Vaccine Makers Curtail Research and Cut JobsFederal policies under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that are hostile to vaccines have “sent a chill through the entire industry,” one scientist said.
Monday, February 16, 2026
Seems Bad
Big Pharma isn't perfect, of course, but it is bad if they stop doing the actual potentially useful things they sometimes do.
Where's Kash
I don't have access to the panopticon, but for awhile it seemed like that dude was always rushing to a camera. Not lately (?).
Good Bunny
One bias in media coverage is the tendency to treat the latest conservative culture nonsense as a winner for them. Even the headline admits it: Poll Surprise.
On the question “Who better represents America?,” the split between 42% for Bad Bunny versus 39% for Trump had the performer ahead by three points — and left 20% who answered “not sure,” making it a closer call between those two than it was in the lopsided contest between the Seahawks and Patriots.
Asked for their overall opinion of Bad Bunny, 43% of those polled said they had a favorable take on the artist, while 36% said it was unfavorable.
There was a similar result when those surveyed were asked whether they approved or disapproved of Bad Bunny as the halftime pick. The yay vote was 44%, while 35% disapproved of the NFL’s choice.
Rattled Broadsides
Comparing NYT coverage of China vs. the US is pretty entertaining. US (from November)
Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation
The moves to fire or sideline generals and admirals are without precedent in recent decades and have rattled the top brass.
In Xi’s Purge of the Military, a Search for Absolute Loyalty
By reaching back to Maoist tactics of “rectification,” the Chinese leader is signaling that control over the gun requires a state of perpetual cleansing.
...
Like Mao, Mr. Xi is pursuing a kind of spiritual renewal of the party and the military he commands, what he calls constant “self revolution.” And like Mao, that has taken the form of constant purging of enemies, associates and now, those in his inner circle, too. It is a new level of ruthlessness for a man who has already concentrated power in himself to a degree not seen since Mao.
Over the past three years, Mr. Xi has essentially ousted five of the six generals in China’s top military body, the Central Military Commission, which controls China’s armed forces. Only two members are left: Mr. Xi himself and a vice chairman who has overseen Mr. Xi’s purges.
...
The sudden removal of senior officials with no explanation has become a hallmark of Mr. Xi’s rule, inspiring uncertainty and fear among Chinese officials in what analysts say is either a sign of his increasing paranoia or a tactic to keep the leader’s enemies, as well as his allies, guessing.
US, a couple of days ago:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Defense Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, the latest broadside by the Trump administration in its pressure campaign to force the university to cut a deal with the government.
China, today:
When Mr. Xi talks about the spirit of Yan’an, he glosses over details of the purging of thousands of party members at Yan’an through psychologically brutal sessions of self-criticism that led some to suicide. Mr. Xi uses some of those methods of political indoctrination, including mandating study sessions of his personalized doctrine, Xi Jinping Thought, and encouraging the reporting of one’s peers or superiors for violating Mr. Xi’s edicts, according to Wen-Hsuan Tsai, a scholar of elite Chinese politics at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
“It turns the whole party into a trial of mutual reporting, so no one can be trusted — not your parents, not your superiors, no one,” Dr. Tsai said.
“His type of regime needs constant enemies and purges to maintain fear,” he said.
Cars Are Expensive
I don't think I've done a smug "I haven't owned a car in 22 years" post in awhile. I really don't know how people afford these things.
That level of density also makes driving/parking maddening. It isn't suburban paradise, either. Parking is always an issue. You can't drive anywhere and expect finding parking to be easy. This adds time to any trip.
I had a rental for a few days and was without one for a few. LA's bus system (plus some rail) is actually pretty good. I get amused by locals who will ride transit anywhere but their own city (the reverse of New Yorkers, who will seemingly only ride transit in NYC*). $1.75 to get to the airport beats the $60+ taxi ride.
Record-high car prices coupled with high interest rates are leading to huge monthly car payments for many Americans. A record share of Americans — more than 20% — agreed to pay more than $1,000 per month for a new car loan at the end of the year, according to car sales site Edmunds.Los Angeles (where I was recently) is such a maddening place. Everywhere (almost) is built almost-but-not-quite-dense-enough such that walking is unpleasant even when feasible. Distance is distance and anything longer than about 3/4 a mile anywhere pushes people to driving or transit, but in LA, even those half mile (10 minuteish) walks are often just... not especially pleasant for various reasons.
That level of density also makes driving/parking maddening. It isn't suburban paradise, either. Parking is always an issue. You can't drive anywhere and expect finding parking to be easy. This adds time to any trip.
I had a rental for a few days and was without one for a few. LA's bus system (plus some rail) is actually pretty good. I get amused by locals who will ride transit anywhere but their own city (the reverse of New Yorkers, who will seemingly only ride transit in NYC*). $1.75 to get to the airport beats the $60+ taxi ride.
*#notallnewyorkers of course
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Picky Eaters
I don't have kids, but my observation of the children of Other People (limited by definition, but an outside perspective has value) is that younger children have no problem eating, or at least trying, whatever is offered to them, generally, if the parents raise them on a varied diet and encourage them to be open. But even those kids often hit a picky early teenager phase, which they then grow out of.
It might be tempting to buy marketers’ claims that once children got personalized food, they finally got to eat what they actually liked. But exploding choice fostered comparison and discontent. Within just a few decades, all sorts of foods that kids used to love — from briny shellfish to bitter marmalade — came to be unthinkable as kids’ foods. Preferences were increasingly understood in relation to aversions, and the beating heart of modern children’s food became displeasure.Generalizing away from food, teach your kids that disliking things is not actually a personality. Teach your adults that, too.
Parents today hear grim warnings about the dangers of fighting pickiness. We’ve been told that urging kids to eat any particular dish can cause lasting aversions and dysfunctional relationships with food. At the same time, many parents quietly anguish over children’s highly processed diets, rising obesity rates and the stresses that stalk picky eaters in daily life. There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance, and it’s contributing to immense frustration, anxiety and undeserved guilt around mealtimes.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Before the days of Froot Loops and Lunchables, generations of American children learned to relish foods of all textures, flavors and colors, while obesity and eating disorders were both rare. The children of the past show us a happier, healthier and more delicious path forward. Parents can warmly encourage children to eat family foods and avoid offering alternatives. They can also counter corporate marketing with their own enthusiastic messages about the foods they love to eat, whether it’s a crunchy salad or slippery green olives.
Working With The Pedophile To Bring Down The Pope For Tolerating Homosexuality
A perfectly consistent worldview, but it isn't one the people who are paid to write about politics acknowledge.
Also Bannon is a great source.
Also Bannon is a great source.
No One Can Object To Bipartisan Commonsense Reforms
That's just common sense, Jake!
I know some will say that Chuck (and Dems) use this kind of rhetoric knowing that it is bullshit but thinking it is effective. It is not effective! It makes you look like a chump!Schumer on DHS reforms: "I believe Republicans will have no choice but to go along with us because it's so common sense"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 15, 2026 at 2:15 PM
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Believing Their Own Bullshit
One of my stray thoughts that I didn't have a chance to BLOG while I was busy last week was that the whole "El Paso Party Balloon" saga rests on their deep belief in some elaborate DRUG CARTEL DRONE NETWORK which is doing... something... flying around... doing drone stuff...
It probably originated in some right wing conspiracy theory, which an intelligence guy was tasked to "prove" so he wrote some report confirming it. It then gets "leaked" to the newspapers, which never question what the CIACOPTROOPS tell them. From there it goes back to the idiots in charge who decide they must FIND AND DESTROY THESE DRONES. So we close airspace to destroy some party balloons.
I don't know if it happened exactly that way, of course, but the information pipelines being filled with sewage and then blessed by our greatest newspapers is the explanation for a lot of the last 25 years. We've just replaced Colin Powell and his vial of sand with Youtuber HitlerWasRight, twitter OPSEC expert CATTURD2, and Whiskey Pete Hegseth.
Related: whatever happened to the Great New Jersey Drone Invasion of the Winter of 2024?
Saturday, February 14, 2026
DHS Shutdown
I admit I didn't think the Dems would go through with it, though we will see what happens next...
Friday, February 13, 2026
Rugged Great Plainswoman
NYT, 2021:
Nothing the NYT loves doing more than Beat Sweeteners for conservatives. They don't even do it for the access! They just love writing fan fiction about them. "Rugged Great Plainswoman." Leave NYC once challenge.
Ms. Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has defied coronavirus restrictions and eagerly projects a rugged Great Plainswoman image.WSJ, yesterday.
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust and have fired employees—in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.The rugged one needs her binkie.
Nothing the NYT loves doing more than Beat Sweeteners for conservatives. They don't even do it for the access! They just love writing fan fiction about them. "Rugged Great Plainswoman." Leave NYC once challenge.
Does Anybody Show Up For Work
An amazing sequence of paragraphs.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart are expected to soon leave HHS as part of a broader restructuring at the agency ahead of the midterm elections. Trump administration officials have discussed offering them other positions in the government, two people said.
Within the administration, O’Neill was viewed as a shaky public communicator who had struggled to find his fit within the department, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Although he doesn’t have any formal medical or public health background, O’Neill was named acting director at the CDC after the ouster of Dr. Susan Monarez in late August. Before coming to HHS, O’Neill was CEO of the Thiel Foundation and an investment manager at Clarium Capital. He previously served at HHS under President George W. Bush.
...
O’Neill seldom visited the CDC, according to former agency leaders who declined to be named because they weren’t authorized to comment on the situation. HHS did not immediately comment on his level of engagement at the agency.
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