Top O' the Briefing
Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. (It's the final week of preparation for the whirlwind book tour, and the Sine Qua Non Sequitur is foraging for elderberries with some recently retired Moldovan nuns.)
Indulge me, if you will, a meandering trip down Memory Lane. Weird thing about Memory Lane — there's a road widening and lengthening project every year, always adding to the number of trips one is tempted to take.
The death of Jesse Jackson kicked up a lot of memories, which surprised me. Not so much about him specifically, but of a bygone era in American politics. Jackson had been a prominent figure in American politics ever since I became politically aware. In modern parlance, there is a lot to unpack when it comes to Jackson's legacy. Rick took a good look at a lot of it in the post he wrote about Jackson's death. Here's the beginning of that:
He was a con artist and a "race pimp." He was an opportunist, a race hustler, and a corporate shakedown expert who enriched himself by using funds earmarked for "the cause" for his own personal gain. He was an admirer of notorious racist and virulent antisemite Louis Farrakhan.
Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday at the age of 84, was all of that. He was also one of the greatest orators of the 20th century, a groundbreaking political figure, one of the best political strategists in American history, and a towering figure in local Chicago Democratic politics.
You can't look at Jesse Jackson as a one-dimensional stick figure.
If there is someone in this great land who is over the age of 40, has paid any attention to politics, and has ambivalent feelings about Jesse Jackson, I have yet to meet him or her. There are a lot of names that Jackson's supporters and detractors could call him, but "boring" would never be one of them.
Jesse Jackson was a polarizing figure, to be sure. However, his peak polarization days came during a time when we all weren't so quick to get bent out of shape about things like that. Political Americans knew how not to get along better back then, if that makes any sense. People were just as passionate about politics then, but we didn't have social media or 24-hour political news offerings on television. We would get our political fixes, then do other stuff. I used to golf in those days. It's impossible to fret over the likes of Jesse Jackson when one has a short game that's trying to give you a heart attack.
President Donald Trump's reaction to the news of Jackson's passing was a reminder of the way things used to be. Matt wrote about that:
“The Reverend Jesse Jackson is Dead at 84,” Trump wrote. “I knew him well, long before becoming President.” He described Jackson as “a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts,’” adding, “He was very gregarious - Someone who truly loved people!”
The president gushed a little more about Jackson, which I'm sure is making all of the Trump Derangement Syndrome lefties struggle. How dare Literally Hitler say nice things about Rev. Jesse! Out of all of the condolences expressed by former presidents and other politicians, Trump's was the only one that didn't sound like a lower-level comms staffer wrote it.
Yeah, things were more fun in Olden Times. Jesse Jackson delivered one of my favorite television moments of all time, which I wrote about in this VIP column. People on both sides of the aisle were allowed to have a sense of humor in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. The Democrats had a humorectomy sometime in the early 2000s. My money is on Jan. 20, 2009, being the exact date.
The humorectomy isn't reversible, and it's unlikely that TDS will be curable even after President Trump returns to private life. We're never going to get back to being able to not get along in a functional way. It's a shame, there were a lot more people to drink with in those days.
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Everything Isn't Awful
Goals.
Not a single care is given.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/JBdJWol0oy
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 17, 2026
OK, we're sticking with the calming and adorable animals, but every time I happen upon a nice story like this, I'll add it to the mix.
A Florida woman was recently able to meet and thank the good Samaritan who helped rescue her and her three children earlier this month, after their vehicle crashed into a canal. https://t.co/5veKIEEGVF
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 17, 2026
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The Kruiser Kabana
Kabana Gallery
14. The Exchange of the Princesses at the Spanish Border #artbots #rubens pic.twitter.com/XzHQkdkCjW
— Peter Paul Rubens (@artistrubens) February 17, 2026
Kabana Comedy/Tunes
This popped up on a curated Spotify list the other day. I do love me some Tanya Donelly.
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