Monday, February 23, 2026

A Tale of Two Athletes


Arthur Liu was born in Sichuan, China and raised in a small mountain village. In 1989, he participated in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest, telling Town & Country, "I organized protests and hunger strikes for democracy in China."

As a result of that participation, Arthur was forced to emigrate to the United States. In 2022, the Justice Department revealed the Chinese government was attempting to intimidate critics of the regime living in the U.S., including Arthur, who said at the time, "They are still paying attention to me after 30-some years, since I organized protests and hunger strikes for democracy in China,” he said.

In 2005, Arthur and his wife Yan "Mary" Qingxin, welcomed their daughter Alysa, the oldest of five children, all of whom were born through a surrogate. From and early age, Alysa showed a talent for figure skating, and she was inspired by Michelle Kwan. The same year that the Justice Department announced the Chinese government was intimidating her father, they tried to recruit Liu to skate for the communist nation in the 2022 Beijing Games.

Liu refused and has represented America both at Beijing and in Italy. Yesterday, she won the gold. 


She was the first woman to do so since 2002. And it was a remarkable career comeback. Liu retired at 16, saying she was burned out by the sport. She had spent years training for the Olympics and ended up finishing in sixth place. She was told where to go, what to eat, when to train. For a while, she wouldn’t even go near a rink. In 2024, a ski trip made her rethink skating and she got back on the ice. 


Her joy was palpable. 


Compare that to Eileen Gu, who was born in San Francisco. Gu took China up on its offer to compete for them in the games. She won gold in 2022 but failed to do so again this year, settling for silver in the women's freeski big air competition.

Gu said she's a "punching bag" amid the ongoing backlash she's received for competing on behalf of China. 


She's not a "punching bag." She made a choice to compete for China and we're free to criticize her. 


As the Olympic Games come to a close, however, the contrast could not be clearer:

One athlete born in America chose the regime that countless others risked and lost their lives to in an effort to bring democracy to the communist nation. Another athlete, whose father risked everything for freedom, refused to skate for the government that once persecuted him. And it’s about a woman who found herself after walking away from the sport for her own personal peace.

Alysa Liu’s gold medal is not just a victory in the skating rink. It is a quiet rebuke to the idea that loyalty can be bought and that freedom is merely branding.

For the Liu family, America wasn’t a marketing opportunity. It was a refuge. And this week, it was the flag raised above the podium, and a gold medal around her neck. And in a world of Eileen Gus, be an Alysa Liu.


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Pete Hegseth Comes Under Fire for Meeting the Standards He Demands of Others. Yes, You Read That Right


RedState 

The left is engaged in an all-out attack on the policies of the Trump presidency. However, most of those attacks are not aimed at policies, per se; they are aimed at specific people and agencies. For instance, the nation remains in favor of getting rid of illegals, but, thanks to lies perpetrated by the left and their stenographers in the media, they are becoming dissatisfied with how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are operating. Kristi Noem and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are the targets of personal attacks. JD Vance has had his faith, his wife, and his marriage attacked. In fact, it seems that the more successful an administration official is, the more unhinged and deranged the attacks. Few members of President Trump's cabinet have had a greater impact, and undergone more scurrilous attacks, than Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

When Hegseth was nominated to his current position, the U.S. military was swirling in the toilet bowl. The services were controlled by those who, in the words of the author of Genesis, had sold their birthright for a "mess of pottage." They had traded away warfighting skills, military honor and tradition, and loyal service to the naiton in favor of mindlessly serving whatever fad was hitting academia (by the way, I think staunching this idiocy will be a great result of the Pentagon's recent policy on which schools are open to officers seeking advanced degrees; see 'We Train Warriors, Not Wokesters' – Hegseth Tells Prestigious University to Take a Hike).

Hegseth's changes began early with his famous "all hands" meeting that required attendance by all serving Flag or General Officers; see Pete Hegseth Makes a Much-Needed 'My Way or the Highway' Offer to Assembled Generals and Admirals. Part of that speech was a call to physical fitness. Under the previous administration, the standards were corrupted to ensure that every variant of sexual perversion would be able to pass even the most demanding schools in the military.



I would contend that the behind the scenes changes made in the military have directly contributed to the stellar recruiting numbers achieved by the Department of War and the flawless execution of four separate combat operations: the air campaign directed at Iran's nuclear weapons facilities; the interdiction of narcotics trafficking in the Caribbean and Easter Pacific; embargoing "dark fleet" tankers from running bootleg oil to Cuba and China; and the capture of Venezuelan
jefe Nicolas Maduro. There are no analogs for either the Iran or Venezuelan operations in American military history. 

Those changes, particularly as they regard his campaign against "wokeness" in the military, have made him particularly hated by the left. The fact that he obviously has a strong team in the Pentagon and an equally strong bond with the men and women in the Armed Forces makes him doubly hated.

One of Hegseth's trademarks is physical fitness. Not only is he in great shape himself, but when he visits units, he makes a point of participating in physical fitness training sessions with the troops.

Friday, Hegseth was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. While there, he reconnected with the unit he served with in Afghanistan. While an officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, he served as an infantry platoon leader in 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, aka The Rakkasans, the Japanese words for "falling umbrellas" or parachutes. There, he earned a reputation as a tough, capable, and canny combat leader.

Predictably, Hegseth did PT with the Rakkasans and, just as predictably, he was excoriated for it. Most of the abuse was on social media by people who'd never done anything more strenuous than getting off the sofa; for instance, Pentagon Pete Hegseth Hits Up Old Platoon With U.S. on Brink of War With Iran. The insinuation that the Secretary of War should be bunkered down is ludicrous. Any operation planned in Iran is under the purview of U.S. Central Command. If the Secretary of War is tied up in operational planning, he needs to fire some people. Moreover, you can't allow the movements of a single individual to serve as a warning to our enemies when operations are imminent.

What particularly got their goat was Hegseth bench-pressing. What really got them was his pressing 315 pounds.

It was nearly a metaphor for Hegseth's career. He faltered. He almost failed to make it. But when it counted, he succeeded.

Suddenly, X was inundated with people who claimed that 315 pounds was nothing. One moron claimed that three-fourths of the guys in his high school class could do it. And another school claimed it was all fake. Reality Check: Dude, do you see those troops standing there? Do you think a single one of them would let Hegseth get by with claiming he'd pressed 315 pounds if he'd really pressed 314? If you think an E-4 is intimidated by rank and won't call out anyone, including generals, when they think they can get away with it, you obviously know nothing about any branch of the U.S. military. There were the imbeciles who pointed out that if the six plates on the bar weighed 45 pounds each, then he "only" pressed 270 pounds, loudly announcing to the world they were utter strangers to moving iron because the bar itself weighs 45 pounds.

The Daily Beast outdid itself in being the most shameful outlet. Hegseth had filmed himself lifting before the Fort Campbell event with his teenage son spotting for him. 

The headline of their story is Pentagon Pete Berates Son Gunner for Nearly Ruining Publicity Stunt.

As he lifts the barbell off the rack, Hegseth continues to tell his son not to touch it, affirming, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.”

The defense secretary dropped the bar down, bouncing it off his chest and pushing it back up toward the rack as his butt indeed lifts to support his efforts. As he nears the height to rest the bar back on the rack, he snaps at Gunner as he reaches to help.

“Don’t touch it!” he exclaims, before lifting it up the rest of the way to rack the bar to clear one rep. “Yeah! There we go, haaa!”

If you've ever spotted for someone or had someone spot weights for you, you recognize the pattern. It is important that the lifter be in charge and let the spotter know when he's needed and when he's not. Good grief, if that was "berating," I have no idea what they would've written if they'd watched me and my 17-year-old building a deck.

The bottom line is that Hegseth is building a bond with the rank and file unlike any Secretary of War/Defense in our history. He's showing them that he can walk the walk he's imposing on them. He's laying down a marker for their bosses, because if SecWar presses 315, you can bet there will be pressure on lots of colonels and generals to be seen lifting weights at the gym. The services are recovering the professionalism destroyed by Lloyd Austin, and the cultural rot is being excised. The competence of the military makes Hegseth immune from attacks in that quarter, so the left has to find something else. And this is the crap they come up with: lying and mocking Hegseth for lifting weights with the troops, when most of the critics would be hard-pressed to do a single rep of push-away-from-the-table, much less lift the plates. They do it because it is all they have left.


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W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Post whatever you got in the comments section below.

This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time. 

 

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Chaos Erupts in Mexico After Elimination of Cartel Leader 'El Mencho'

Chaos Erupts in Mexico After Elimination of Cartel Leader 'El Mencho'


Chaos has taken hold in Mexico as smoke has been seen billowing across multiple cities in the wake of a military operation that killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, the head of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).

CJNG has reportedly threatened residents of Guadalajara to stay indoors or face violence. The cartel has caused the chaos as a reprisal for the strike on their leader, storming airports with guns and engaging in shootouts with Mexican authorities. They have also set up roadblocks in numerous states throughout Mexico. Airlines have suspended Flights into Puerta Vallarta temporarily as the violence escalates.

American citizens have been instructed to shelter in place.

CJNG has threatened to forcibly enter homes and hotels should Mexico not meet their demands a 5:00 PM deadlines

Some open source intelligence influencers have claimed that El Mencho’s elimination was assisted in part by U.S. Special Forces. CBS News has confirmed that a Pentagon task force "played a role" in the operation. The task force reportedly provided intelligence to Mexican security forces prior to the operation.

The United States had previously offered a $15 million reward for the capture of El Mencho. A major leader of CJNG appears to have been captured.


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Watch as CNN's Fake News on DHS Arrests Gets Obliterated


RedState 

Just the other day, during a presser on the Supreme Court tariff decision, President Trump was taking questions from the White House press pool about the decision. At one point, he pointed, and then as one person started speaking, the president said, "Not you. I don't talk to CNN. You're fake news." He then called on another person, seated nearby.

New, President Trump's verbal filter doesn't always work, but in this case, he's correct; CNN has, for some time now, been nothing so much as the Anti-Trump, Anti-Republican Network, and they grow more blatant about it every day. In one recent piece, CNN's Erin Burnett tweeted a breathless video featuring her colleague, Brianna Keilar, bemoaning the fact that Department of Homeland Security agents were arresting (gasp) American citizens! Well, yes, Erin, if you interfere with federal law enforcement doing their jobs, you're going to get arrested.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, took to his own X account to call her out.

The post continues:

We’re happy to provide you with a list if you care about facts as much as you care about propaganda. 

Also, despite the histrionics in your reporting, U.S. citizens are not immune from prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 111 for impeding or assaulting agents. DHS agents investigate and arrest criminals every day, regardless of citizenship. 

The number of arrests is unprecedented because we have never experienced this level of obstruction of federal law enforcement operations. We will not be deterred in enforcing the rule of law.

This reporting by CNN isn't news. It isn't reporting. It's propagandizing.

What's worse, it's propagandizing posing as reporting. 

Look, bias in journalism isn't necessarily wrong if it's opinion journalism. My own biases are well-known, and while I do at times cover straight news pieces with the Joe Friday approach - "Just the facts, ma'am", I am an advocate; I comment on news stories and events and generally include my own thoughts. I am an advocate for conservative causes, for liberty, for the rule of law, and I am very open about that. Most of us here at RedState do likewise.

But too much of the legacy media tries to pass off opinion as unbiased journalism. That's what the CNN piece here is doing, and she apparently couldn't be arsed to get her facts right before releasing this. CNN has, since its inception, tried to pass itself off as a dispassionate news reporting outlet. More and more, every day, we see that it is anything but that.

Fortunately for viewers and readers, the Trump administration and the president himself don't flinch away from calling the legacy media out when they engage in this kind of corral litter. Let's hope that's a trend that catches on with the GOP in general.


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Did Donald Trump Call Into C-SPAN's Washington Journal? Here's What Happened.

Did Donald Trump Call Into C-SPAN's Washington Journal? Here's What Happened.


Did President Trump call into C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to criticize the Supreme Court and their tariff ruling? During the call-in segment, which can be quite entertaining, ‘John Barron’ from Virginia delivered a lengthy tirade about the issue.

If this were an impersonator, he’s very good at it. If it's AI, it's impressive since it mimics the president's voice well. As it turns out, it wasn't Trump, but I could 100 percent see him doing something like this, and it would've been hilarious. Alas, it wasn't but the name used is what caught people's attention:

"John Barron” was also the pseudonym Trump used for himself for many years. The president mentioned that "Barron” was his spokesperson and representative of his organization. “Barron” went on about how this decision was terrible, how Chuck Schumer couldn’t cook a cheeseburger, and how this ruling will hurt the American people. He was cut off mid-call, however. Still, you should enjoy this:

Last week, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot unilaterally impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.


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