Thursday, 19 February 2026

🧚‍♀️ TREEHOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTS

May the Great Spirit bless you 🙏

Good morning! I seem to be feeling OK, but I never know when something will act up. I pray not; I just pray for a National Physically Feel Nothing Day. When I do get a holiday from nausea, it does wonders for me mentally, especially my mood. Otherwise, can you imagine what it would be like going around 7 days a week,12 months of the year, with hangovers, and you don't even drink any alcohol? This morning, not bad, the only discomfort is a bloated stomach, as if I ate too much.

Well, there isn't much else to report from the Newsroom this morning, except that I pray 🙏 the Great Spirit 👼 be with you all on this day. Thank you for reading the Tree House News.

👩‍🦰👩‍🦱💁🙇‍♀️🙅‍♀️🤷‍♀️🙍‍♂️🙎‍♀️🚶‍♀️🚶👶👩‍🌾🧑‍⚕️👩‍🍳👩‍⚖️🤴

Ya know, the guy who invented old age, I changed my mind about an ordinary steel-toe work boot 🥾 to put where the Sun don't shine (‿ˠ‿). I want the right boot with spikes sticking out from the steel toe. Actually, I need two more pairs of steel-toe boots with spikes for Adam and Eve, too. I can learn to kick with both feet at the same time if I have to 😜 Bugs Bunny can do it 🐰 As for the weather here, so far it's just been chilly, cloudy, and gloomy 😝

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

Brain and Cosmos

Looking at an image of a section of our Milky Way Galaxy, you can easily pick out the blue stars from all the gazillion other stars and galaxies. A blue star is so dense and gravitationally sufficiently strong that it can bend time and space. Much like black holes and white dwarves, the blue stars are massive stars, just not as massive and dense as black holes and white dwarves, supernovae, gravitational waves, etc. Which means we can bet there's been a lot of warping of time and space since the Big Bang, for lack of a better term, for the beginning of this temporal universe.

The question is, can the old and the new coexist in the same sequence of time and space? Can you imagine the implications of that possibility? It's already strange enough here, due to a single act of orange madness. Can one runaway subatomic particle get loose in the temporal universe, like a cancerous cell, and cause havoc, as my proverbial voracious flesh-eating can of worms of insanity, like those growing inside the Orange Madman's head, or like a runaway nuclear reaction in the universe? Some call it the Big Crunch, if we deflate, or the Big Rip if we expand outward, spreading out like a vast supersonic dust storm, outward to the outer edges of the universe's neocortex web of life... POOF!

- Google Search -

🔹AI Overview

Question: Universe's Neocortex Web of Life.

Recent scientific research indicates surprising structural and functional similarities between the network of neurons in the human brain and the cosmic web of galaxies. Despite vast differences in scale, both systems are characterized as complex, interconnected networks with similar scaling laws for organizing matter, suggesting a potential, albeit controversial, connection in which the universe's structure mimics a "neocortex" or, more accurately, a massive, self-organizing neural network.

Structural Similarities: Brain and Cosmos:

Similar Scaling: Studies comparing simulations of the universe with slices of the cerebellum and cerebral cortex found that both systems have about 70–80% of their mass/energy composed of similar components (water/neurons vs. dark energy/galaxies) and that they organize their connections similarly.
Complexity:

The "Web of Life" and Cosmic Connection:

It almost seems as though the entire history, or cycle, of the universe is stored on an intergalactic supercomputer of sorts, with all the potential ways it can develop, and will develop, forming a never-ending story.

How we conclude this cycle is up to us; how we wish to see it end is all up to us, those of us who are still sane and have dreams and aspirations in life, and to continue to strive to accomplish those dreams and aspirations. It's up to us to decide which way we want to go. I choose to follow the Freedom of Choice. To follow and obey the Constitution of the land I live in, in accordance with its laws and regulations, for without them we may as well prepare to go back to living in the trees and relearn how to pick the fleas out of each other's fur coats, and fight with sticks and stones. At least we wouldn't be hurting the rest of nature.

AMERICA WILL BECOME THE HOMELAND OF PIRATES.

UNFORTUNATELY, THAT'S THE ONLY OUTCOME I CAN SEE COMING IN THE FUTURE UNLESS SOMEONE WITH A BACKBONE BREAKS THE MOMENTUM OF INSANITY!

BREAKING NEWS:

How immigration agents are using a once-obscure law to detain U.S. citizens

A pair of federal immigration agents clad in camouflage and masks approached Ryan Ecklund's car on a snowy Minnesota street last month with a stark warning. "You will not be following us anymore," one agent told him, "or you will be arrested."

When Ecklund continued tailing the agents' beige SUV and recording them, he quickly found his status as a U.S. citizen didn't protect him from being pulled from his car and handcuffed. The agents drove him to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Minneapolis and checked him into detention at a table labeled with a handwritten sign: "USC 111."...

CHART | Prosecutions of assaulting and impeding federal officers

'It is a federal crime for you to be interfering':

VIDEO | Border Patrol Agent tries to explain Federal Statute:

Read More:

PUBLISHED February 19, 2026, 6:00 AM ET - 3 hr ago

- CNN -

The immigration crackdown is impacting health care across the nation, doctors warn

As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown across the U.S., health care providers warn that the impact of federal agents in health care settings – and the looming threat of immigration enforcement they've instilled nationwide – is presenting a barrier to care that could have a lasting impact on the health of communities.

With many people unable or afraid to access care, some providers say they are seeing a decline in patient numbers they haven't seen since the Covid-19 pandemic – this time, while potentially dealing with federal agents in tactical gear. Doctors are already seeing the impact on appointments, vaccination numbers, and even basic nutrition, and they're worried the long-term health consequences could be serious.

Armed ICE agents lining hospital hallways:

Minnesota doctors said the presence of ICE agents in health care facilities has been distracting and intimidating at times

Too afraid to access care:
Bringing care to patients:
Declining vaccination rates:
'We would never do that':

Read More:

PUBLISHED February 19, 2026, 5:00 AM ET - 5 hr ago

- CNN -

CANADIAN NEWS:

Former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested by U.K. police

Charles says law must take its course as police assess claims King's brother sent trade reports to Epstein

The Latest:

The former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Police are searching his property and have him in custody at an undisclosed location.
King Charles, Andrew's brother, says authorities have 'our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.'
Andrew's arrest follows scrutiny over his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after the release of millions of pages of documents connected to U.S. investigation of the late convicted sex offender.
Mountbatten-Windsor had already been cast out of the royal inner circle over his ties to Epstein.
He has not been charged and has previously denied all wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Read More:

Updated February 19, 2026 - 21 minutes ago

24 minutes ago

Time as trade envoy long criticized

More To Read:

Updated February 19, 2026 - 7 minutes ago

- CBC -

Canada faces challenge as it navigates growing calls to help Cuba amid U.S. aggression

Cuban crisis will put Carney's Davos speech to the test, says one expert

The Canadian government is in a bind as it faces growing calls to help Cuba while the U.S. government attempts to choke off the island nation's fuel supplies.

Interim NDP Leader Don Davies and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet have both called on the Liberal government to send immediate aid to Cuba, where people are facing blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

The U.S. has cut off oil supplies from Venezuela, Cuba's main supplier, and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to hit countries with heavy tariffs if they send fuel, while saying the Cuban government appears "ready to fall."

In Cuba, people go without food and power as U.S. chokes oil supply and tourists flee

'Test case' for Carney's Davos speech:

WATCH | A look at Trump's strategy on Cuba:

Canada not 'obliged' to step in: prof
Decline 'palpable and immediate':

Read More:

Posted: February 19, 2026 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

- CBC -

For more than six decades, the United States has tried to topple the regime in Cuba. After ousting President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, who was one of Cuba's closest allies, the Trump administration is closer than ever to forcing radical change on the island.

February 17, 2026, The Daily