleavy & John Solomon In a dramatic repudiation, CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Friday rescinded or revised 19 intelligence reports the agency produced dating back to the Obama era because they were politically biased or used poor spy tradecraft, including one analysis suggesting that women who pursue traditional motherhood were at danger of becoming violent extremists. A senior CIA official told  Just The News  the reports were initially flagged during a review by the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, then reviewed by career agency officials before being retracted, recalled or revised. "There is absolutely no room for bias in any kind of the CIA's work," the official said. "So when we find instances where our tradecraft did not reach that high bar of impartiality, we must correct the record. And that's why we're taking steps to reinforce analytic integrity by ordering the public release, substantive revision or retraction of the...