On Leap Year Day 1796, the Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain came into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two countries.
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A Leap Day Milestone
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Epstein File Consequences
The disclosure of the Epstein Files has led to nothing much along the lines of legal consequences in America, while in Europe there have been several arrests, resignations, and investigations tied directly to revelations of ties to Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell. The list at present:
- Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (United Kingdom; former royal and Duke of York): Arrested February 19, 2026, on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to sharing sensitive trade information with Epstein while serving as a U.K. trade envoy; in 2025, stripped of royal titles in response to ongoing Epstein scrutiny.
- Peter Mandelson (United Kingdom; former government minister, European Commissioner, and U.K. Ambassador to the U.S.): Arrested February 23, 2026, on suspicion of misconduct in public office; released on bail pending further investigation; previously dismissed from his ambassadorship in September 2025, resigned from the House of Lords and Labour Party in early February 2026.
- Thorbjørn Jagland (Norway; former Prime Minister, Nobel Committee chair, and Council of Europe Secretary General): Charged with aggravated corruption in mid-February 2026 following home searches linked to Epstein file disclosures; faces up to ten years in prison if convicted.
- Terje Rød-Larsen (Norway; former diplomat, Minister of Administration and Planning, and International Peace Institute president): Under investigation for complicity in gross corruption tied to his Ministry of Foreign Affairs work and Epstein contacts; suspended from duties.
- Mona Juul (Norway; former ambassador to the U.K., Jordan, Iraq, and U.N. Economic and Social Council president; wife of Terje Rød-Larsen): Resigned as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq in early February 2026; under investigation for aggravated corruption.
- Jack Lang (France; former Minister of Culture and Education, president of the Arab World Institute): Resigned as head of the Arab World Institute in early February 2026; under financial investigation related to Epstein ties.
- Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (United Arab Emirates; magnate and chairman/CEO of DP World logistics company): Replaced as chairman and CEO on February 13, 2026, after emails revealed a years-long friendship with Epstein.
- Miroslav Lajčák (Slovakia; former U.N. General Assembly president and national security adviser): Resigned as national security adviser to Prime Minister Robert Fico on January 31, 2026, after photos and emails showed post-conviction meetings with Epstein.
- Joanna Rubinstein (Sweden; chair of Sweden for UNHCR): Resigned in early February 2026 after documents revealed a 2012 visit to Epstein’s private island post-conviction.
- Børge Brende (Norway; former foreign minister and World Economic Forum president): Stepped down as WEF president in early February 2026 following an independent investigation into his Epstein contacts.
- Mohamed Waheed Hassan (Maldives; special envoy to the president): Resigned positions in early February 2026 amid scrutiny over Epstein communications.
- Sarah Ferguson (United Kingdom; former Duchess of York): Forced to shutter her charity, Sarah’s Trust, in early February 2026 due to reputational damage from Epstein associations; effectively resigned from her public role in the organization.
- Morgan McSweeney (United Kingdom; chief of staff to Prime Minister Keir Starmer): Resigned in early February 2026 amid fallout from Mandelson’s scandal and broader government scrutiny.
- Tim Allan (United Kingdom; communications director for Prime Minister Keir Starmer): Resigned in early February 2026 as part of the U.K. government’s Epstein-related shakeup.
Take some caution, however: being named in the files does not inherently prove wrongdoing, and of course many individuals have denied illicit involvement. This list focuses on non-U.S. figures who have faced negative reactions to the information, actions like arrests, firings, forced resignations, or criminal charges. Some of these reactions are likely over-reactions. Whatever evil that Jeffrey Epstein was up to, he also was involved in networking with nearly everybody. How many of his “friends” he enticed into sexual activity with girls, or worse, and how many had no clue or just hints, we do not know.
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Jeffrey Epstein
i think pedophilee is the plural
Jeffrey Epstein, sans capitalization and quotation marks and period, responding to a March 20, 2012, email by one “izmo” [email address redacted] who had previously inquired where Epstein was (Epstein answered “Paris with woody allen”) and then quipped “les pedophile convention”? From the Epstein File disclosure, see Clara Molot, “The 10 Things That Haunt Me From the Latest Batch of Epstein Files,” Vanity Fair (February 3, 2026). By the way, we know who “izmo” is: Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s younger brother.
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Common Sleeper Struck Back
On February 28, 1646, Roger Scott, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was tried for sleeping in church. Awakened in church by a tithingman’s long, knobbed staff hitting him on the head, he struck back at the man, and garnered a whipping as punishment, as well as the dark designation as “a common sleeper at the publick exercise.”
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AI Within Limits
I’ve never consulted “Claude.” It’s an artificial intelligence (AI), and these things give me the creeps. But I must soldier on.
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, is in a special position: it’s currently the only frontier AI model cleared for use on classified U.S. military systems. But Anthropic limits use of Claude by the government: no mass domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens (such as tracking protesters or political opponents) and no development of fully autonomous weapons (where AI makes lethal decisions without human oversight).
Two cheers for Claude?
Regardless of your Huzzah level, being in a special position puts Anthropic in the crosshairs: The Pentagon demands unrestricted “all lawful use” access, rejecting any such safeguards or limits.
According to Elizabeth Nolan Brown, writing in Reason, the “U.S. Department of Defense is in a standoff with artificial intelligence developer Anthropic over the company’s refusal” to play along with the federal government’s willingness to press beyond the limits of the Constitution.
“This refusal hasn’t gone over well with the Trump administration,” explains Ms. Brown, going on to write that Secretary of War Pete“Hegseth has reportedly demanded that Anthropic remove its restrictions on certain military uses or else face consequences.”
In recent years we’ve witnessed too many companies complying with out-of-control government. And while it has become common to “lash out at big corporations, we should focus our anger on the actual root of these problems: the government,” the Reason article concludes.
As it turned out in the social media de-platforming scandal, “the real enemy of civil liberties here is the government actors who are doing the bad deeds, demanding that tech companies go along with them. . . .”
As our previous president used to say, “Don’t.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Cormac McCarthy
There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed. I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.
Cormac McCarthy as quoted by Richard B. Woodward, “Cormac McCarthy’s Venomous Fiction,” The New York Times (April 19, 1992).
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Amendment XXII!
The Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) of the United States Constitution, which sets a term limit for election and overall time of service to the office of President of the United States, was ratified by the requisite 36 of the then-48 states of the union on February 27, 1951.
Congress had passed the amendment on March 21, 1947.
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Logic Suppression
“In any other area of life — boarding a plane at DSM, picking up Cyclone tickets at will-call, or even buying Sudafed — showing a photo ID is a non-event,” Luke Martz writes in the Des Moines Register. “It is the baseline of participation in a modern society.”
The Republican political consultant, who has “served as an international election observer in Europe and the Middle East,” compares Iowa’s election system with “the mess currently unfolding in Minnesota,” where “Gov. Tim Walz signed a law authorizing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.”
Mr. Martz points out the “logical fallacy,” which he says has “effectively undermined their own arguments against voter ID.” How so? “If activists believe requiring a document to drive is reasonable,” he argues, “then their claim that requiring a document to vote is a ‘racist barrier’ collapses.”
Indeed. He notes that the idea “that certain Iowans are somehow incapable of obtaining a free state ID” is precisely the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” highlighted by President George W. Bush decades ago.
Lastly, Martz addresses the “‘voter suppression’ narrative,” which “has always had one major flaw: reality.”
Remember the hullabaloo over Georgia’s 2021 election law? Former President Sleepy Joe Biden called it “Jim Crow 2.0” and the politicians running Major League Baseball canceled the All-Star Game in Atlanta as punishment, only to see voter turnout in Georgia’s next election “more than 50% higher than in the previous midterm election of 2018.”
Martz shares Iowa’s story, where “doomsayers predicted a collapse in participation” after passage of voter ID. “Instead, we saw the exact opposite. In 2018, the first general election with the law, Iowa saw its highest midterm turnout in decades. In 2020, we shattered records with over 1.7 million ballots cast.”
Let’s not suppress reality.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Willa Cather
The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.
Willa Cather, One of Ours (1922).
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Dominican Independence
February 26th marks the Dominican Republic’s Independence Day.