Mexico falls into chaos after the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was killed in a military raid.

 

A burnt out bus used as a barrier in Mexico. BBC/Reuters.

Mexico has fallen into chaos after the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, was killed in an army raid. BBC. The raid, which received assistance from the United States, left four members of CJNG dead and El Mencho mortally wounded. CJNG is one of the largest and most violence cartels and the violence caused in response to El Mencho's death has been extreme. Violence has broken out it in every Mexican state where CJNG has a presence. Most notably, even the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta has seen a large amount of violence between the Cartels and the National Guard. The death of El Mencho will be seen as a victory for Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, but violence after his death will be inevitable due to retaliation from the Cartel and possible infighting or other cartels trying to take advantage of the power vacuum. 

My Comment:

Looks like they found a spine in Mexico. Taking out El Mencho is more than I expected from Claudia Sheinbaum, given her leftist politics and her perceived weakness. Taking him down is a major win in the war against the cartels in Mexico. 

I am guessing this happened due to pressure from President Trump and the United States. Trump had been chomping at the bit to do something about the Cartels, to the point where military force was not off the table. Trump has made stopping the flow of migrants and drugs over the border with Mexico a major part of his Presidency and this seems like a continuation of that. 

As for the violence, it is fairly extreme. The Cartels have shut down several cities and threatened civilians, but so far seem to be sticking to fighting the military. They have set up roadblocks and have gotten into a lot of gun fights. The Mexican military has responded and even launched attacks with helicopters against the CJNG forces. 

I don't expect the Cartel-Military violence to last very long. We have seen this kind of thing before when other Cartel leaders get captured or killed. We see a few days or weeks of violence but then things get back to normal. After the Cartels are gangs, their main motivation is profit and getting into a standup fight with the military does not offer any profit and can disrupt their operations severely. 

I do expect their to be an increase of violence generally though. The CJNG cartel was held together by El Mencho and, from what I understand, there isn't a viable replacement at the moment as his son is in prison. That means that the CJNG may fracture into infighting. Not to mention that the other Cartels might try to take back territory while the CJNG are weak. 

There is a major threat right now to American civilians in Mexico. I don't expect any fighting to cross the border, but folks in Mexico are in danger. Though taking American citizens hostage or killing them during a battle would be horrible optics and could even lead to strikes against CJNG, they have their backs against the wall right now and they have very little to lose. I am hoping that the folks in Puerto Vallarta and other parts of Mexico remain safe. 

President Trump has directed the government to release information about UFO's, UAP's and possible alien life.

 

President Donald Trump on Air Force One. Politico/AP.

President Donald Trump has directed the government to release information about UFO's, UAP's and possible alien life. Politico. Trump posted on Truth Social that he was releasing the information. The order comes days after former President Barack Obama said that he believed that aliens were real, though he later clarified that he hasn't seen any evidence personally as President. Trump said that Obama may have released classified information and said that "he may get [Obama] out of trouble by declassifying". The government has long been interested in UFO's and UAP's and has released several videos of UFO's. 

Trump says Obama revealed ‘CLASSIFIED INFORMATION’ when he discussed the existence of aliens

‘He made a BIG MISTAKE’

‘I don’t have an opinion on it. I never talk about it’

‘I may get him out of trouble by declassifying’ https://t.co/uFtiSdKaH4 pic.twitter.com/OBD4KLQRcq

— RT (@RT_com) February 19, 2026

My Comment:

There is never going to be another President like Donald Trump. Let's review the sequence of events. Barack Obama says off hand in an interview that he believes alien life exists, but says the government doesn't have them at Area 51. People read too much into it and Obama clarifies that he hasn't seen any evidence. A report asks Trump about it and he says, tongue planted in cheek, that Obama may have released classified information, and then he says that he will get Obama out of trouble by declassifying. And then the madman does it! Like I said, Trump is one of a kind. 

To be fair, a lot of information about UFO's and UAP's have been released already. We have all seen the videos of strange objects on defense department film. The government has admitted that something is going on but nobody know what exactly is happening. 

I am fully expecting that whatever Trump releases here will be similar. We will probably get new information about incidents that we aren't currently aware of. We will see documents we haven't seen before. We might even get explanations for previous incidents that have previously not been explained. And there may be some exciting stuff. 

What I don't expect is the idea that there will be a smoking gun, proof that aliens both exist and are here on this planet. As much as conspiracy theories say otherwise, I don't believe that's the kind of secret you could keep. And given that Presidents of both parties have admitted that they have no evidence either way, I tend to believe it. I have no doubt that if there was evidence of extraterrestrial life, Trump would release it for no other reason than to discredit the Democrats that covered it up, and I think Joe Biden and Barack Obama would have done the same thing. 

Regardless, this is more government transparency, and that is usually a good thing. There could be some negatives, like there was with the Epstein file release causing some pretty obvious derangement, but overall it's not a bad thing when the government declassifies things that don't really need to be classified. 

As for me, I am agnostic about the idea of aliens visiting Earth. I do think that the UFO phenomenon is "real" in that people are seeing and recording things they can't explain, but it doesn't necessary follow that the whole thing is aliens. It's not impossible though, and if proof of extraterrestrial life was found I would not be seriously surprised. 

Prince Andrew has been arrested for passing documents to Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. BBC. 

Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested for passing documents to Jeffrey Epstein. BBC. Andrew, who had his titles revoked for his association with Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse, was not charged for sex crimes, but arrested for abuse of office. Under UK laws, police are allowed to arrest suspects before formal charges have been filed. Files released from the FBI's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein showed that Andrew had passed on information on state visits and investment opportunities while performing his role as the UK's trade envoy. Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre, who died in 2025, of sexual assault, but settled those allegations out of court. 

My Comment:

A quick note on criminal justice in the UK. Unlike the United States, police in the UK can arrest and hold people before formal charges while an investigation is still ongoing. Obviously, this is not how it works in the United States, and it is very possible, though unlikely, that Andrew could still avoid charges. 

With that being said, the facts of this case does not seem to be in dispute. Andrew, in the role as trade delegate, passed information onto Epstein, information that Epstein had no right to. I don't think anyone has denied that Andrew passed these documents to Epstein and there really wasn't any reason for him to do so. 

But the case might not be as open and shut as we think. Andrew does have the defense that these documents weren't technically classified and sending them to Epstein wasn't damaging. Without a full review of those documents, I am not sure if that is a correct reading or not, but right now the chances of acquittal are not zero, along with the fact that he might not even be formally charged at all. 

Greatly complicating things is the fact that a lot of people that could potentially serve on his Jury are going to be very aware of the other accusations against him. Epstein was credibly accused of sexual misconduct by two separate people, an anonymous 22 year old woman and Virginia Giuffre. Andrew probably should have been charged in both cases, but was not (and will not in Giuffre's case after her death last year). Though Andrew is likely to get a fair trial and media coverage will be limited in the UK at least, I can't help but to think that the jury will convict if this ever goes to trial for that reason alone. 

Of course, it's very possible and even likely that Andrew will plead guilty. Plea deals work differently in the UK, but he would be able to cut quite a bit of his time off simply by pleading guilty at the first opportunity. Doing so would make this case go away and it is probably the most likely and welcome outcome for Andrew. The general public would not like it though, and would perceive any deal as favoritism, even though Andrew is obviously in the outs with the Royal Family. 

I had said for awhile that it was pretty likely that this arrest, along with a possible one of Lord Mandelson who also passed documents to Epstein and even collected money from him, were going to be the only ones we see as a result of the Epstein files. Though the demand for scalps for sexual crimes is high, the evidence just isn't there. Very few of Epstein's victims named names and many of them are not reliable themselves, including the late Virginia Giuffre. She did name names but ended up having to settle with Alan Dershowitz for defamation when she accused him of misconduct. Not to mention, many of the players are dead, with Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel dying in prison and Bill Richardson and Marvin Minsky dying of natural causes. Not to mention Giuffre herself. 

The UK cases though are a lot easier to prosecute. There isn't any he-said she-said uncertainty here and there is likely to be physical evidence. Even if no new evidence is discovered, the evidence is solid. The emails are real and aren't really in dispute. The main questions are going to be if it meets the standards of the Misconduct in Public Office crime, not if he actually sent the information. 

Will this cause the Epstein issue to go away in the United States or get worse? I am not sure. Prince Andrew was the most high profile person in the entire Epstein scandal that was actually credibly accused of misconduct (Obviously Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were higher profile, but neither of them have any credible accusations against them). Arresting him will be seen as a victory. 

On the other hand, many of the folks out there have legitimately gone insane over the Epstein issue. I had one person threaten to throw me into a woodchipper on social media the other day after I said we shouldn't execute people without evidence. These are no longer rational people and they won't be satisfied by anything other than seeing whoever they hate the most getting lynched, regardless of what the evidence actually shows. I don't think there is any hope for these people, but they are thankfully a small minority. 

Regardless, I am glad to see Andrew crash and burn. Even if he somehow avoids getting charged and imprisoned, his reputation has been destroyed. I have always believed that the sexual misconduct accusations against him were among the most convincing in the Epstein case and I have little doubt he is guilty of them. I also believe he was guilty of passing documents to Epstein as well and I am happy he is going to face justice. 

The United States is planning a new website that will allow Europeans and others to view content their governments have banned.

 

Street art in London. Reuters. 

The United States is planning a new website that will allow Europeans and others to view content their governments have banned. Reuters. The website will be hosted at freedom.gov and is seen as a direct shot across the bow to Europe's failures to protect free speech. The website was supposed to have been released already but has been delayed for unknown reasons. America's laws on free speech are very different than most of Europe, where there is no equivalent to the 1st amendment. Europe has been criticized by the Trump administration for censoring right wing speech, along with countries like Brazil, where similar restrictions are in place. Europe has also attacked and fined US based websites, like X/Twitter. 

My Comment:

There is an element of hypocrisy here. Though clearly better than the Biden administration or even the most lenient European government, the Trump administration has their own problems with free speech. I am not really talking about their banning of foreigners tat take anti-American stances, that's just common sense. 

But I have been extremely critical of some of the things that the GOP is doing when it comes to free speech, most notably the Take it Down act and various state age verification schemes. DeepFakes may not be politically popular but they can clearly be used for speech an any actual misuse of them is already covered under our harassment and libel/slander laws. And age verification is obviously horrible as it's the government putting a chilling effect on behavior they don't agree with. 

With that being said, things are clearly worse in Europe than they are here in the United States. Here you can generally say whatever you want as long as it's not a direct incitement to violence. And, we have seen with the anti-ICE nonsense coming from the left, sometimes even that is allowed. There are no laws against advocating for restricting immigration or saying scientifically true but politically unpopular things (like any discussion about race and IQ). You can still be punished by private actors for these stances, which is a major free speech concern, but the government mostly can't touch you, especially with the Democrats out of office. 

I do think that pushing back against Europe's tyranny on free speech is long overdue. I am of the view that the 1st amendment doesn't actually grant free speech rights, those rights are inherent to being human and any law that restricts that is null and void. America has our own problems with this, but the idea that people can be arrested just for being opposed to immigration from the Muslim world is just totally unacceptable. 

It also makes very little sense to be allied with people that don't respect our beliefs and priorities. How can we be defending Europe from tyranny when they are already tyrannical? It's a major reason I was never on Europe's side during the Ukraine War. Russia is certainly no free speech hub, but it's not really any worse than Europe at this point. I'd add that we should be criticizing Europe's gun laws just as much, but time will tell if that ever comes up. 

As for the impact of the website itself, I am guessing it is mostly going to be symbolic. The people that care to subvert Europe's speech restrictions are using things like the Tor browser and VPN's to bypass their speech laws anyways. They are able to see much of the same content Americans are by using these tools, and I encourage them to do so. It will be nice to have an archive of things that Europe is trying to delete, but the practical effects are probably not going to be that useful. 

However, this is a major message to Europe that we are sick of their nonsense. It's especially bad coming from lame duck leadership like we have in France and the UK. Given that Europe has launched their own shots across our bows, most notably trying to fine X for allowing free speech for the most part, it was long overdo. I do hope that this website is released soon. 

Transgender man shoots family members at hocky game in Rhode Island.

 

Robert Dorgan shortly before the attack. Fox News/social media photo. 

A transgender man carried out a mass shooting targeting his family at a Rhode Island hocky game in Pawtucket. Fox News. Robert Dorgan, a 56 year old man who was living as a woman and called himself Roberta Esposito, shot and killed his wife and son and wounded his in-laws along with a family friend. Other people in the stands attempted to stop the attacker and were able to disarm him of his primary weapon, but he was able to pull a second handgun and ended his own life. His transgender identity had led to conflict with his family, though no motive has been released from his crime. 

My Comment:

This attack occurred yesterday but details broke before I could write anything up. It's a very strange case and one that does not make much sense. Indeed, the impossible has happened and Robert Dorgan's account on x/Twitter, remains up as of this writing. Why this has happened is beyond me, but it has been a boon to anyone investigating this case.  

Much like the last case of transgender mass violence, Dorgan appears to have been on the far right. And this time it's pretty clear that he was an actual Nazi. Dorgan had Nazi tattoos, including the SS symbol and the Totenkopf, the death's head skull. And his X account is pretty clearly racist to the point where it's not really deniable. This is absolutely not a case of the media claiming anyone to the right of AOC is a Nazi, this guy is one for sure. 

X has been pretty enlightening for this case as his posts remain up and it certainly paints a picture. Dorgan was a rare transgender Nazi and he was regularly interacting with accounts like Nicholas Fuentes. And the man regularly spent time trolling people on the website and there were a lot of big conservative accounts that report that they had blocked him or were blocked by him. He does seem like he was someone that was "extremely online". 

I do think his transgender identity was the cause of this issue. Turning himself into a woman was not something his wife would tolerate and that isn't a surprise. Anyone who would marry a man with actual Nazi tattoos would probably not be on board with the whole "changing gender" things. It apparently led to massive trouble in his marriage and that is probably what caused him to carry out this crime, not his politics. Had he not tried to change genders, well, he wouldn't have been a good person, but I doubt this shooting would have happened. 

He does seem to have been making threats on social media, along with his racist actions. Indeed, one of his last tweets was him saying misgendering people cause them to "go berserk" to Alex Jones and Kevin Sorbo (yes the Hercules guy). He also seems to have been pretty deeply into the more deranged people on the internet talking about Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that there were elite cannibals and retweeting people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. In short, he as pretty radical. 

It does fit the pattern for these transgender attackers. They change their gender and then get wrapped up in extreme politics (or vise versa). The actual ideology doesn't seem to matter, the last two shooters including Dorgan were on the right, but Audrey Hale and Robert Westman were on the right. And the Zizians? They were radicalized vegans and rationalists! But it does seem to fit a pattern where non-political transgender people aren't doing these kinds of things. 

With that said, I do appreciate the heroism of the people that tried to stop Dorgan. Though this appears to be a targeted attack, Dorgan probably could have killed more members of his family if it wasn't for the fact that people tried to fight back. And that's despite the fact that not only was he armed, he was fairly well built for a transgender person (or any person for that matter).  

Finally, I still can't really get over the idea that this guy was a transgender Nazi. Whatever you think about either group, you pretty much have to agree that the two ideologies are not at all compatible. It's little wonder that this guy ended up committing violence, his entire life was a huge contradiction.