— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 20, 2026
In The Mail
An SDA regular from Ontario corresponds with me regularly. Here’s a little missive he sent from México and gave me permission to share:
We are spending a few weeks in the sun again. By my wife’s count, this our 7th trip to Mexico. Over that thirty-plus years there was always a pronounced Canadian presence at our Mexican vacation spots — and so it is this time as well. But apparently, according to virtually every Canadian we run into, things are very different this year.
We are told that there has been a huge increase in Canadians on the Mayan Riviera this year because, wait for it, “they’re not going to Florida anymore”. This news is invariably delivered with a smug happiness, as “we sure showed him, eh?”
We have heard this dozens of times, and we respond to it with a few quick follow-up questions. “Is this your first time here?” “Oh no, we’ve been coming here for five (or twenty) years”. “So, did you vacation in Florida last year?” “No.” The smarter ones see the contradiction between fact and their narrative and change the subject or, get sour and terminate the conversation. The others try a different tack: asserting that it’s the Quebec traffic that’s waaaay up — at which point I invite them to speculate how much of that might be due to the Quebecois abandonment of Cuba over the past year or so.
A week or so ago, my wife was explaining where our home town was to a poolside Karen who loudly exclaimed – Americans within earshot – that “Any place in Canada is a great place to be.” I told her we had friends in Brampton who would disagree. She has (mercifully) ignored us ever since.
One Step Forward….
As someone who’s had to deal with Diesel Exhaust Fluid, I find these latest steps very encouraging. It remains to be seen, however, what the actual impact will be, considering that California is unlikely to drop its diesel emission standards. My best guess: your new tractor or truck will still come equipped for DEF, but you’ll be able to easily switch it off. That means you’ll still have to pay for hardware that you’ll never use.
It is important to note that the decision also removes the federal EV mandate for Class 8 trucks, meaning it is no longer federally required, and that diesel equipment will remain part of fleet operations. Therefore, other rules are still moving forward. The 2027 NOx emissions standards remain in place, and manufacturers have already developed engines designed to meet those requirements. State regulations also continue to play a role. For instance, California and other states maintain their own emissions policies.
Who Wore It Better?
Two Possible Paths Forward for the World
Nites Ov De Rod
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has closed 7,500 commercial driver training schools in a first year of enforcing federal laws governing trucking to increase road safety.
Recently, he listed significant actions directed toward the trucking industry among other key transportation achievements under “a year of decisive wins under President Donald J. Trump’s America First Agenda.”[…]
FMCSA disclosed Dec. 1 it found widespread noncompliance with entry-level driver training requirements after reviewing 16,000 CDL training providers listed nationwide.
“The trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West for far too long which is why I purged NEARLY HALF of trucking schools from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s list of approved schools because they failed to meet our high standards of safety,” Duffy noted in a Dec. 2 social media post. “We also placed over 7,000 drivers who failed to meet our English proficiency standards out of service because if you can’t speak English, you need to get off American roads! We’re not afraid to take EVERY MEASURE to protect the American people.”
Related, from Gord McGill: The Continuing Worldwide Highway Boogaloo
Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference
Marco Rubio recently spoke at an annual event.
Based on current polling, and countless conversations I’ve had, is it inaccurate to assume that the vast majority of Canadians and American Democrats completely disagree with him … and yet these same people don’t even know why. Such is the Life of a mindless NPC.
Related: Some say the Deep State Plan has now collapsed.
This Was Not on my 2026 Bingo Card
U.S. State Department offers political asylum to British citizens arrested for social media posts. Let’s hope the same is extended to Canadians.
Thank You For Your Attention To This Starter
Repealed: President Trump is formally TERMINATING the Obama-era rules that forced car makers into putting the infamous “START-STOP” into vehicles
How Far Will the Elbows Up Crowd Let Canada’s Downfall Continue?
Brian Lilley wrote a simple editorial stating the obvious: Both John-Paul Danko and Mark Carney should issue a public apology to Jamil Jivani.
The comments on the webpage, plus on Facebook, were both predictable and sad. The elbows up crowd didn’t disappoint with their usual TDS-powered drivel.
Thought experiment: If left-leaning Canadians were asked whether the Carney government should start treating their biggest customer with respect or seriously risk a disastrous outcome for the Canadian economy, would a vast majority of them respond with some version of Orange Man Bad? In other words, burn it all down in Canada, because we’re the righteous few fighting modern day Nazis. Are they REALLY willing to go all the way to economic disaster?!?
Unexpectedly
Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself
Newly unsealed Department of Justice documents reveal that in July 2006, then businessman Donald Trump was one of the first to call police to warn them about sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents include a previously unreported 2019 FBI interview summary with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter. Trump had contacted the department shortly after reports of Epstein’s criminal sex investigation became public.
The future president contacted Reiter to express relief that authorities were finally acting, suggesting his associates in New York had described Epstein’s behaviors as “disgusting,” and advised investigators to focus on Ghislaine Maxwell, whom he described as “evil.”
Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter
Related good point.
A Zero Tariff Solution
Kevin O’Leary- Canada Is in a Squeeze
Collateral Damage
While we’re deporting the murderers, rapists and pedophiles…we wouldn’t want to overlook those vicious Irish plasterers.
Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, he is married to a US citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area. He was arrested on September 9th, 2025, and has been in an Ice detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket”.
Culleton said he was carrying a Massachusetts driving licence and a valid work permit issued by the US government when he was pulled over by Ice on the way home from work in September.
Orange Man Bad
Yesterday, I had a long conversation with a fellow in Vancouver. He’s not a dummy and is very well versed with what’s going on in the world. But he also has an unhealthy TDS infection, though it’s not extreme. He went off on a few rants that I wanted to run by all of you, under the premise of “What would you have said?”
The first focused on what is happening in Minneapolis. He insisted that the violence and deaths we’ve seen are entirely Trump’s fault, due to his inflammatory rhetoric. I conceded that I don’t always like the way Trump phrases things, but added that I do prefer his direct, plain spoken approach to the mealy mouth mumbo jumbo of people like Carney. He didn’t disagree with this. I also added that I strongly believe that what we’re seeing in Minnesota is carefully orchestrated by the DNC and global elites above them, all to do with winning the midterms this November.
We segued into talking about deportations under Obama. There were many more and there were no protests. I reiterated my argument above. He insisted that it was due to Obama’s quiet soft spoken approach and that he didn’t use ICE to do it. I’ve since researched his last point and it’s absolutely false.
He then moved onto a rant about Trump’s children. He took me down the path of conceding that Joe & Hunter Biden were both corrupt. Then he pivoted and said, “So I’ve admitted that the Bidens were corrupt. Thus you must agree that Trump’s kids are stealing millions?!” I was honestly confused by this and asked him to share some examples. He told me that he’s not going to do my research for me. So I did some, here and here. There are lots of allegations, but no convictions. If there was actually something there, would not the corrupt legacy media, who clearly hates Trump, be smearing his children 24/7 ?
In summary, I generally don’t trust any politicians without question. I don’t put Trump, or any other right-of-centre politician on a pedestal. But if you’re going to state something unequivocally as a fact, you absolutely need to bring facts from credible sources along with such statements. I’m sincerely interested to learn how you handle such conversations in your life.
Carney’s Greenland AirBnb
Unbeknownst to some of us, Canada has opened up a grand consulate in Greenland – h/t ‘Orson’.
It is not clear whether one has to make land acknowledgements, profess to the Woke religion, kiss a trans-woman, and attest to how much you hate the Orange Man, before entering this facility.
The Rot of the Global Financial System exposed
Benghazi: “What difference at this point does it make?”
In related New Rules news… “You’re kettling! You’re kettling!“
Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter
The World Health Organization refused to return the American flag that hung in front of it, saying it has not approved the U.S. withdrawal from the agency…