Why does Luke Skywalker never ask about his grandfather?

US-EU Tensions Escalate as America Probes Alleged Brussels Interference in Romanian Election
February 12, 2026

□ [“VH1:  2001 segment promotes Jeffrey Epstein, connections to Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey"]

I had VH1 on back in the day - because it played music, unlike MTV - but this doesn't look remotely familiar.  I can't find if it was part of a tv show or if it was even broadcast in the US.  I've long suspected that the leftist elites had their goals planned out as the new century began and this sort of promotion would fall into line with that.  Nothing major, just a few moments on an irrelevant cable channel but this would have happened elsewhere.  Today I thought of a Simpsons episode, can't remember which one right now, but made me wonder if this was made right after Epstein and Matt Groening got together.  When I remember, I'll have to check that out.

Noam Chomsky was also mentioned in the files, defending their friendship after Epstein's first conviction for raping children and thanking Epstein for his financial advice.  No record of Chomsky attacking the rich oligarch but I guess he's not known for things like that.  I really only know Chomsky because my then-local public access communist was a big fan.  If he's still alive and pays any attention to this stuff, I'd love to know what his reaction is but he's quite old so neither of those seem likely.  Chomsky is even older so he has responded to this but it seems pretty irrelevant, like no one's paying attention to the rich old white guy anymore.

Of course we're now surrounded by endless rhetoric that Trump is listed in the files a zillion times.  He brought that problem on himself for making us wait so long but as far as I know, there's been virtually no references to how he's involved.  Makes me wonder if the left is just counting all the redactions and assuming it's about Trump.  Sounds stupid but it's believable.  But what if it's actually something else?

What if he actually was working with law-enforcement on this the whole time?  Maybe his name is all in reports to whoever the relevant officials were in the GWB and Obama administration.  Could that be the trap the left will find themselves in?  Probably not but it's certainly a nice thought.  However it leads to another thought which isn't so nice.

If he was an actual spy, how would he make Epstein and his ilk fall for it?  Don't know if it's true or not but there's the stereotype of joining a gang means you have to prove you're willing to kill someone.  Well there's really only one way Trump could get through that.  Pretend for the sake of argument that's what actually happened, how do you explain that to the American people?  There's no way to square that circle.  A normal politician could just go away forever but this is Trump.

Federal Judge in Florida Denies BBC’s Motion for Stay, Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit on Broadcaster
February 12, 2026

□ [“Trump Says Pam Bondi’s Congressional Testimony on Epstein Files was 'Fantastic'"]

I've seen very little footage and barely paid attention to any of this hearing.  It seemed pointless and I was right to the extent that it added nothing to the conversation.  Because what little I do know is that Bondi did nothing but damage her own side.  I'm totally sexist which unfortunately means I try to see competence in women but there was nothing of the sort in what little I've seen or heard about this.

I can't even say 'get rid of her' because she'll just be replaced by someone else just as worthless.  The only way Trump can be saved from this - and by extension, his whole administration - is if this really was part of an established plan that she had to be so ridiculous to Congress right here and now.  Even that would be idiotic, what sort of plan needs this to happen in order to succeed?

Democrats came off the way they always do and I don't mean that as a compliment but they still came out looking good for this.  They just need to show footage from February 21, 2025 saying the Epstein files were sitting on her desk and this testimony almost a year later.  That would ruin anyone trying to use her support for any issue or candidate and Trump's not doing himself any favors by claiming this was "fantastic."

Trump Ends Obama-Era “Endangerment Finding” on Greenhouse Gasses, Auto Stop-Start Feature and Green Emissions Standards in Cars
February 12, 2026

□ [“Border Czar Tom Homan Announces End to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota"]

I've said it before but I would vote against removing the troops.  That said, I do like the way this comes off as a "mission" and they've accomplished the task, no reason to stick around.  I'm also curious how this is considered as far as "deployment" goes, since most/all of these troops weren't from Minnesota.  I also assume one goal was to give these units experience operating in US cities because that might be needed in the near-future.

At this point I don't know what the left has been doing in Minneapolis and related cities.  I'm actually a bit worried that they were getting bored, as leftists will do, so this could be more about letting them find something new to focus on.  It is clear that their protests did nothing so they'll need to ignore that.  They'll also have problems convincing the citizens that they're so oppressed and that's why the crime rate has gone down so much.

I doubt the desire to remove more illegal immigrants has gone down but if nothing else gets done about this, it's the same result.  Democrats will still ignore federal laws and try to provoke their psychos into getting violent, Republicans will just go back to work tomorrow and ignore this again.  That's probably a big reason I didn't want the troops to leave.

I have some speculation on what other benefits these deployments might have had but nothing major so I won't go into that here.  One thing that is notable is that the support for protesters never really increased, at least not in any meaningful way.  Social media, sure, but there wasn't much in the way of more protests rising everywhere else.  Two people died attacking ICE and they've mostly been ignored at this point, no one is trying to follow their example.

Justice Department’s Antitrust Chief Ousted
February 12, 2026

□ [“You Won’t Believe How Much Money Disney Lost on Their Awful Snow White Remake"]

$170 Million and I don't think that's counting marketing.  Things like this really make it look like the company is being deliberately sacrificed to whatever demons they worship because why else would you waste so much money on something nobody wanted?  We're going on three years since the movie came out and they still haven't even tried to explain what they were thinking.

They're having similar problems with their other franchises.  There's a Star Wars movie coming out in a few months and nobody cares.  They had an ad for it at the Super Bowl and that's being laughed at.  It had nothing to do with the story, it was just a reference to some other Super Bowl ad from years ago.  Why would that need a "Star Wars" logo on it?  The ad is also being run on Disney-websites and only has a few million views combined after a couple days.  You don't even have to watch it, just click on it for a second and that counts as a 'view' and the biggest franchise in history can't even get that much.

Doesn't seem like the movie is going to do any better.  When the show ran on Disney-streaming, the viewership went down over three seasons, meaning there's no reason this would appeal to anyone who didn't watch it and like it.  So once again, what does this have to do with "Star Wars" that everybody liked way back when?  It doesn't help that this movie also stars that actor who irritated the hell out of people last year with how Disney kept promoting him.  The other movies he was in weren't hits so this won't help.

And then there's Marvel.  It sounds like people were supposed to be desperate to find out what happens next in their movies but the viewership isn't there either.  Instead they're spending several hundreds of millions of dollars on the first of several upcoming Avengers movies starring more high-paid actors than anybody can bother remembering.  The estimates are that it might need to make up to $1.5 billion in theaters just to break even.  That's just not possible.

Although I've only seen a few Marvel movies, I did pay attention to them since I come from a comic-book background.  I knew their overall story when I saw the endcredits scene in the first Avengers and they do deserve credit for having been able to carry that narrative across however many movies it was.  You can argue about the quality but I can't think of any remotely-similar precedent in movie history that worked so well.

Phases 4-6 has none of that. Just a few years ago, Marvel was so proud to announce that they had no plan for these phases until they saw the actor hired to play Kang and now they had everything in place.  That did not work out well.  So they had to figure out something else, paying an insane amount of money for Robert Downey Jr. is an even stupider idea.  They didn't have an overarching plot and it sounds like the individual movies were all made 'Marvel method.'  A few vague ideas, do a bunch of filming, arrange the film, record the dialogue and then do a sh*tload of reshoots, repeat until you've got something to release.

Falcon America, Ant-Man 3, Thunderbolts, the Marvels, these were complete wastes of time and money which added nothing.  These were supposed to build up to Fantastic Four which had its whole ending changed because the test audiences hated it, and that was supposed to lead into the new Avengers.  This isn't a story we're glad to wait for, it's just everybody asking 'are we done yet?' and no, we've still got several years to go, depending on how many Avengers movies they have to make for any chance of profitability.

Haven't figured out what but something has been changed in Disney's leadership.  Kathleen Kennedy was suddenly and quickly told to gtfo.  Bob Iger seems to have been given similar orders although being in charge of the whole company means he can't just turn in his office keys and that's that.  The replacements do sound like pawns of Iger and Kennedy so there's no expectation that anything will change any time soon.  I haven't noticed any change at Marvel so maybe they're waiting for the upcoming disaster before getting around to that.  As always, watching the failure is more entertaining and cheaper than any movies they produce.

DHS Funding Bill Fails in Senate Ahead of Friday Shutdown Deadline
February 12, 2026