TODAY'S NEWS, February 17-18, 2026

Larry Schweikart
23 hours ago
6 min read

Updated: 34 minutes ago

HEADLINES: Continuing big AI news; Amazing Trump industrial economy taking off; Ever hear of Svalbard?

The News of Today is the History of Tomorrow

*ALERT! Great news folks as I just learned after filming this that Sentinel/Penguin will do a 25th Anniversary Ed of Patriot's History of the United States!

IN POLITICAL NEWS

1) Mixed voter registration numbers, as PA for two straight weeks has seen Ds outregister Rs, though Rs still have a big lead for the period post-November 2024, per Seth Keshel. But deep blue Pima Co., AZ continues to slip, with the GOP going from a deficit in 2024 to a 2,000 GOP advantage in CD6 there as of today.

2) Speculation grows over possible retirement of Justice Samuel Alito.

3) Norm Eisen admitted that the first Trump hoax impeachment over Ukraine was really an effort to pre-tar Trump as a means to clean up Rutabaga.

4) A good expose here in little Nuremberg Nicky Fuentes, who once compared gassing and burning of Jews to "baking cookies." No one on the side of right and light should have anything to do with this demonic, evil little snackbabbler.

5) The "Rev." Jesse Jackson, civil rights grifter, died at age 84. He never met a race shakedown he didn't like. I never saw him deliver a sermon or pastor a church, so I don't know why he was a "reverend," and I have it on good authority that the only times he uttered the words "Jesus Christ" was when he fell down a flight of stairs. Anyway, this Trump hater was all-in on The Donald before he became president. Don't know where he is now, but the nether regions wouldn't surprise me.

6) Shocked. More vote fraud discovered in Kollyfornia. while election oversight found more voters in GA than . . . people. So, I guess the UFO nuts who say the "Reptilians" are here are right . . . and they are voting?

7) Just another reason the teachers' unions and public schools must be ended. Teachers are leading the anti-ICE school walkouts.

8) Not there yet, so pray for Elon Musk, but he says he "agrees with the teachings of Jesus." Ok, what about the one where He said "I am the life, the truth, and the way, and NO ONE comes to the Father except by Me?" He's getting closer.

9) The Punisher, Pete Hegseth, may have the military cut all ties to AI's Anthropic over security concerns. And since we're on the topic of AI, check out this column by one of those in the middle of it. He says that on Feb. 5 two AI labs released products on the same day, each of which told him "I am no longer needed for the technical work of my job." Not only does he describe to AI what he wants---say, an app do do x, y, z---but AI not only writes the codes, then opens and tests the program itself, then installs the buttons and performs checks for how it looks, and when it is satisfied, it shows it to the programmer. (!!!!!) Moreover, ChatGPT 5.3 Codex is developing what he calls "judgement" or "taste," getting distinctions never before seen. As he puts it, we are at the point where AI "does my job better than I do." By one metric, AI is doing the work it takes a human five hours to do in one hour---but that is doubling every seven months and may be doubling every four months before long. One prophet said that AI will be smarter than most humans on most jobs within a year. Let me spell it out slightly differently: AI is now building itself. Dario Amodei, head of Antrhopic says we may be "only 1–2 years away from a point where the current generation of AI autonomously builds the next." AI, as Matt Shumer says, confirming that AI will replace 50% of all jobs in the next year, says that it's no longer doing one thing, but "is a general substitute for cognitive work," getting better at everything simultaneously. Folks, I went to the dentist yesterday and she told me they have AI double check all x-rays and photos and "it finds stuff we don't even see." Elon Musk says the first jobs to go will be like "lightning" and AI will replace anything digital.

10) There are some departures from the Trump admin, including the spokeswoman for Homeland Security and RFK's top deputy. Pretty normal I think. See my analysis here.

11) There is a massive sewage spill five miles up from DC on the Potomac that may take 9 months to fix. Wanna guess what the problem is? The CEO said they had hired too many white men. This stuff needs to be met with multimillion lawsuits and jail time. And cue Eddie Murphy in "Beverly Hills Cop II," with his two daughters "Monique and Unique," and voila, we have a "Unique" in charge.

12) Eight skiers were killed and another missing in a Kollyvornia avalanche.

13) The DOJ is investigating Portland schools for racial discrimination.

14) The Amazing Zohran, his policies already driving up massive deficits, wants to enact new property taxes in New Kabul (NYC). Don't cry for me, Palestine. We warned ya. But, typical Marxist spooge that he is, he doesn't just want New Yorkers to pay higher taxes, but is pressuring Hock-a-Lugie to pass a statewide tax hike to subsidize his failed socialism.

IN EPSTEIN FILE NEWS

15) Anyone remember the Zero-era Columbian prostitution scandal involving Secret Servicer agents? Yeah, good old Eppy with this chick Katheryn Ruemmler was involved.

16) Another one bites the dust, as Tom Pritzker, cousin of Gov. Porky, resigned his position with Hyatt Hotels over his Eppy connections. How odd. I mean, they must be in there, right---Republicans? But so far only DemoKKKrats have been caught.

IN ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIEN NEWS

17) The State Department just revoked visas for over 100,000 criminal foreign nationals. Exsqueeze me . . . why were they allowed to stay here in the first placer?

18) More fine, upstanding illegals, with this one killing a teacher in a car crash fleeing ICE.

19 Police department cooperation with ICE has soared over 950%.

IN TRANSOID NEWS

20) A crazed transoid man in a dress killed his ex-wife and a child at a hockey arena before being taken down by another man, then killed himself. Why don't these evil fungalbuckets BEGIN by killing themselves and saving society the trouble and bloodshed?

IN ECONOMIC NEWS

21) US industrial production rose .07% for the month of Jan (!!, or about 8% per year) while factory utilization rates rose to 76.22%. Wait, I thought Trump's tariffs were supposed to hurt industry? How about durable goods orders? They leaped by 7.2% on orders for AI and aircraft.

22) Trump announced a $33 billion natural gas facility in southern OH.

IN INTERNATIONAL NEWS

23) Xi delivered his annual address to the military via video link, not in person, suggesting the tinpot commie creepazoid may not be all that comfortable in front of people who could shoot him. Oh, and Chy-na is backing Ukraine with aid. Told ya, we do not have anything to worry about with a ChiCom/Russkie axis. They still hate each other.

24) Ever hear of Svalbard? Me neither until now. This Norweigian established (but not controlled) little town in the Arctic Circle is as important as Greenland and is becoming a ChiCom listening post.