Greets! Congrats on surviving another revolution of our planet. Today is Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. Today is also National Tug of War Day. No, I didn’t know that was a thing, either.
1878: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his cylinder phonograph.
1906: Will Keith Kellogg joins Charles D. Bolin in founding the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's.
1923: Jean Sibelius's 6th Symphony premieres.
1942: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders the detention and internment of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
1945: The U.S. 5th Fleet launches the invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 Marines.
1956: The Five Satins record band leader and songwriter Fred Parris's tune, "In the Still of the Nite," in the basement of St. Bernadette's Church in New Haven, CT.
1958: Carl Perkins leaves Sun Records for Columbia Records.
1960: Bil Keane's Family Circus cartoon strip debuts.
1963: Robert Frost wins the Bollingen Prize in Poetry.
1963: The USSR informs JFK that it is withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba.
1971: Paul McCartney releases single "Another Day" in the UK.
1973: "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" single released by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, becomes Billboard Song of the Year.
2007: Blogging website Tumblr is founded by David Karp in New York.
Birthdays today include: Nicolaus Copernicus; Mary Anderson (inventor of the windshield wiper); jockey Eddie Arcaro; Lee Marvin; hockey coach Joe Crozier; film director John Frankenheimer; Bobby Rogers and Smokey Robinson (both of the Miracles); Lou Christie; Loverboy’s Paul Dean; Black Sabbath’s Tommy Iommi; Eddie Hardin (Spencer Davis group); Jeff Daniels; General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell; and, by strange coincidence, former-Prince Andrew, who is one of the topics of today’s column.
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There is an old saying that has its roots in Chinese Lore: "May you live in interesting times." Interesting times, it appears, are the current situation in our closest European ally today.
I’ve been watching the slow-motion implosion that is the UK’s Labor government. (Yeah, I know, it's Labour. I can never get used to the different spelling. I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who remarked that "The British and the Americans are two great peoples divided by a common tongue." )
Even absent the members of that government’s connections to Jeffery Epstein (Peter Mandelson, for one), it was about to be ousted over what would be mildly termed "mismanagement," probably sometime over the summer. Examples include giving away the Chagos Islands, the government’s fiscal mismanagement, and then there’s this:
GB News’ regular programming was halted after presenter Ben Leo revealed that Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been plunged into another scandal, prompting fresh calls for an inquiry. The 36-year-old reported: "A prominent Labour think tank that paid £36,000 to investigate British journalists and smear them as being pro-Russian. Ben added: "The Prime Minister is under pressure to investigate whether there are links between his government and Labour Together." (Eric- The above mentioned “Think Tank”)
The Conservative Party have called for the inquiry as Labour Together previously helped propel the UK leader into the premiership. As Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said, it would be "only right" to look into the think tank.
Add to that the mounting pressure from the poll-topping populists in the Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage, and you’ve got a perfect storm. Which, in my admittedly arm’s length view of the situation, looks to have Keir Starmer moving out of Number 10 Downing Street by the end of next week, and Labour not having any chance at all in the election that the House of Commons is overwhelmingly screaming for.
That situation is nearly as impactful as the simultaneous scandals surrounding the king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has some Epstein entanglements of his own, as our Matt Margolis chronicles this morning. Either of these scandals individually would constitute a huge confidence issue among the British public.
Combine them all, and you have a set of scandals that threatens to top the abdication of King Edward VIII and his getting cozy with the Nazis back in 1936. Rather than have you dive into the Marburg Files yourself (which only tell part of the story), here’s a brief refresher on that topic, courtesy of the mini-series, The Crown:Interesting times, these days, in the UK.
It’s a sure bet that Starmer’s cooked, as is the Labour party. There’s a lot of back benchers in the party, and even some party leaders, desperately trying to disassociate themselves from the prime minister and his problems. The result of all that will be Labour not doing well among the voters there for some years. The question of the degree to which it will enable Reform, or for that matter, the Conservatives, is an open question. But it certainly isn’t going to hurt them, particularly if they can wrangle some kind of coalition. That said, it’s clear Labour is on its last legs with this particular government.
From what I’ve seen over the years, the UK requires a steady hand from Buckingham Palace when scandals hit Number 10 and the Commons. Historically, that seems a task Queen Elizabeth was sufficient to deal with. This time, however, the scandals are dragging the House of Lords along with them as well, with Starmer's appointment of Peter Mandelson to the chamber, despite knowing his connections with Epstein.
A steady hand seems to be in short supply just now, given the former-Prince Andrew situation, which does not appear to be going any anytime soon. The king, for his part, means well, but he’s got his health concerns, which appear to be more than a small distraction. The stress on the man in his already weakened condition seems to be taking a toll. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up passing on the throne before this stuff gets sorted.
The situation in the UK bears watching closely. Not that PM's Questions aren't entertaining these days, mind you. But I'm starting to be concerned over how all this is going to end up. I've said previously that the Epstein files are hitting everything but Donald Trump, who has always been the focus of the vocal never-Trumpers. I wonder if, in its concern over bringing down Trump (which has been their focus for over a decade, now), the American left has neglected the other implications of all of this.
Or, perhaps they do, in fact, understand. Chaos provides opportunity, after all.
Thought for the day: "How come you never see a headline like ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?” — Jay Leno
Take care, folks. I look forward to seeing you here tomorrow.
Related: Epstein, The View, and the Permanent Double Standard
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