The West is in trouble. One of the reasons is that the West has fundamentally failed to distinguish between tolerance of one another’s traditions and lifestyles on the one hand, and the bizarre bend-over-backward celebration that accompanies the undermining of traditions unique to the West. A perfect example is what’s happening in Germany now. It seems like a small story, but it is indicative of a broader mindset that has been setting in throughout the West for generations. In Germany, McDonald’s decided on an ad campaign. The German population is roughly 6.5% Muslim at this point. Muslims celebrate Ramadan around this time of year, which means they are fasting from sunup to sundown. Fine. That is the Muslim tradition. There are a lot of Muslims who live in the West who are perfectly fine Western citizens. McDonald’s is not halal, meaning food that religious Muslims can eat. If you are a Muslim who is celebrating Ramadan or commemorating Ramadan, chances are that you are eating halal in your non-Ramadan hours and in your non-fasting hours, because if you’re religious enough to actually not eat all day, you probably don’t go at sunset and find a rasher of bacon and eat it. But McDonald’s decided to put up an ad campaign in Germany. The ad campaign removes the food from the billboards during Ramadan hours out of respect for Islam. The food appears on the billboard after sunset, but it disappears during the day, presumably so as not to tempt Muslims to feel hunger pangs. That is Bizarro World. It’s weird and self-defeating, and it bespeaks of something that lies at the heart of the cowardice of a lot of both corporations and people in the West. It’s Bizarro World because McDonald’s is not halal. The people who are presumably going to be very moved by these billboards are not going to head over to McDonald’s after dusk and start chomping down on their cheeseburgers. So what is McDonald’s doing? According to Newsweek:  The campaign was created by the German agency Scholz & Friends, whose concept centers on removing McDonald’s most recognizable visual element—its food—as a gesture of respect for those observing Ramadan. This is strange. The reality is McDonald’s is a food company that sells food, and the vast majority of the food that you sell is not to the people to whom they’re trying to appeal. Who exactly is McDonald’s appealing to? Who’s the target audience? The answer is: The dullards in the West who believe that it is a mark of virtue to subsume your own values beneath the values of other cultures. That is the problematic part. It is a strange form of cultural reparation that somehow the West owes it to other cultures to participate in their religious activities while subsuming its own interests. I don’t think McDonald’s cares all that much in Germany about whether or not Muslims like McDonald’s. I think what German McDonald’s cares about is that there are a lot of people in Germany who see this as a form of left-wing social virtue signaling, in the same way that in the United States, you have major corporations that every year decide they’re going to signal for Black History Month or Gay Pride month. But the basic idea is not that you are going to earn vast oodles of cash from doing that. The idea is you’re appealing to left-wing people in the United States who will give you more money because they believe that you share their values. The reason that you see all these companies doing DEI in the United States is absolutely not because they think it’s going to be good for their balance sheet. Hiring on the basis of non-merit is always bad for the balance sheet. The reason these companies do it is because they believe they can appeal to an entire group of consumers who have warm feelings toward them if they take their own corporate business interests, throw those aside, and start signaling their politics. This is a major problem. It’s not unique to Germany and is a widespread symptom of a disease that is spread across the West, where you are supposed to be overtly apologetic about not celebrating Ramadan. This is not a sign of cultural respect. It’s a sign of cultural disintegration. It would be the same thing as if companies in the UK decided that they were suddenly going to take female models and suddenly cover up their faces out of respect for radical Islam. It’s saying something, but it’s not the thing they think they’re saying. There is an assumption that in the Trump era, DEI is basically dead, that we’re never going back to a time when corporations were virtue signaling like this, when policy did not reflect this idea that the dominant American culture ought to be put under the foot of splinter cultures. But the reality is that it can very easily come back. It doesn’t take a lot for it to come back. All it takes is a group of people who see it as a mark of virtue to yell at their own culture and pretend that it is somehow inferior and owes it to other cultures to demonstrate its own inferiority. There’s a piece from Time magazine titled “Why Donald Trump Can’t Kill DEI.” The point the piece makes is that the anti-DEI era, which is a backlash to the Barack Obama/Joe Biden era, will be followed by a backlash to the backlash, and that all this stuff will come back with a vengeance. The piece states: Ideas of inclusion and diversity also permeate everyday institutions, including schools, universities, foundations, nonprofits, and corporations. … Many companies have retreated from DEI under legal and political pressure. What makes fewer headlines is that most companies that have sidled away from the acronym continue to affirm the values of DEI under a different name. …  Boeing stated that it maintains “procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity.” Lowe’s has proclaimed that it remained “committed to fostering an environment where individuals are treated fairly, valued, respected, safe, and inspired to serve customers and the communities where we live and work.” These statements sure sound like diversity, equity, and inclusion to us. … The education sector is equally if not more committed: a 2025 review of 262 colleges and universities found that 245 of them still maintained DEI offices and programs. This is only going to continue. What does it mean? It means this will come back if Republicans lose the forward momentum. I know that we’re also riding high on the horse right now because Donald Trump won and because Republicans are in charge of the legislative branches of the government. But if you think this stuff can’t come back, you’re wrong.

Now while we might be on the final turn of a historic winter, you might want to hold back plans for your spring party

'This is not going to be a good strategy'

'[C]an reduce a driver's ability to control an attached trailer'

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union, the Senate GOP says they “look forward” to getting straight to work implementing the aggressive legislative agenda the president laid out in the speech. Foremost among the president’s priorities is the SAVE America Act, which would secure America’s elections by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and nation-wide voter ID. Previously, the president had endorsed the idea of using the talking filibuster to get the SAVE America Act through the Senate and signed into law. But the Senate, under Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., seems to be shying away from using the talking filibuster. “If we were to go down that path, it’s very hard to pivot and get back to open up the government,” Thune said of the talking filibuster Wednesday. Thune claims there are not enough Senate Republicans to ensure success, either: “There just isn’t the support for doing that at this point.” Thune told reporters on Wednesday that “we need to be able to make sure that DHS, TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, all those agencies are funded. And so I’m hopeful that will be a breakthrough on that.” But ending the shutdown is not the Senate’s sole focus, as Senate leadership is teeing-up a vote on a housing bill despite the continued shutdown. “[Our focus] is going to be safer streets, more money in people’s pockets, and new opportunities for working families to get ahead,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told press Wednesday afternoon following a weekly GOP policy meeting.   “One of the things that will be immediately on that agenda is a housing bill, which gets at the heart of the affordability issue, particularly for younger Americans,” continued Thune.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune addresses the Democrats behavior last night at the State of the Union: “We are living literally in two Americas.”@DailySignal @LeaderJohnThune pic.twitter.com/lW2HElK6pL— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) February 25, 2026 The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, introduced in August by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is sitting in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and has been placed on the upcoming legislative calendar. “We’re going to try and get on that this week or at least set up a vote to get on it next week, and I think that will be, that would be a very substantial issue that we can deal with,” said Thune. Meanwhile, the future of the SAVE America Act, however, remains in limbo despite Thune’s promise to have the Senate vote on it because, without using the talking filibuster, the election integrity measure has little chance of making it out of the upper chamber. Speaker Johnson talks to press leaving the State of the Union tonight in Statuary Hall: “It’s shameful what the Democrats did tonight, the display, it should be beneath any member of Congress. I think it’s something they’ll regret.” @DailySignal @SpeakerJohnson pic.twitter.com/fwECEisKUD— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) February 25, 2026 Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been leading the SAVE America Act which will secure American elections by requiring voter ID. “President Trump was clear at the State of the Union: the Senate should pass the SAVE America Act immediately, ‘before anything else happens,'” Lee told the Daily Signal. “I will continue to work with my colleagues on the best way to deliver this legislation demanded by the American people,” he continued. In the meantime, Thune hopes that Democrats will work with Republicans on “nonpartisan issues.” “Technology and innovation is also something. Artificial intelligence, I think there’s a path forward, perhaps on some legislation to deal with that,” Thune said Wednesday. “The issue of energy is a big factor in the cost of everything,” Thune added. “We’ve got some ideas proposal to deal with that.”  The post Future of SAVE America Act in Limbo as Senate GOP Turns to Housing appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Michele Blair opened up about her appearance at the State of the Union Tuesday, when President Donald Trump highlighted the story of her daughter, Sage, who reportedly became a human trafficking victim after her school hid her transgender identity from her mother. “Sage, can you even believe we are here with the president of the United States?” Michele Blair recalled telling her adopted daughter at the State of the Union. “The president picked my story.” The mother spoke with Laura Hanford, a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, the day after the speech. Michele Blair adopted Sage, her biological granddaughter, upon the death of her son, Sage’s father. Blair recounted the harrowing story of how the school’s decision to hide her daughter’s transgender identity made her daughter vulnerable. “She was 14 years old and she started at school and identified as a boy and the school glorified that point, but never told me, to the point where she got so severely bullied that she felt she needed to run away to save her life and her parents’ lives,” Blair recounted. Sage running away “led her into the hands of sex traffickers,” Michele said. She ended up in police custody in Maryland, where her transgender identity again separated her from her mother. “We did not know she was going by a boy’s name, so when we called her Sage, the judge and the public defender shut down that session, so that they could have [Child Protective Services] investigate me and my husband for abuse because we weren’t recognizing her or using her correct pronouns,” the mother recalled. Authorities put her in a boys’ home. “I sent her cards and presents, they did not give her anything,” Michele Blair added. “As a matter of fact, the lawyer told her that we didn’t want her anymore because she wanted to be a boy and she was arranging a foster home for her.” “She said, ‘Nana, I didn’t even know you were at the jail,'” the mother recalled. Sage ran away again, and law enforcement next found her in Texas. Michele Blair said she was glad to share her story at the State of the Union, to send the message to other parents that “it’s not just us,” and “we need to stand up together.” She expressed hope that her primetime appearance “may give lots of parents and children hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” Virginia lawmakers wrote a law, HB 2432, requiring any school professional who reasonably suspects a student is at risk of suicide or “is self-identifying as a gender different from the student’s biological sex” to contact at least one of the student’s parents, to notify the parent, and to offer counseling. While the bill passed the Virginia House of Delegates, it failed in the state Senate. ?'PEDOPHILE!'A Democrat responds to President Trump's important retelling of Sage Blair's story—getting victimized by the transgender cult—by shouting "Pedophile!"Trump doesn't even dignify it with a response. pic.twitter.com/UbS44A1vSc— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 25, 2026 The post Mother Whose Daughter Got Trafficked After School Hid Transgender Identity Speaks Out After SOTU Appearance appeared first on The Daily Signal.

They found a blind cat wandering the streets, determined to save him. Now, he's living like a king. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealA few months ago, community members who care for local strays noticed a new face in the colony: a blind, round-cheeked tom struggling to survive outdoors.As they searched for help, the cat narrowly avoided being struck by passing cars. A kind-hearted woman rushed to his aid, scooped him up, and carried him to safety. He didn't fight or panic, allowing himself to be placed into a carrier.When she noticed his right eye was bulging, she took him to the vet. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealWith the support of the community, the woman was able to secure medical care for the cat, who was named Gavroche. It came as no surprise when he tested FIV+. His body bore the scars of a hard life spent on the streets.Cats with FIV can live long, healthy lives when provided with proper care and a safe, indoor environment. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealChatons Orphelins Montreal, an all-volunteer rescue, welcomed Gavroche with open arms. With the streets behind him, he would never again have to fend for himself. "Gavroche was incredibly lucky to survive outside without being able to see," the rescue shared."He went to his foster home, where he could finally rest and begin to heal." ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealAlthough his right eye couldn't be saved, Gavroche was freed from infection and pain. He was fully vetted, neutered, and received a much-needed dental procedure to remove several broken teeth. With medication, comfort, and plenty of love, he began eating again.He was understandably shy at first, but he showed no signs of aggression. ChatonsOrphelinsMontreal"Gavroche is a gentle soul. It took time and patience to earn his trust, but as socialization progressed, his sweet nature resurfaced."Once he realized he no longer had to fear, he warmed up to his foster family. He leaned into head scritches, sought out attention, and even flopped onto his side with his fluffy belly on full display, soaking up every ounce of affection he could get. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealThough Gavroche is a large-framed cat estimated to be around three years old, he's still a kitten at heart. "He's incredibly endearing and easy to love. He seemed unfazed by his past, as if he knows those difficult days are behind him."He's blossomed into a true love bug, constantly seeking affection and never getting enough pets. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealGavroche has the temperament of a teddy bear: soft, gentle, and sweet. Being blind doesn't hold him back. He navigates his surroundings by carefully mapping the house with his other senses. "He has excellent reflexes. He explores new places slowly and always manages to find cozy nooks and crannies for naps."He's also befriended the other friendly cats in the house, charming everyone with his calm, gentle presence. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealGavroche continues to improve every day. He's becoming more confident and truly enjoys being petted."He can still feel anxious when things are unfamiliar or too busy, and he thrives on routine. Speaking to him before approaching helps reassure him and puts him at ease. This way of communicating helps him feel safe in his environment." ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealThanks to his rescuer and many dedicated volunteers, Gavroche is living like a king. He no longer has to brave the cold or struggle to survive in a world he couldn't see.Today, he's surrounded by feline friends and caring humans who remind him every day just how loved he is. ChatonsOrphelinsMontrealShare this story with your friends. More on Gavroche and Chatons Orphelins Montreal on Instagram @chatonsorphelinsmontreal and Facebook.Related story: Cat Lived on the Street Her Whole Life, Scooped Up by Kind-hearted Man Who Discovers She is Blind

Federal Judge: The Hacks In the Back Filed a Silly Attack, And It Turned Into a Ballroom Blitz!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I somehow left out the Associated Press fact check of Trump, so that's been added to the count. The State of the Union is typically an eye-opening exhibit of how dramatically slanted our "independent fact-checkers" are. An overview of the most prominent traditional national media sites reveals a total of 123 "fact checks" on the president to four for Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.). One might say that Trump spoke much longer, but all four of Spanberger's claims were ruled as solid. Here's the rundown:  PolitiFact promised their usual checking in real time, and performed nine checks on Trump and three on Abigail Spanberger. While Trump's claims drew words like "exaggeration," "mathematical hyperbole," "no evidence," and a "wrong," they avoided the usual "Truth-O-Meter" ruling words. Spanberger's three claims were ruled as ""research supports this number,” "This is accurate," and "Early data supports." (9-3) PBS reposted these checks on both parties.  National Public Radio made those checks look fair and balanced. NPR reporters performed 28 "fact checks" on Trump to absolutely zero on Spanberger.  It began with a "partly true" on the crackdown on illegal immigration. A number of the checks on Trump by NPR weren't ruled false, they were merely explained, like “Congressional stock trading ban faces tough odds for passage.” But like several others, NPR picked battles on "I ended eight wars" and "the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program." (28-0) The New York Times published an amazing 29 "fact checks" on Trump to one on Spanberger. The terms for Trump included "false," "exaggerated," "misleading," "lacks evidence," and if was a tiny bit true, then it "needs context." The Times checked one Spanberger line, and it was "Mostly true." Like PolitiFact, the Times backed Spanberger's claim that Trump’s policies "have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs." (29-1) They even checked Trump’s sports claims. Julian Barnes confessed: “OK, this is definitely a pedantic fact check. Mr. Trump is probably correct that he has never seen a goaltending performance like Mr. Hellebuyck’s. Sportswriters praised the amazing game he played. However, the Canadian team had 42 shots on goal, and Mr. Hellebuyck stopped 41.  An amazing performance, but only 41, rather than 46, shots stopped.” CNN flagged 22 Trump statements and nothing by Spanberger. Toronto-based Daniel Dale provided most of the "checking." He couldn't stand boasting on gas prices coming down: "Trump claimed gas prices are 'now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places, $1.99 a gallon.' But no state had an average gas price on Tuesday below $2.37 per gallon, according to AAA; only two states had an average below $2.50 per gallon." (22-0) FactCheck.org brought its readers 22 "fact checks" on Trump to zero for Spanberger. Like several others, Team FC added "context" on the jobs claims. "Trump’s claim that 'more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,' while accurate, doesn’t account for population growth. Job growth slowed a bit last year." (22-0) Associated Press put all its "Fact Focus" on Trump, 13 to zero. Their lede: "On inflation, immigration, tariffs and matters of war and peace, President Donald Trump presented a frequently distorted account of the state of the nation Tuesday as he claimed a “turnaround for the ages” and myriad achievements that don’t pass scrutiny." So all that adds up to 123-4. The "no quick fact check of either party" list includes Reuters, USA Today, The Washington Post, Snopes.com, and Lead Stories -- although in the last case LS cried foul on a Loudoun County (Va.) Republican Party video which created an AI-generated mockery of Gov. Spanberger collecting wads of cash from taxes. 

Appearing Thursday on Morning Joe, MS NOW’s Ali Vitali conceded there are “valid questions” about Bill Clinton’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein — enough to justify a House Oversight deposition. But the only connection Vitali mentioned? “He appears in photos.” Left unmentioned was what ABC News has reported: Bill Clinton was listed on 26 Epstein flight legs — though some were segments of the same international trips. Still, 26 entries in the logs. Not one. Not “a couple.” Twenty-six. Morning Joe viewers would never have known it. Instead, Vitali pivoted to a curious feminist-adjacent defense of Hillary Clinton, seasoned with a dash of apophasis: “I think there's also a fascinating dynamic of Hillary Clinton once again being forced to answer for her husband. That, I think, has a ton of gender dynamics that we won't get into before 7 in the morning.” Not get into it? She just did. Morning Joe is becoming your go-to destination for liberal-media apophasis. Just yesterday, Joe Scarborough declared, apropos of Trump, “I’m not going to talk about fascism or Nazism” — immediately after doing exactly that. Scarborough blustered about Hillary having to testify: "the whole thing is a farce." No one is arguing that Hillary is responsible for her husband’s conduct. The question is whether she could be a relevant witness, given her proximity during the years Epstein orbited the Clinton world. If spouses are off-limits, say so. But that’s not where Vitali ended. MS NOW’s Vitali Skips Bill’s 26 Epstein Flight Legs, Raises ‘Gender Dynamics,’ Suggests Deposing Melania pic.twitter.com/BQfrbjTTOr — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) February 26, 2026 Moments later, Vitali turned to tit-for-tat politics: “If we are asking spouses to talk about what their husbands might have been privy to, why are we not also asking Melania Trump that question?” So Hillary is framed as a victim of sexist scrutiny — but the remedy, Vitali suggests, is expanding that scrutiny to Melania. One could argue that Melania married Trump in 2005, after his friendship was Epstein was already on the rocks, while Hillary was married to Bill through everything. They also share the Clinton Global Initiative, which Epstein's collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell helped to set up. In the long run, Vitali can't stand that women haven't elected Hillary or Kamala to the White House. In 2022, she wrote a book about Hillary and Kamala and the rest titled Electable: Why America Hasn't Put a Woman in the White House... Yet. Her colleague Katy Tur offered a blurb: "Ali Vitali confronts the possibilities we may not want to consider and explains in this sharp and often poignant book what it’s going to take to break the single dumbest losing streak in politics.” But on Morning Joe, viewers only heard that Bill Clinton “appears in photos.” They didn’t hear that he was listed on 26 Epstein flight legs — a revealing omission. Here's the transcript. MS NOW Morning Joe 2/26/28 6:07 am ET JOE SCARBOROUGH: You have with Hillary Clinton, somebody that, again, hardly ever spoke to Jeffrey Epstein, never on his plane, had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.  She's being deposed today, while the Justice Department clearly, clearly got caught in a cover-up by NPR, clearly got caught in a cover-up. As reported by the New York Times, as reported by Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.  And again, it's just a farce. The whole thing is a farce. If I were Hillary Clinton, and of course Hillary Clinton is much smarter than me, but if, I would spend the whole time saying, I didn't know him. What do you think are in those files? What do you think are in those files with a young woman who was 13 years old, who's accusing the president of doing X, Y, and Z?  I mean, here we have a scandal. Just, probably the biggest scandal of the entire Epstein files right now, the cover-up by the Justice Department of these files that reveal testimony of the most terrible things about Donald Trump. We don't know whether they're true or not. But they cover those up after the law orders that they be released. And at the same time, they're dragging Hillary Clinton into a deposition?  . . .  ALI VITALI: I think you're right to bring up the hypocrisy that this then raises. Because it raises the question of, if you want to talk to former President Bill Clinton, which I think there's some valid questions to be asked. He appears in photos. Let's ask those questions. Why are you then not asking the same of President Trump?  I've asked James Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, that very question. He doesn't have a clear answer. In fact, he said, well, the president has talked many times on the record about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Okay. Hasn't done that under oath to Congress. I think that's probably a valid conversation to have.  And then I think there's also a fascinating dynamic of Hillary Clinton, once again, being forced to answer for her husband. That, I think, has a ton of gender dynamics that we won't get into before 7 in the morning. But I think there's also then the question of, if we are asking spouses to talk about what their husbands might have been privy to, why are we not also asking Melania Trump that question?