The Border is Everywhere: American Politics February 2026

Judge frees father & son, rips USAholes a new one, though they may appeal, Blanche whines:
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/01/5-year-old-liam-ramos-released-minneapolis-ice

Good afternoon!

Latest ep of Reveal:

...Brady was one of many Indigenous people working to build energy sovereignty for tribal nations—work that continues despite the administration clawing back federal funds.

This week on Reveal, we’re diving into how small communities across the country are navigating the current administration’s policies and how they show up in everyone’s lives, no matter where you are in this country. We’ve partnered with The Daily Yonder to share a story about the solar energy hopes of tribal nations; The Tributary in Jacksonville, Florida, to learn how local and state DOGE are complicating efforts to run the city; and Idaho-based reporter Heath Druzin to hear how the Trump administration’s immigration policy is rupturing the state’s Republican Party.

listen or read:
https://revealnews.org/podcast/local-news-doge-solar-power-immigration-idaho-jacksonville-florida-tribal-nations/

https://www.propublica.org/article/alex-pretti-shooting-cbp-agents-identified-jesus-ochoa-raymundo-gutierrez

the pigs who murdered pretti are named

good rundown of the US's ethnic cleansing campaign:
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/trump-ice-haitians-springfield-ohio-20260201.html

Interesting testimony on history of cpb criminality: https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountability-for-ice-and-cbp

>the pigs who murdered pretti are named

*sniffs* names sound FOREIGN to me...

/s if that's not clear

7 and 11 years of experience each in case you know anyone still blathering about training

Ghoul In Chief Stephen Miller was feeling frisky on the eve of Black History Month:

Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare & the right to vote. All visas are a bridge to citizenship.

if not for that last sentence, he could be talking about post-slavery America.

7 and 11 years of experience each in case you know anyone still blathering about training

anyone who signed up to be border patrol even in “normal” times is a ghoul and yeah they are now being encouraged to unleash their id

Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said. By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said.

curious how big a deal that actually is I mean I assume there's a ton of variance in those elections but a 30 point swing is fuckin crazy, seems to imply that even Trump's absymal polling numbers aren't capturing how terribly he's doing right now

― frogbs, Sunday, February 1, 2026 3:20 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

id imagine there a real big enthusiasm gap which then is amplified in a minor election like this

― lag∞n, Sunday, February 1, 2026 3:25 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

or not

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:nyjm4ylfid2a7mjm6varxuiq/bafkreieoyyqgglmlajwgvmk4i2mucsr25upnlvz4e5jyxt7s6vappl6fj4@jpeg

Amazon’s gold-plated rollout for Melania Trump’s documentary resulted in opening-weekend ticket sales of $7 million in the United States and Canada, box office analysts said on Sunday. That gave “Melania” the best start for a documentary (excluding concert films) in 14 years.

It was a face-saving result for the first lady — last week, ticket sales were pacing at about $5 million — but not for Amazon, which spent an exorbitant $75 million to buy distribution rights to “Melania” and market its release in 1,778 domestic theaters. Theater owners keep roughly 50 percent of ticket sales, meaning that Amazon will end the weekend with about $3.5 million to show for its investment.....

....The audience was overwhelmingly female (70 percent) and over the age of 55, according to Amazon.

At the Cinemark Valley View and XD in Cleveland on Friday, the audience for a “Melania” screening included a couple of buses worth of people from a nearby senior center. “It was a nice fluff piece,” Gordon Wilson, 80, said as he exited. Another Cleveland attendee, Anita Dloniak, 68, chuckled when she heard that some of the other ticket buyers called the film propaganda. “What did they think it was going to be?” she said.

Bob Schmidt, 60, went to see “Melania” at the Alamo Drafthouse on Staten Island on Friday. He rarely goes to the movies anymore, he said, but he bought a ticket to send a message to what he called the liberal movie industry. “I wanted to see this movie kick Hollywood’s ass,” Mr. Schmidt said. (During the screening, attendees erupted in applause during the scene when President Trump is sworn in. Someone shouted, “Trump 2028!”)

Something about those lithe, waifish bodies and the square black brutality of the redactions. Makes me think of Abu Ghraib. Sickening.

(Argh, should have gone in the Epstein thread)

the border is everywhere!

Quite

or not

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:nyjm4ylfid2a7mjm6varxuiq/bafkreieoyyqgglmlajwgvmk4i2mucsr25upnlvz4e5jyxt7s6vappl6fj4@jpeg

― lag∞n, Sunday, February 1, 2026 10:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

sheesh that might be one of the most dire results I've ever seen for either political party

please clap!

what did u do tulsi

WASHINGTON—A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower’s lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint. Gabbard’s office rejects that characterization, contending it is navigating a unique set of circumstances and working to resolve the issue.

A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe. Disclosure of its contents could cause “grave damage to national security,” one official said. It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said.

https://archive.ph/f2Dk9

oh and here are some uhhh interesting crosstabs from that recent FOX poll - these are white, no degree voters...not a great sign if he's underwater with them

Do you approve(51%) or disapprove(49%) of the way Trump is handling immigration: +2 (overall sample: -10, GOP: +70)
ICE is being too aggressive: 55%
of that 55%, ICE is being too aggressive because they're going after the wrong people: 49%
Is Trump spending too much time (41%), about the right amount of time (41%) or not enough time (18%) on immigration and border security: -23%
Do you approve (44%) or disapprove (55%) of how Trump has handled the economy: -11 (overall sample: -19, GOP: +56)
Have you been personally helped (20%) or hurt (41%) by Trump's economic policies: -21%
Is the country better (32) or worse off(50) now than a year ago: -18
Are you better(21) or worse(40) off financially than you were a year ago?: -19
Would Democrats (50) or Republicans (48) do a better job on helping the middle class: +2
Would Democrats (50) or Republicans (48) do a better job on affordability: +2
Is Trump spending too much time (5%), not enough time (71%) or about the right amount of time (24%) on the economy: -66
How motivated do you feel to vote in November elections? Extremely Motivated: 49% (overall sample: 56%. GOP: 51%)
Do you approve(28%) or disapprove(70%) of the job Congress is doing: -42 (overall sample: -43, GOP: -6)
Do you Approve (49%) or Disapprove (51%) of the job President Trump is doing: -2 (overall sample: -12, GOP: +70)
Do you strongly disapprove of the job President Trump is doing: 38% (overall sample 45%, GOP: 6%)

‪Scott Horton‬ robertscotthorton.bsky.social‬

I have spoken with several senior FBI counterintelligence officers who believe that there is a reasonably strong prospect that Tulsi Gabbard is a foreign intelligence asset.

https://bsky.app/profile/robertscotthorton.bsky.social/post/3mduym2tnps2n

who could have seen that coming?

Duhhhh

I have a hard time envisioning her as much of an asset to anyone, but if she is it’s certainly not to the ol’ USA.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jxrml6kad4fjeqnvwzg74phy/bafkreihjr67bicvepreyjaz5bk3buv3y2jvsgoi2tjidn5o3ym4iet6kxy@jpeg

trying to parse that WSJ story. the complaint has been seen by the inspector general, who has determined the allegations involving gabbard aren’t credible, but also they’re stonewalling congress for some reason, also the whistleblower hasn’t just informed congress themself, and also the whistleblower’s lawyer hasn’t seen the complaint?

It is confusing but members of Trump's admin have always had a tendency to try and block investigations even when the accused was likely to be exonerated.

A normal thing totally innocent people do

A representative for the inspector general said the office had determined specific allegations against Gabbard weren’t credible, while it couldn’t reach a determination on others.

xp

Gabbard now on the front page of the NYT for being Trump’s eyes and ears in the Georgia election raid. Is this even the story referenced above? Or just more Tulsi Tulsi-ing? The pearl-clutching about this is honestly pathetic. Like Trump is working closely with the FBI to persecute ppl who have wronged him? No shit!

Like can we just retire this sentence formula? They write it as if there’s any thought put into which “level” he has taken his actions

Even for a president who has radically transformed the Justice Department and the F.B.I. by trampling over their political independence and using them as tools for personal retribution, Mr. Trump appears to be taking that kind of involvement to a new level.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rbftmrlfcemtu2dqkyywtazu/bafkreidvsijarc64he2rp6wx77stz5f6dhnsdswmftm6auhhr6a6ijh72e@jpeg

were through the looking glass here people

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rbftmrlfcemtu2dqkyywtazu/bafkreia4plxj7tyvykmtuum5qg5iv7h7ci6h5lrgail7zlggrinbxuoc6a@jpeg

if we can rock together, why can't we guac together

That's a lot of avocado toast

The people in charge of prosecuting Trump's political enemies are going to start meeting daily.

Justice Department officials are expected to meet Monday to discuss how to reenergize probes that are considered a top priority for President Donald Trump — reviewing the actions of officials who investigated him, according to a source familiar with the plan.

Almost immediately after Pam Bondi stepped into her role as attorney general last year, she established a “Weaponization Working Group” to review law enforcement actions taken under the Biden administration for any examples of what she described as “politicized justice.”

She said the group would focus on investigations into Trump conducted by former special counsel Jack Smith and his staff; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James; and any “improper” investigations into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

But after a year, the group has not produced anything publicly.

In recent weeks, Trump has been pressuring Justice Department officials for results in these and other investigations, recently admonishing a group of US attorneys for failing to deliver on cases he wants brought.

The Weaponization Working Group is now expected to start meeting daily with the goal of producing results in the next two months, according to the person familiar with the plan.

A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.

Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

“I [support] Donald Trump – I like the guy,” announced the South American TikToker and Instagrammer whose account purports to show “the reality of the United States” from a migrant’s perspective.

In a previous video, Pena reportedly urged Brazilians to stay calm and not “despair” after reports that ICE agents were rounding up migrants, including Brazilians. “But they’re all crooks. The lot of them,” he falsely claimed of the migrants being seized.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/02/rightwing-brazilian-influencer-junior-pena-arrested-by-ice

Ooooof

In recent weeks, Trump has been pressuring Justice Department officials for results in these and other investigations, recently admonishing a group of US attorneys for failing to deliver on cases he wants brought.

At the same time he reminded the DOJ that they should "go find me those 13,000 votes I needed in the 2020 Georgia election. Oh, and don't forget to nail that Raffensperger guy to the wall, too."

Every report about this is just evidence for the defense in whatever terrible cases they come up with. But as we were saying the other day, the point is not necessarily to put people in jail (tho they'd love to), but to bully and harass them as much as possible.

If the constitution survives all this it would be good to pass some more laws about the president not using federal police powers against opponents. Theoretically that's what the whole special prosecutor system is for, but Bondi's just totally ignoring all that. And god knows how much SCOTUS will even let them rein in the "unitary executive" — although more likely if it's a Democratic president.

A federal judge says Trump can't take away Haitians' TPS status, meaning they don't get to stage an ICE pogrom in Ohio like they were apparently planning. This is her conclusion:

There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.

Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).

Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.

By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay under 5 U.S.C. § 705.

she's more of a puppy-pounder I think

In defending the undocumented, Good violated the sanctity of The Homeland, which is to say that she questioned the divine promise of American soil to a mythical and singular people.

For The Homeland is not “The State” or even “The Country.” The Homeland is not defined by simple geography. It exists beyond laws and norms. It is unconcerned with traditional American concepts like “liberty,” “freedom” or “pluralism.” The Homeland is that piece of earth providentially deeded to The Volk. The Homeland’s borders are drawn in untainted blood, its sanctity exemplified in proper gender conduct and the fulfillment of gender roles. It is The Homeland that ICE venerates in its recruitment posts festooned with victorious white settlers and vanquished indigenous Americans. It is The Homeland that the late Charlie Kirk was fond of invoking:

I want to be able to get married, buy a home, have kids, allow them to ride their bike till the sun goes down, send them to a good school,have a low-crime neighborhood, not to have my kid be taught the lesbian, gay, transgender garbage in their school. While also not having them have to hear the Muslim call to prayer five times a day.

Und every Land can be a Homeland, if its People just Stay Home (except for Special Assignments)!

A student at the university where I teach turned himself in to the feds today relating to similar charges that Don Lemon faces. He apparently helped Lemon coordinate and navigate in St Paul.

Like Lemon, he is a Black man. 21 years of age. When asked about it he said “This is the price of being unapologetic about humanity and love of Christ.”

Good on him— he will hopefully be out of custody soon.

Yes, good on him, though I think I woulda run, and not just because so secular.

Coates reminding me of this unexpected bit, in an article about Arkansas protecting its People from a flagrant race traitor/teacher ov Critical White Studies: Swedish race science once grouped the Finns, Sami, and Hungarians together as offshoots of the so-called “Turanian” people, a hypothetical ancient Asian group.* Don't tell Orban---he's got enough on his plate right now.
*https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2026/02/02/an-ordinary-white-a-review-of-the-book-at-the-center-of-ualrs-extraordinary-dustup

well, those languages are related, they're all in the Uralic family

yep, nothing else like them, altho I know it as "Finno-Ugric"

and fwiw some linguists definitely think the group is related to Mongolians, moreover I also personally think they are related to some indigenous Americans from the original land bridge crossing, I have studied both Quechua and Finnish and there are a LOT of weird similarities.

(sorry for derail)

Tom Tiffany, a Republican running for governor in Wisconsin, is calling on the Dems to return the donations from Reid Hoffmann on account of him being at Epstein island, implying they are covering for pedophiles. This man of course is endorsed by Trump, obviously making this hypocritical to the core, which all the comments are pointing out, though it kinda hit me now that all those comments are boosting his post in the algorithm, and maybe all these Republicans are posting rage bait on purpose, and that this is how politics works now, and it's not so much that Trump figured it out as it is he happened to flourish as the human embodiment of rage bait

yep, although depending on who you ask Finno-Ugric is either the language family with no sub-branches or a subfamily of Uralic that excludes Samoyed languages and puts them in their own subfamily. I don't know who is right, I do know there's not much evidence to work with.

as for Swadesh's proposed Dené-Finnish superfamily, well... I appreciate a big swing

I mean look at this shit from Pam Bondi about the protest Don Lemon was at. "the lucky ones were able to get out". that's so fucking stupid and everybody knows it. this is just how they do politics now because that's what our media ecosystem rewards. funny how it dovetails so nicely with North Korean style propaganda

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mdwcb5jy3j2z

fyi. don't let these systems remain invisible.

ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler
A private equity–owned airline profits off Trump’s migrant crackdown.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/omni-ice-deportations-charter-flight-stonepeak-private-equity/

yes, and also the fact that they release people in some other state with no way to get home

some of whom get deported from those countries, rendering them stateless, as the article points out

yes, and also the fact that they release people in some other state with no way to get home

interesting connection here is that local police departments/jails do this on a local level in many cities. in chicago, for example, at least from 2020-21 when i was living there and closely paying attention to it, they would routinely release people from jails in the middle of the night, during covid restrictions, without their wallet/id, which would be held by some mystery precinct elsewhere in the city, and it would be on the released person to just walk out on the street and figure it out

‘Starlight tours’ are where Black or Native people are detained, often violently, by police/sheriffs in winter and released or dumped without charge miles from home with no coat or shoes, and basically left to die. The residents of Little Earth urban reservation in South Minneapolis (within MPD’s 3rd precinct) reported many examples of young men being subjected to this treatment for as long as I can remember.

ICE are clearly rolling out starlight tours for people who dissent or that they can profile, and it’s horrifying.

Don't tell Orban---he's got enough on his plate right now.

Definitely don't mention the influence of Turkish on Hungarian.

Trump continues to signal he's going to interfere with the midterms. "he'S NoT gOinG to INtERfEre WIth THE MidTErMS"

(fwiw not aimed at anyone specific, just feeling particularly doomy this week and I'm tired of the scolds who insist he won't even after *gestures hands wildly at everything*)

Good morning, jon!

Okay it's all horrible and it's all unmitigated evil etc., and the effects are real-world and awful. But there is a lather/rinse/repeat quality to the "Trump says shit" sequence, especially since he caused it to be put in a book well before he entered politics.

Trump says he wants outrageous thing X. We react predictably by saying X is outrageous (because it is). We not only do not want X, we want X minus 4. So he relents after concessions and he gets X minus 1.

NFL team ownership, 100% tariffs, TikTok, invade Greenland, federalized elections.

He will not get federalized elections but he will gain cooperation from friendly states, weaponized "oversight" and "monitoring," and a cowed judiciary. Because he doesn't give a shit whether elections are national, he just wants them Trumpy.

All of course under the cover story that because Democrats stole it with unfair politicized election management influence, he needs to exert countervailing influence to unrig the system.

Just as because the Justice system was weaponized against him he is bound by sacred duty must now reverse the polarity and weaponize it back against the corrupt radical left.

Jon people are saying that not because he won't try but because he doesn't really have any real mechanism to do so, as we've seen he can't just cancel elections nor can he just take over every election commission, he could probably mess with things in a few specific areas but actively trying to suppress the vote like that will probably drive up Dem turnout

I mean, some of those mechanisms are already in place at the state level. See the MAGA takeover of the Georgia state election board, e.g. There will definitely be monkeying ahead of the midterms in several states, messing with polling places, early voting, ballot challenges under assorted state laws, those things will all happen and could have some impact on particular races. Federalization of elections is not going to happen between now and November, because they just don't have a way to do it, short of national martial law or something like that. The most vulnerable states will continue to be swing states with Republican state leadership.

weird that he's going to mess with the elections, btw has anyone heard of the results of the Texas runoff election this past weekend? no reason just curious

We discussed it yesterday iirc.

YMP refresh my memory on his outrageous plan for TikTok? I genuinely don't remember, so my thought was that that went pretty according to plan

Oh, ban TikTok entirely vs. allow it to continue with a "change in ownership"

So as to appear as magnanimous savior of dippy dance trends

And also to engineer its takeover by MAGA-friendly overlords.

I've never used or cared about tiktok, but I heard enough stories of people posting videos about Alex Pretti + receiving zero reach or engagement that I am suspicious

yeah they're not being subtle about it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tiktok-new-terms-conditions-privacy-concerns_l_69779763e4b01cc3c1ad4578

I get that he can’t cancel the elections, and I get that numbers can overwhelm any attempts to obstruct or otherwise fuck with midterms voting (which he will definitely do). But beyond that what I’m concerned about is a refusal to accept the results of the election. They are already laying the groundwork for claiming fraud and disputing the election. A few friendly states that refuse to certify the results, Trump suing and appealing to the SC, fuckery in the House and Senate to prevent or delay swearing new members in and the transfer of power- any and all of these things that will definitely happen can at the very least gum up the works post-election. Even just a delay in the transfer of power “for the appeals to work through the courts in due course” will mean less time that a new Congress has to investigate, implement checks and balances, impeach, and generally try to fix things. Assuming any of that happens at all.

the irony is Trump has nothing to fear from the dems

yep, the advanced doomer knows that the Dems winning the House and even the Senate as well won't change much

trump / murdoch will push at least the egregiously delayed seating of al franken / adelita grijalva times a billion

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ijBY5npDL._SL1500_.jpg

epistantophus is what I mean by interfering, fwiw. I just I wish I could be as serenely confident as y'all that they'll go smoothly.

The other, more subtle method of voter suppression is relying on his own followers to intimidate others.

My brother worked the polls in his precinct and even before the result was in, he was shellshocked. He said he was the only D voter on staff - a fact that he shouldn't have known except for the fact that the sign-in sheets listed party affiliation for each person.

He said one of the poll workers saw a darker-skinned voter arrive and went to her supervisor with concerns that he would "vote twice".

He said he had to intervene to prevent more than one male voter from following his spouse into the booth to see how she voted.

I know Florida is extra fucked up but this shit probably happens elsewhere. This type of thing by itself doesn't necessarily swing individual elections, but it's the type of behavior that makes it easier on the party that's trying to cheat.

They will definitely put their people into polling places to look for "irregularities" and they will find them

I remind people again of the armed Hmong immigrants outside the polling place in ultra-rural Siskiyou County, making sure that no honkies gave their people a hard time when they were trying to vote.

If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.

Mind you I’m not saying it’s good, just that fire can’t keep being met with shrugs and sighs of “well we just need to show up more”

Someone has pointed out that Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem's initials are KLAN.

Jill Biden's first husband ('70-75) appears to have murdered his wife

Hungary: 5 key questions about the EU’s most important election of 2026
Hungarians head to the polls in April — and, unusually, someone besides PM Viktor Orbán has a chance to win.

(Oh yeah, I'd seen contemporary mention of possible Finnish-Mongolian connection, but the Swedish race science concerned for instance shape of Swedish skulls [oval] vs. Finn [round].)

Please fuck I hope Hungary dumps Orban

Tulsi Gabbard doing her own 2020 election investigation is really fucking weird

might ask well task Lutnick with planning the moon launch or something

Maybe she can investigate her own campaign

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ccm7gttkbfs2eyyrlpshmeun/bafkreiezvrykhunswrexc4tmvsrwmfxq2n27jbdendc4c77yp7a5ro62m4@jpeg

Julie otm?

the "i gotta get run. whaddo i need to do to get run?" gambit

BlueSky posters falling over themselves convinced this is fake (it's not), as if a DHS lawyer saying this is even in the top 10 of bizarre things that have happened this term.

"I'm out of order? YOUR'RE out of order!"

https://i.ibb.co/m5hMpY8V/Screenshot-20260203-163346-Chrome.jpg

Maybe she should quit then

Defending Fascism isn't a job, it's a calling

Apparently she's a private contractor and not directly employed by DHS

Well...*was* a private contractor i guess

now she's asleep

my brain is fucked by all this fascism because now I'm suspicious over the Fox 9 story specifying she's defending over 88 cases

not for long she's not

https://www.fox9.com/news/federal-attorney-ice-cases-the-system-sucks

(can I just say that I hate that "what we know" & "what they're saying" shit that news websites use now)

I hate it too.

But basically the gist is Le more or less opened the curtain to DOJ disarray in the most public fashion possible

ha goddamn

https://i.postimg.cc/KYp34z5J/Screenshot-2026-02-03-at-5-14-05-PM.png

https://bsky.app/profile/tylermcbrien.com/post/3mdydc7ebsc2e

he really does look like a war criminal in that photo

And also a particularly ugly corner of the moon

And a penis

Apparently she's a private contractor and not directly employed by DHS

Ok damn I had no idea that this was contracted out, or even that it could be.

Sheesh, gotta reread FAR in inherently governmental functions

It's telling how far things have fallen when I see people calling Le a hero on BlueSky.

Prior to this assignment, she was a court attorney for ICE. She herself was an immigrant from Vietnam and she was helping DHS lock other immigrants up.

All she's doing on this assignment is help clear the backlog of habeas cases. It seems she does give a fuck about complying with court orders, but that's like...legally required of you. Others within Trump admin not doing so doesn't make it heroic.

Her full comments in context more or less amounted to "I'm overwhelmed because I've not been given a lot of guidance, I have a ridiculous caseload, and nobody in the federal government is helping me".

Not "I weep for those locked up whose rights are being violated "

She is definitely not a hero, she's just a tired minion.

Yep.

Tell you what, release everyone in detention and we'll call it square

Julie Le volunteered to help the U.S. Attorney’s Office handle a flood of filings from immigrants who argue they were wrongfully detained during the ongoing ICE operation in Minnesota.

So she didn't volunteer to help these people.. she volunteered to stymie their claims. Go to sleep, Julie... pleasant dreams

Le said that she submitted her resignation, but ultimately chose to stay at the U.S. Attorney’s Office because no one could be found to replace her.

Le also said that after pushing through an order to release a juvenile from detention, she realized that she could affect positive change from the inside.

“Wait Julie, stop,” Le said. “You need to go back and get more people out. That’s why I’m still here. I’m here because I’m trying to make sure that the agency understands how important it is to comply with all the court orders.”

Like come on you were literally helping lock them up a month ago

Trump signed this, called it "A great victory for the American People" (think that's exact quote in here):

The Senate instead approved enough money to keep DHS running for two weeks while lawmakers work out disputes over its long-term budget.

That is the same agreement the House passed on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said he was concerned about the two-week timing in part because members of the Republican conference remain in "very different places".

"Once we start, we have a very short timeframe in which to do this, which I lobbied against, but the Democrats insisted on a two-week window," Thune said.

"I don't understand the rationale for that. Anybody who knows this place knows that's an impossibility."

TED CRUZ: "Let's stop attacking pedophiles.”

??? pic.twitter.com/7yCHWmzINu

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) February 4, 2026

future thread title: How about we all come together and say let's stop attacking pedophiles

All we are saying
Is give peds a chance

Handsy Across America

Funny, but probably could do that without quoting anti-semite Jackson Hinkle

sorry, didn't a clue who he is, one from the delightful For You timeline

Hinkle used to appear on cable shows as a "MAGA Communist."

Julie Le has been relieved of duty. Can't be airing that dirty laundry, now.

Well she can finally get some sleep. And hope someone else will hire her, although I'm not sure "Insufficiently Motivated Lackey" is that great a resume line.

Bye-bye, Washington Post; hello, Trump Times...

The Washington Post moved Wednesday at the behest of owner Jeff Bezos to make deep cuts to every department in the newsroom.

In a newsroom zoom call, Executive Editor Matt Murray called the move "a strategic reset." The changes, he said, were overdue in light of "difficult and even disappointing realities."

With the job cuts, the storied newspaper narrows the scope of its ambitions for the foreseeable future. It is a remarkable reversal for a vital pillar of American journalism that had looked to Bezos — one of the wealthiest people on Earth — as a champion and a financial savior.

Murray said the Post will shutter its sports desk, while keeping some sports writers who will write feature stories. It will likewise close its Books section and suspend the signature podcast Post Reports. The international desk will shrink dramatically. Murray said the decisions did not reflect the quality of the work

The Metro section will be restructured, ensuring a "healthy presence for local subscribers," he said. According to a Metro staffer who was just laid off, there will be about a dozen people left on the desk. That's down from more than 40.

The Post, which is privately held by Bezos, declined through a spokesperson to confirm basic data about its newsroom, subscriptions and other financial data for this article. Bezos has so far remained silent throughout the process.

...

Under Marty Baron, whom Bezos inherited as executive editor, the paper flourished, flexing journalistic muscle in accountability reporting on President Trump's first term in office.

It reaped rewards from readers too, exceeding 3 million paying subscribers. It is now far below that level, according to a person at the paper with knowledge. (The person spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears of being fired for speaking to the press.)

Now the Post appears poised to become primarily a federal paper, seeking to appeal almost exclusively for readers interested in issues about the U.S. government, with an emphasis on national security and American politics.

Several former editors said it appeared the paper was seeking to compete more with such specialized publications as Politico and Punchbowl rather than The New York Times. And numerous Post reporters and editors blamed their chief executives under Bezos — first Fred Ryan, a former Politico CEO — and then publisher and CEO Will Lewis, the former chief executive of the Wall Street Journal and a top executive at the British Telegraph and at Rupert Murdoch's London newspaper division.

Democracy Thrives in Darkness

I haven't heard from a close friend who works with the design team.

So we’re basically down to the NYT, WSJ, ABC, NBC, and what survives of public broadcasting as far as major legacy media goes. And God knows none of those are great, but at least they’re mostly doing journalism.

There are a ton of good smaller independent outlets that have sprung up, but none of them have anything like the reach or resources of the big players. And then you have Fox and the whole right wing media realm, which dominates the hearts and minds of something like a third of the population, maybe more.

Not great!

from The Atlantic:

Post leadership—which did not even have the courage to address their staff in person—then left everyone to wait for an email letting them know whether or not they had a job. (Lewis, who has already earned a reputation for showing up late to work when he showed up at all, did not join the Zoom.)

So we’re basically down to the NYT, WSJ, ABC, NBC, and what survives of public broadcasting as far as major legacy media goes. And God knows none of those are great, but at least they’re mostly doing journalism.

There are a ton of good smaller independent outlets that have sprung up, but none of them have anything like the reach or resources of the big players. And then you have Fox and the whole right wing media realm, which dominates the hearts and minds of something like a third of the population, maybe more.

Not great!

Is manufacturing consent considered journalism now?

pvmic

lol tables. I hear you, I get it, I said that they’re not great — but to your question, there are very good reporters at all of those places doing very good actual journalism, and much of what we all know about What’s Going On in big-picture terms derives from that work. As I always tell people, journalism is a practice — it is a way of seeking, finding, and verifying information. It is hard and labor intensive and often frustrating. For it to be done well, it requires full-time work, and somebody has to pay for that work. All of those outlets pay some very good reporters to do good reporting. (I’m absolutely not talking about their op-ed pages or columnists.) WaPo is obviously already deeply compromised, but yes it does still have some good reporters. And now it will have fewer of them, which is a net loss for the amount of information available to everyone.

fair enough. the triple whammy of second iraq war/trans issues/palestine fabrications has permanently disabused me of the notion that the Times can be trusted for anything except games, but obv ymmv

(also I’m not sure it’s a good time to be dropping Chomskyisms, speaking of compromised)

is the regional/national press crisis a payments problem? because it seems to me there's just no good model to make this work for normal people not to end up with 80 accounts. i like, just don't wanna fuck with patreon, and maybe the problem truly is me, if that's the model i really need. is anyone doing this well without billionaires controlling content?

there must be a thead somewhere hitting this sorry

(also I’m not sure it’s a good time to be dropping Chomskyisms, speaking of compromised)

it’s a useful term that was never just his, if we gave up terms created by horrible people we wouldn’t have much language to work with, tho i appreciate having my language policed

xpost rolling journalism into the shitbin thread

omigod can we fucking stop assuming the worst motives from posters

In the same way that we still use terms associated with Chomsky, great local journalism emerged from the WaPo. And beyond -- I think of the 1/6 investigations the paper started that Congress was too craven to pursue.

Bezos obviously doesn't need the money, he's just happy to cut off another pipeline for journalism at a time when it behooves him personally to curry favor with a fascist government.

omigod can we fucking stop assuming the worst motives from posters

i know this is directed at me but could easily be directed at tipsy, from my perspective. as if my use of a term signals my approval of Chomsky’s nonce-status, which is patently ridiculous.

as if my use of a term signals my approval of Chomsky’s nonce-status, which is patently ridiculous.

You think that's what I implied? lol

you've just proven my point!

i was referring to tipsy in that most recent post, not you

OK.

Anyway,I'm biased b/c one of my jobs is training student journalists, so please support local media, y'all. By "support" I mean 'subscribe.' All kinds of good work these guys do covering council meetings, sheriff races, water boards, zoning meetings, and other unsexy things that look like ephemera.

agreed.

also tipsy, fwiw i listen to yr podcast and like you a lot, even tho we disagree on quite a bit. that’s fine!

xp

i do think, in this thread, outside of this thread, and in so much of irl, people assume the very worst about each other's intentions all the time. in trivial ways and life-altering, communication-fucked messed up ways.

tipsy/table/alfred all have pretty different views on what has happened and what should happen, but i see all of them (and pretty much everyone in this thread, and ilx), as pulling in the same direction, and all very necessary to reach different people with different messages

thanks for the reminder for local journalism alfred. and to z re the journalism thread.

We've all developed a bit of excess distrust from interactions with other unsavory people on the interwebs.

I think what I appreciate about ILX is that usually, after it happens, it gets discussed and resolved and rectified.

Whereas elsewhere on the interwebs, discourse is basically GOTCHA EXTREME SPORTS

this is what the dolls and pins are for

still reading through this, and will be interesting to see the responses

https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-not-to-defeat-authoritarianism/

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism
Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.

Adam Bonica, Jake Grumbach

With responses from

Cori Bush, Amanda Litman. Matthew Yglesias, G. Elliott Morris, Julia Serano, Eric Rauchway, Suzanne Mettler & Trevor E. Brown, Thomas Ferguson, Timothy Shenk, Jared Abbott & Milan Loewer, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, Lily Geismer, Danielle Wiggins, William A. Galston, Henry Burke

Oh I was just making a joke about Chomsky, hard to resist. I agree that manufactured consent is a valuable concept and a real thing, even if its mechanisms are murkier and more complex than people sometimes envision when they use it.

But anyway I very much value your thoughts tables! You’re one of the left-wing voices in my head as I process and try to understand events and circumstances. And thanks for listening, I appreciate the kind words!

I love the lot of you.

I agree with the sentiment, but sad to say "the lot of us" is not a lot of us these days

Maybe he means those of us who were turned into salt

I do like bitter cocktails

Reuters: U.S. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL MAP INTENDED TO BENEFIT DEMOCRATS
1:55 PM · Feb 4, 2026

XP My partner's recently started making negronis with smoked mezcal, I highly recommend

Oaxacan Negronis are delicious yah.

Just an update, appears that the toll at WaPo is really staggering — 1/3 of the staff! That’s kind of astonishing, it’s beyond what any other major news organization has done that I can think of.

50% of tomorrow's paper will be Dilbert re-runs.

1/3 of an already greatly reduced staff.

XP My partner's recently started making negronis with smoked mezcal, I highly recommend

― congragulations (stevie), Wednesday, February 4, 2026 1:58 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I appreciate you, but every time Ive tried a mezcal Negroni I regret it

Now, a Mezcal Last Word, that's the stuff!

I read this as about making negronis while smoking mezcal and i was just damn ppl are wild what next

Oh! I always get mescaline, mesclun, and mezcal mixed up.

prob nothing

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:o4pdps2jkn7uhrdgadni7djk/bafkreieyhj56xhvqe4gwt36kzeezuvrkknm7ybbybwf5yvxw6e2q2hkgcq@jpeg

wait what has the CIA done? Their behavior is usually exemplary

idk they wont tell us

All the Woke recruits are doing rainbow coups.

all the woke coups
carry the news

Now, a Mezcal Last Word, that's the stuff!

La Ultima Palabra iirc

It's true, I was in a hipster coffee shop just this morning and all of the woke baristas were planning the next Antifa rainbow coup.

wow this Julie Le meltdown is wild, can't find any links other than bsky at the moment tho

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:amof5lwfk2cpdnsx37utz3fi/bafkreibltixwqaqqz2hmxahmarm3ywz4m5cdrwmajkhde6aj7asdkk4x4i@jpeg

ah here

The Tennessee Holler‬
✧@thetnhol✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 16m
Not the onion. The Trump regime, folks!🎪

An exasperated & frustrated Dept of Homeland Security attorney declared
her job “sucks,” the legal process "sucks," she wishes the judge would hold her in contempt so she "can have a full 24 hours of sleep."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/job-sucks-dhs-lawyer-court-hearing-ices-response/story?id=129855783

she wishes the judge would hold her in contempt so she "can have a full 24 hours of sleep."

this is prob too long for a March thread title, but wow

see she was trying to fix things from the inside but she just got really really tired and sleepy

she wishes the judge would hold her in contempt so she "can have a full 24 hours of sleep."

I challenge you to find one parent who doesn't identify

Elon musk

lol, but as the saying goes, he's not a father, he's a sperm donor

So the rumor mill says part of the plan is — maduro was hacking georgia, so we got him, and tulsi is overseeing that level of security, so they need to show how maduro obv hacked georgia AND OBVIOUSLY NOW DONALD TRUMP NEEDS TO RUN ELECTION SHIT THE RIGHT WAY.

is this confirmed by anything at all?

It's certainly not confirmed by anything at all, but the story's been around a while.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/election-deniers-think-maduros-capture-will-expose-plot-to-steal-2020/

Idk. They are up to some bullshit.

I feel like a lot of the stories that catch on in the online right are boosted in one way or another *by* the regime. So if this is out there maybe they want to make it happen

As that lays out, the possible sequence here is that Maduro strikes a plea bargain that includes an admission of some kind of involvement with Dominion voting machines; the new MAGA-friendly owners of Dominion "discover" some files or something that's missing or who knows what, indicating some kind of shenanigans; that are then somehow borne out by what the FBI "discovers" in the Georgia ballots.

Seems nuts! But god knows they've done some crazy things.

ha it does seem like the kind of weird that that lot would see as an obvious killshot vs woke america or whatever.

if that was the real reason to take venezuela it makes more sense than oil less than cuba maybe

This just came out, I guess Tulsi's been poking around at Puerto Rican voting machines, looking for (but not finding) evidence of Venezuelan interference. All of this would go some way toward explaining why she was on site at the seizure of the Georgia ballots.

A team working for President Donald Trump's spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, last spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico's voting machines, said Gabbard's office and three sources familiar with the previously unreported events.

The sources said the goal was to work with the FBI to investigate claims that Venezuela had hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico, but added the probe did not produce any clear evidence of Venezuelan interference in the U.S. territory's elections.

https://archive.ph/zTcjR

this is crazy and random even for them

yes

NEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program.

This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE.

https://bsky.app/profile/taniel.bsky.social/post/3me2wqroxrs2o

yes haha yes!

a very loud fuck ICE chant broke out at AEW, when you lose the wrestling fans it's fucking over

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3me3hba7ykc2y

Spanberger is a totally moderate-centrist Dem, but it turns out that if you have a Democratic legislature, having any kind of Democratic governor is a lot different than having a Republican governor.

(She’s also likely to sign into law an assault weapons ban and legal marijuana)

This seems like a good idea that more states should try.

NEW: Letitia James, the New York attorney general, announced that her office will deploy "legal observers" to document ICE activity in NY.

Her office says the effort is the first of its kind by an AG.

https://bsky.app/profile/luisferre7.bsky.social/post/3mdxna42c6s2h

psyched for trump to declare that new york has seceded

attempted to secede i guess he’ll say

She’s also likely to sign into law an assault weapons ban and legal marijuana)

― paper plans (tipsy mothra),

Good for her. I was getting sick of all the VA residents clogging up the lines at my dispensary

Sorry Heez, I won't do it again

that is fantastic news about 287g in virginia

my understanding is that state police hate it anyway because it has nothing to do w their actual jobs

Shhhh don't tell the administration about it, it'll become a thing where you don't get highway funds if you don't cooperate with thuggery

It'll be fun to watch "Tenther" states-rights / Lost Cause doodz process this strain of a southern state resisting Federal interference.

that said there are certain state police assholes who just love 287g. knox county sheriff asshole j.j. jones famously said a dozen years ago that if the federal government didn’t send ICE to “train” his officers on kidnaping undocumented people he’d just do it anyway and “stack them like cordwood” in the county jail

Ol’ JJ is running again this year btw.

Meanwhile …

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”

Edits to the brochure have removed that reference to Byron De La Beckwith, according to Park Service officials, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. Other edits include eliminating the reference to Medgar Evers lying in a pool of blood after being shot.

https://mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/medgar-evers-killer-trump-says-stop-calling-him-racist/

the tulsi whistleblower has finally decided to just go to congress since tulsi wont tell them how to email congress the complaint

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qxudeqrdbv6676vzjssrhllo/bafkreibxbimz555qfmpk7mtzh4b6v34ccki7hg4tfs45wog7xjhkd7bfii@jpeg

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qxudeqrdbv6676vzjssrhllo/bafkreicwidtfr6tvfgzrkvb6anfoftfy6rkgb7qglbrnp3zwzymhssfsdm@jpeg

Lol wow

gonna be honest im very interested in this complaint, a lot of people are whispering about how there is some serious nasty shit in there

wonder if this is related to Wyden publicly saying "hey CIA check ur DMs" yesterday

guessing it is

Check your DMs and Donnie's BMs

the pass-agg mirroring of “thank you for your attention to this matter” is beautiful

Donnie's BMs

New meaning for "process of elimination."

How does that work, having an unclassified briefing to convey classified information relayed by a whistleblower? Isn't that tantamount to declassifying the whistleblower complaint? If it's that easy, why not just do it? Why send months of letters or whatever when the whole point is that Gabbard is ignoring/burying the complaint? Is that to provide legal cover for a declassified run around Gabbard et al. Or is this just going to be more years of letters and warnings followed by a handwave by Trump before whatever the complaint is just gets vanished?

idk

https://i.postimg.cc/cLy1H6kK/Screenshot-2026-02-05-at-12-41-27-PM.png

https://bsky.app/profile/firagawalkwthme.bsky.social/post/3me4avyva6c24

I try not to look directly into the man's face but I def noticed him getting more grotesque and weird looking every time I see him

he's trying to merge with Matt Gaetz

#thesingularity

did they put cadaver fat in his mouth, and if so, whose dead fat?

did they put cadaver fat in his mouth, and if so, whose dead fat?

Well they said Rush Limbaugh's legacy would continue on after his death.

JDV is an ai-looking motherfucker

https://i.ibb.co/qM2hQ7t8/Screenshot-2026-02-05-at-1-34-41-PM.png

He looks like Chip of Chip ' Dale fame after he got busted for selling meth

Why do his eyes look like searing pits of darkness

he’s just got coal mines on his mind

crossed with the On Cinema Tim Heidecker

also in character that he wasn’t even present to hear the president’s advice to the ladies

I don't think it's impossible that his wife will leave him before the next election, he's such a knob

I know these fuckers read Poitico & The Hill

A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows that President Trump’s disapproval rating on the economy is at a new high dating back to his first term.

The survey, released Thursday, found that 36 percent of respondents approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 59 percent disapprove. That marks a slight increase in disapproval from last month’s mark of 57 percent and the highest such rating among NPR/PBS News/Marist polls conducted since the president first took office in January 2017.

https://theonion.com/white-house-aide-fired-after-telling-jd-vance-about-super-bowl-party/

eager for a "fuck ICE" chant at the SB

"The crowd appears to be chanting Fun Guys"

green day will almost surely make some provocative gesture

Schumer and Jeffries have now gone from "no masks" for ICE to the below:

“I think there’s agreement that no masks should be deployed in an arbitrary and capricious fashion, as has been the case, horrifying the American people,” Jeffries said.

Schumer followed with a similar caveat, saying immigration authorities “need identification and no masks, except in extraordinary and unusual circumstances.”

guys lets get out there and kidnap some people oh and remember to not wear your mask in a capricious fashion

whoa everyone is suddenly shifting towards our POV time to graciously throw ICE a bone

xps i think jd vance's lips have always looked like that, he just has resting mar-a-lago face

he looks like a muppet babies Joe Don Baker

Damn. Cold.

no masks in Spring and Summer months, but open-toed shoes are acceptable

ICE agents about to infiltrate an "Eyes Wide Shut" style masked ball: "Well, THIS is awkward."

idk

― lag∞n, Thursday, February 5, 2026 11:42 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This era in a single acronym

Schumer and Jeffries to lead Senate Democrats in a few verses of “We Shall Overcome”

This is a good no-nonsense grilling of Scott Bessent by Rep. Casten regarding the management of money taken from Venezuela.

https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3me2pcc7das2j

is there a gofundme?

https://www.arlnow.com/2026/02/05/breaking-man-charged-with-attempted-murder-after-incident-at-trump-officials-arlington-home/

There should just be a defense slush fund marked "I smell bullshit."

Fun fact: Alcova Heights is a vestige, reflecting the pre-1920 name ALexandria COunty

By boss brought up a good point that had not occurred to me: that a good portion of those being detained in these raids are Catholics

This is something the Dems should learn to heavily message: "Why do Republicans hate Catholics so much? Why are they trying to deport them, or put their children in barbwire camps? Haven't we learned from history?" etc etc

yes it's cheap, but I say go for it all the way to the Midterms.. the GOP war on Roman Catholics

'My boss' of course

evangelicals have made inroads into the immigrant population as well.

U.S. citizens who have had violent encounters with federal immigration agents deployed in cities across the U.S. testified before Congress on Tuesday. Amid harrowing testimony by three victims and the brothers of Renee Good, congressional Democrats offered apologies and promises of accountability. Not a single Republican lawmaker showed up to the hearing.
...Daniel Rascon described how federal immigration agents pointed rifles at him and shot at his car. “They shattered the windows, and in that moment the whole world felt like it was the size of the inside of our pickup, and we were sitting in harm’s way with nothing to do but record the horrifying experience,” he said.

Aliya Rahman was stopped by federal agents and violently pulled from her vehicle — despite telling the agents that she is disabled and has a traumatic brain injury. “I now cannot lift my arms normally,” said Rahman. “I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights and never charged with a crime.”
Transcript

It's looking like Analilia Mejía, a labor organizer from Elizabeth (the city I lived in for 30 years), has just defeated Tom Malinowski (a Democratic machine-anointed white guy) in the primary for the House seat formerly occupied by new NJ governor Mikie Sherrill.

Apparently AIPAC went big against Malinowski (because they wanted former NJ Lt. Governor Tahesha Way to win) while totally ignoring Mejía. Whoops!

Watching that race now. Decision Desk called it for Malinowski and then had to issue a retraction. Mejia responded on social media by posting the Dewey Defeats Truman photo.

we love to see an aipac own goal

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2026/feb/05/border-patrol-boss-gregory-bovino-tossed-from-las/

Awaiting word on where he landed

https://dwarftossing.com/midgets/las-vegas.htm

headline: tosser tossed

His drink of choice?

Jackboots and Coke

exodus

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) announced Friday he will retire at the end of his term, becoming the 30th House Republican to not seek reelection in an indication of what will be a difficult midterm year for the GOP...

weakass democrats should retire too. rep. wesley bell (D-Missouri St. Louis) is going to get his ass kicked by cori bush later this year, i can’t wait. wesley bell had aipac buy him the last election, it worked out great for both of them

always fighting for America's farmers & ranchers

President Trump has struck a new deal increasing beef imports from Argentina despite facing push back from Republicans and allies in the agricultural sector.

Argentina’s foreign ministry said in a statement the agreement was signed Thursday and grants “an unprecedented expansion of preferential access for Argentine beef to its market by 100,000 tons.”

fucking hell... Clarence Thomas gets flown around on private jets to resorts, but here's the REAL influence peddling (I don't think there will be any investigation at all, tbh)

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for an investigation Thursday into Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for attending the Grammy Awards, where various artists criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is impartial and above political influence,” Blackburn wrote on social platform X. “When a Justice participates in such a highly politicized event, it raises ethical questions. We need an investigation into Justice Jackson’s ability to remain impartial.”

The corrupting influence of Big Bunny.

My minster friend just got back from Minnesota. She sends this link:

https://freedomtrainers.net/noncooperation-library/

and says

**This is a very trained, disciplined, broad and sustained anti-authoritarian movement.**
People talked about the realization that no one else is coming to save them.
Thousands of people have been trained as legal observers.
There is a common anti-authoritarian language and framework being used.

No one is in charge, efforts are very decentralized. Yet there is coordination and clarity about the direction.

While security is a concern, at this point efforts are very visible and above ground. The need to balance trust and suspicion. Don’t let super tight security get in the way of widening the circle of participation. Find ways to vet new people. Use different levels of security (i.e. in Signal) for different purposes.

I witnessed the ways the pillars of support for authoritarian regime are being shaken. For example:

-Business pillar: We were having breakfast in the hotel with our clergy shirts on. The General Manager of the hotel came over to introduce herself, to thank us for being there, to share what it has been like, what she has been doing to try to protect immigrant employees. This is the business pillar that props up ICE getting weakened. Sunrise Activists have been targeting Hilton hotels that are lodging ICE agents. Target and Enterprise are also being pressured to become 4th amendment companies.
-Law enforcement: After the murder of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis Police Chief disputed the federal account, calling out federal actions as the opposite of creating public safety, etc.
-Faith pillar example: Lutheran ministers speaking out
-Education pillar: MN schools are suing the federal government to keep ICE out

No matter what you feel about business owners or the police, it’s good news for all of us when they defect from the policies of this federal government. Non-cooperation with authoritarianism will take people across the spectrum defecting. We need the anarchists and the church ladies and the teachers and the business owners, etc.

People are building alternatives: We heard many, many examples of sustained and organized community care. Neighbors have been creating their own systems that make sense for their neighborhoods. Know your neighbors and make a system. Provide many entry points, i.e.:

-coordinating donations and delivery of groceries/supplies
-providing rides
-standing watch at schools during pick up and drop off
-joining a neighborhood patrol
-staying inside but providing “dispatch” or other support for people on patrols

so some ICE guy kicked a puppy today, just adding that data point

nice folks

Puppy should have just let him do his job!

That puppy peed on an ICE SUV last week!

They say all dogs go to heaven, but he's no angel.

a domesticated terrorist

Terrierist

Commie Collie bastard.

Last spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) detected evidence of an unusual phone call between an individual associated with foreign intelligence and a person close to Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower’s attorney briefed on the existence of the call.

The highly sensitive communique, which has roiled Washington over the past week, was brought to the attention of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard – but rather than allowing NSA officials to distribute the information further, she took a paper copy of the intelligence directly to the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the attorney, Andrew Bakaj, said.

One day after meeting Wiles, Gabbard told the NSA not to publish the intelligence report. Instead, she instructed NSA officials to transmit the highly classified details directly to her office.'

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/nsa-foreign-intelligence-trump-whistleblower

Glad she's on the case.

Inspector Gabbard

can non-Bluesky people see this VA redistricting map?

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nvfposmpmhegtyvhbs75s3pw/bafkreign7jgcqnuyos47r2uujmbkgtyij7dn3zr5yczd7jhdmv27kah4ba@jpeg

get them

Astounding how they got 10, 11, 8 from mostly 8 it looks. Well played!

Sen. Louise Lucas is president pro tem of the Virginia state Senate.

https://i.ibb.co/XZZsF0rb/Screenshot-2026-02-07-at-10-06-43-PM.png

hey the supreme court in it’s wisdom gave the aok

Dems kicked ass in uh....Louisiana?

https://bsky.app/profile/usapolling.bsky.social/post/3mecwyrqecs26

that's been a Democratic district for a while

I'm seeing Trump won it by 13 points in 2024? So that's a 40-point shift...

also worth noting that Rs have not won a single special election since the inaguration

i mean the state house vote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana's_60th_House_of_Representatives_district

Looks like Analilia Mejia is going to win the dem primary in Morris county which is pretty huge considering who she is, who she was running against the way that district typically votes.

what a world, mejia was helped by aipac running attack ads against her opponent for funding ice

Ryan Grim ryangrim.bsky.social‬

An additional very important point: AIPAC never mentions Israel in its attack ads (for obvious reason) & instead hits whatever negative thing polls best.

In NJ11, AIPAC slammed Malinowski w/ $2M of ads for…VOTING TO FUND ICE IN 2019.

And it worked! It destroyed his numbers.

https://bsky.app/profile/ryangrim.bsky.social/post/3meeg533g6k2p

Yeah it’s a crazy story but highlighted in the end by the voter’s wanting the more progressive candidate in a very centrist dem district.

yeah aipac didnt see her coming they were thinking they were making way for some centrist loser

Dunno how signif, but looks good---another Dem wins big in special state election:

“Sunday, I was at a Mosque on Forest in Buffalo. I was talking to about 20 Somali men and their imam. You know, hearing their concerns about the fact that they’re packing their kids’ birth certificates in their lunches every day. That is not the America we should be in right now, and that is not far away, people; that is about a three-minute drive from the Tonawanda line here,” said Zellner.

I think this counts as ... a win?

“Information continuing to emerge from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claims that the M23 armed group has detained Erik Prince, the American national known as the founder and former head of the private military company Blackwater.“

https://kigalidailynews.rw/reports-emerge-claiming-m23-detained-blackwater-founder-erik-prince-in-eastern-drc

hell yeah

!!

well good morning!

holy shit

big if true

woke 2 converting nonbelievers

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:njhuquor23vkkeamltaxdsnz/bafkreicxpaaqrm4hsxxq43rsjoyb3ilxqusld4aubompx6efvsgk2lvhby@jpeg

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:njhuquor23vkkeamltaxdsnz/bafkreif2jcj63mq6aurds4i5mxrpw5nbfb6cdpsv3pxiazzs4ymyt66o6m@jpeg

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:njhuquor23vkkeamltaxdsnz/bafkreiakqeyym4oykwqwotypt2rjbtiob2jsebrsw3l2cynp42gwbxndue@jpeg

lol

The Intern strikes again

“Turn off this halftime” for future US political thread title

saw online that actually the big screens at Mar-a-lago played the Bad Bunny performance throughout halftime

people wanna see the big show

They were probably hoping he said something about Trump so they could sue him.

The Intern strikes again

― "Bengla Desh" LP Deliveries To Meet Santa's Deadline (President Keyes)

and I've got no right
to take my place
in MAGA disgrace

I turned off halftime. I always turn off the halftime of football games.

Trump insulting Bad Bunny's halftime performance was a low-key acknowledgement that no one was watching that dumb Turning Point bullshit

I'm not even sure that Turning Point thing aired? We sort of lazily looked for it after the game but couldn't find it on YouTube

(nevermind, it did indeed air and Fox News says millions tuned in and loved it)

Millions upon millions, people are saying

The Youtube video has 19 million views

Most of those have been after the fact

the host's wife was livid that we were even looking for it - "watch that shit at your own house"

They were estimating 5 million dynamic viewers last night.

Which even that, I have doubts on but the media began reporting their numbers as reported by TPA with zero pushback

the fact that they needed to have their own halftime show because they were so offended by Bad Bunny is still genuinely insane to me, they're all such fucking losers

And the fact that Kid Rock is still their biggest star

I mean how pathetic is it to be a MAGA conservative these days, first you have to give up most of your family and friends, then you have to give up basically all your values, now you can't even watch the Super Bowl halftime show

I am not able to find any news reports about the Erik Prince thing

yeah it sounded too good to be true

in case anyone wants to black out with rage today

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1r01k1w/oc_letters_from_children_detained_at_ices_dilley/

direct link:
“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility
(Propublica)

the host's wife was livid that we were even looking for it - "watch that shit at your own house"

― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, February 9, 2026 1:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

correct

Thomas Massey, Republican from Kentucky, just did an interview where he said, on camera, that the director of the FBI threatened to investigate one of his staffers for fraud if Massey did not stop pushing for the disclosure of the Epstein files.

damn

Now that doesn't sound at all like the thoughtful measured approach we've come to expect from Kash Patel.

thorough corruption from the top down

I think this happened a few months ago iirc

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/marco-rubio-is-deliberately-blocking

supposedly Rubio is telling Trump he's negotiating with Cuba while doing no such thing

would cuban americans support being the 51st state if trump took cuba for them?

no idea, man

The best bit about that Jake Paul nonsense is his own brother told him to pull his head in and stfu.

Why are you and lagoon making me think about that poor excuse for a nonentity?

is he the guy that got his face broken for money

yes

TV viewer of TPUSA 1/2-ass Time underwhelmed and then less: https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/super-bowl-halftime-show/turning-point-usa-halftime-show-recap?mc_cid=5d35a602ac&mc_eid=7b8ea11b31&utm_source=PMNTNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=260209&md5=f8fdcfc45acdadaba09de99d8bc20460

I saw a bit but assume the rest of this was pretty funny, too, especially if you are a fan of Pat Finnerty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iahH1fJoGB8

Meanwhile, getting ahead of things a bit here:

Peter Navarro: "The jobs report comes out tomorrow. We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like ... Wall Street has to adjust for the fact that we're deporting millions of illegals out of the job market."

counterpoint: no it fucking doesn't

So I guess it's all those deported immigrants applying for unemployment benefits huh: https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-3c2227213b12891ae3dbf0452f0fc5e6

Fraud!!!

lol telling wall st theres new math good luck man

arent you not supposed to tease the numbers like that for market manipulation reasons or do those laws just not apply anymore

they will apply to the next Democratic President

xp not if Navarro is shorting

wait never mind i misunderstood frogbs

https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/

sure looks like a plan to keep voters away from the polls come November

TIL Jake Paul and Logan Paul aren't the same person. Dunno why the name difference didn't tip me off

yeah theres two of them unfortunately

btw was thinking about jake paul living in puerto rico and how his comments might not go down well there, wonder how thatll play out

guess we know which is the smarter brother

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fv2nxxac24oxk5fqztfazyuc/bafkreigowywed74gqiwexyf2rymwtnwdnpoi3t62jib7utwrr3skzwrbwy@jpeg

anyway i hope they get chased off the island theyre just using as a tax haven

Jake Paul should challenge the entire island to a boxing match. It could be pay-per-punch, where you line up to hit him in the face. You know, for charity.

that does seem like a good way to make amends

you should prob also be able to punch his brother

is that really why they're in Puerto Rico... taxes?

yup, theres a whole crypto bro scene down there apprently

This Brian Buetler essay is interesting. His argument is that a lot of the people who bet big on Trump and Trumpism are now realizing, to their shock, that he will not live forever and that he and his ideas are in fact not very popular, and maybe it's time to pivot away. (Jake Paul is mentioned, but so are Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook.

They should just work harder to freeze his head in a jar.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/enfuturama/images/4/4c/President_Richard_Nixon%27s_Head.png/revision/latest?cb=20210821084700

aw dammit

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/futurama/4/40/Nixon.jpg?width=1920

yup, theres a whole crypto bro scene down there apprently

¡Independencía ahora!

yup, theres a whole crypto cryo bro scene down there apparently

re: the weird press release yesterday. haven’t seen anyone comment if it’s connected to the Super Secret epstein files congress saw the other day

could be also a lot of gop elected are prob panicking to him due to his wildly unpopular actions putting their jobs at risk

Lol @ cryo bros

the 'press release' was insane because who outlet is going to publish that? "the economy is incredible, this administration is winning on all fronts'... Newmaxx maybe

apparently **fucking Ammon Bundy** went on record with a reporter saying he was 'disgusted' by ICE's activities and that 'peaceable' immigrants should be able to live and work in the USA without being brutalized and deported.

some wild shit going on in congress

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.): "Do you consider yourself a religious man?"

Lyons: "Yes ma'am."

McIver: "How do you think Judgement Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?"

"Do you think you're going to hell, Mr. Lyons?"

https://bsky.app/profile/jbendery.bsky.social/post/3mejijjmyws2n

zing

rare backbone sighting

The National Governors Association (NGA) has canceled its annual White House meeting after President Trump only invited Republican governors to the gathering.

The yearly meeting is traditionally bipartisan and offers a chance for state leaders to convene with one another and the president.

“Because NGA’s mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) wrote in a Monday letter announcing plans to forgo the meeting, according to The Associated Press.

god you know that meeting is going to be all about vote suppression

the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event

hmm. This doesn't say they're not going to attend.

yeah, it's a little vague if the dinner is still happening, but with no democrats at the table

Apparently 18 Dems had already pledged to skip the dinner anyway, so it might be yet another case of 'you weren't invited anyway!' as we've seen him do recently

There are two events for governors: a meeting and a dinner. Last week it was reported that the White House was planning to exclude all Dem governors from the meeting -- and to exclude two of them (Wes Moore and Jared Polis) from the dinner. The boycotts of the dinner were in response to that.

The National Park Service removed a Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City on Monday — the latest in a series of actions from the Trump administration that remove recognition of LGBTQ people from the historic site.

I was genuinely not expecting the National Park Service to be one of the most culture warrior agencies

I don't think they're into it at all

what's happening is grim though

Two exhibits at Montana’s Little Bighorn battlefield national monument that discuss Indigenous history and the Battle of the Little Bighorn have been targeted and deemed noncompliant. Additionally, signage about climate change at Muir Woods national monument in California and visitor brochures at Medgar and Myrlie Evers home national monument in Mississippi that referred to Medgar Evers’s killer as racist were also removed.

I don't think they're into it at all

? the rank and file maybe, but leadership is out there putting Trump’s face on their annual pass

I have a friend who is a ranger at Dinosaur Nat'l Monument, to hear him tell it the rank and file are about like a mirror of the rest of the country: 30-ish percent support Trump, the rest hate him.

like soldiers etc liking a guy who has nothing but EXTREMELY hostile dismissal of your service and risk, the idea of a parks service person liking a guy who would sell off every scrap of land not bearing his actual statue to a klepto buddy for some trumpcoin purchase and for clearcutting mining or dump siting is a mystery. i do believe it, i've been to DNM.

their service or whatever

There's that new surcharge for non-citizens at all National Parks and its apparently a serious pain in the ass... Like a tour bus shows up and you need to check everyone's passport to see if they'll be charged this fee that they didn't know about. Apparently the rank & file are really bummed about this

would have been easier to raise the prices and offer citizens a discount

so fucked

Non-U.S. residents will pay the standard entrance fee at each of these parks, plus a $100 fee per person aged 16 or older.

$100 is crazy wtf

xxp making it harder/humiliating is the point?

the justification is that all the fereners were getting a free ride... not recognizing just how much $$ visitors bring to these areas, many of which are pretty rural and don't have a lot of income sources

love 2 see the famously firebreathing radicals of the weratedogs website going all in on an anti-Ring message

oh youre in america to see some rat critters it would be a shame to waste yr trip over a hundy

$100 is crazy wtf

seconding! it’s like the intent is to kill tourism to this country so we don’t get dangerous ideas about universal healthcare or something

on *top* of the regular entrance fee

This might help state park visits when a tourist decides he wants to see *some* redwoods, but maybe not THOSE redwoods

this is the most fuckass idea i’ve ever heard

it’s like the intent is to kill tourism to this country

Believe me, that's happened already, sorry. Everyone I know has said there is no way in hell they'd go to the US presently.

tourism has dropped a lot but not as much as youd think (100%)

as T might say, tourism is down 3,000 percent

Nobody wants to go to a very dumb country

tbh most of my friends and relatives (and myself) don't even buy "product of USA" groceries these days

Aren't you lot soley responsible for putting all the american bourbon/whisky brands out of bizness? lol

it really does feel like the US's reputation is completely torched now, even during the Bush years there was a sense that it was a temporary embarrassment, we're still the cool country where shit happens, now we have all the appeal of Kid Rock if *all* of his lyrics were about pedophilia instead of just a few

its not like the old days when people would ask you if you knew michael jordan

and then they ask you if you know their #1 celebrity theyre like you know tarshon and youre all tarshon of course tarshon very good

must be so annoying to travel overseas now everyone wants to talk about trump you just have to be like yeah sucks sorry yeah i dont know wish i could do something about it

then they tell you about their shitty politicians fuck man

my family and I travel to Mexico once or twice a year to see her family and Trump really hasn't come up a lot in conversation until this last trip. when we were out the instant anyone heard I was American they would shout something like "fuck that motherfucker" even though I kinda look like I might be a Trump voter. one encounter really stuck out, my wife was talking to this guy about Trump and messed with him by saying that I *did* vote for Trump and still love him, and the dude literally laughed in my face, my first thought was yeah I think this country is cooked

damn yr wife lined u up

When I went for a two week visit to Ireland right before the bad Biden debate in summer of 2024, I had a real hard case type taxi driver taking me from the airport in Dublin to my hotel, and he asked, “you guys aren’t really going to reelect Trump are you?” I told him it was unfortunately possible, and then he went off about our stupid gun laws.

I have to say it was really good to be far out of the country when that debate did happen.

Aren't you lot soley responsible for putting all the american bourbon/whisky brands out of bizness? lol

Can’t speak to this. When I drink whiskey (which is rare) it’s Irish or Alberta.

It feels strange to boycott a country I’m sure is 60% “in the right”, but like isn’t there a general something something American-ness that is so brutally wrong and needs correction and/or elimination? Idk. At least six Americans owe me an enormous apology for some incredible bullshit and like I’m of the mindset that “Americans, as a rule, don’t know how to apologise.”

When I went for a two week visit to Ireland right before the bad Biden debate in summer of 2024, I had a real hard case type taxi driver taking me from the airport in Dublin to my hotel, and he asked, “you guys aren’t really going to reelect Trump are you?” I told him it was unfortunately possible, and then he went off about our stupid gun laws.

I'd probably avoid Irish taxi drivers for a while.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/irish-man-ice-detention-fears-life-ireland-help-seamus-culleton

my wife was talking to this guy about Trump and messed with him by saying that I *did* vote for Trump and still love him

lol this is savage af

tbh most of my friends and relatives (and myself) don't even buy "product of USA" groceries these days

― ron zertnert (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, February 11, 2026 2:07 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This seems as good a moment as any to say that I recently learn that Australia is the only territory on the planet (that Heinz cares about) wheee Heinz is not the number one ketchup brand, not because of trump or geo politics but because master foods came up with a single serve ketchup packet that can be used single handed to dose a pie held in the other hand.

At least six Americans owe me an enormous apology for some incredible bullshit and like I’m of the mindset that “Americans, as a rule, don’t know how to apologise.”

― ron zertnert (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, February 11, 2026 1:33 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is interesting that a canadian stereotype in america is constant apologizing, maybe says more about america than canada

uhh

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a temporary flight restriction halting all flights to and from El Paso, including commercial, cargo, and general aviation.

The restriction is effective from Feb. 10 at 11:30 p.m. to Feb. 20 at 11:30 p.m.

The FAA's decision, which also affects the neighboring community of Santa Teresa, N.M., appears to be security-related.

https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/faa-grounds-all-flights-to-and-from-el-paso-until-feb-20

Thanks to the dismantling of America, my first reaction to that story was one of suspicion and distrust. Is there a security concern, or has the airport been branded too woke? Is there an emergency, or did they just shut everything down so the FBI director could take his girlfriend out to dinner without being bothered? Did the FAA do this for safety, or because Trump is changing all the signs from El Paso to Trumpville?

flights bringing ICE prisoners

10 days??

ground war in juarez

^^^ Dylan outtake 1976

lol

what the fuck is going on here

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pddz22cw3seuyieywhukbpye/bafkreiauo4q2byhliwhlrbeg2526yvos6c2cs2yrf37o6gpbfwdmmelx3q@jpeg

!!!!!!!!!!

we’re invading Mexico aren’t we

that about the highway might be fake actually idk sorry

ok whatever

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wufsdxzvzx36d7wppganbvpw/bafkreifn5jrqrqcdcu32echd5gtgdnkyunlroijmvajwhus4f6jdoicswu@jpeg

someone prob just pushed the wrong button

“I, a smart businessman, voted for Trump because Republicans bring certainty.”

Not Old El Paso!

How will we make tacos now?

Was this some kind of test run? What a weird thing.

like what the actual fuck

Regardless, thank you for your attention to this matter.

Was this some kind of test run? What a weird thing.

Seems plausible. Could imagine them trying some shit like this in Minneapolis, or the next Minneapolis. Just the inexorable march towards our beautiful fascist future!

They're saying Mexican drug cartel drones breached the airspace

On Bluesky CNN’s Aviation correspondent said it was related to an “exercise”
at Fort Bliss where Whiskey Pete was unable to reassure the FAA that a civilian plane wasn’t going to get shot down

I'm sure one of these lies are true

i dunno the “exercise” sounds sinister enough

The exercise is worse because it means they were willing to cancel thousands of flights and throw millions of people into a panic over some ten minute exercise.

I'm sure what really happened is Trump is in El Paso and shit himself

https://kvia.com/news/top-stories/2026/02/11/all-flights-to-and-from-el-paso-santa-teresa-grounded/

Per "sources," this was in response to Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace.

maybe someone noticed "El Paso" isn't English

I'm sure the official explanation will change again in an hour.

The statement about disabling drones came from Duffy. The statement about it being an exercise came from an anonymous source.

I'd wager the latter has more credibility. Take an exercise and pretend it was an actual live threat response to stir up anti-Mexico/immigrant sentiment

Per "sources," this was in response to Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace.

"You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus."

On Bluesky CNN’s Aviation correspondent said it was related to an “exercise”

Jade Helm 2

People were doing yoga in the sky

cartel drone is the perfect 2026 paranoia object

If cartel drones can deliver cocaine to my house then I'm all for them.

vertical integration baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2gKqjrKvq4

Representative Veronica Escobar said that while the El Paso restriction had been lifted, the restriction for southern New Mexico airspace remained in place. Asked if she knew the reason for the continued restriction, she said, “I do.” But she declined to elaborate.

Representative Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, said in a news conference that the explanation citing Mexican drones crossing the border as the reason for the closure was “not the information that we in Congress have been told.” She said that there was no current or past threat to the area. “There’s no threat. There was not a threat, which is why the F.A.A. lifted this restriction so quickly,” she said. “The information coming from the administration does not add up.

This is going to get much stupider and more bizarre by lunchtime

The predictable morning trajectory for the US these days

Sean Duffy probably saw Uranus in a telescope and thought it was smuggling drugs.

haha

Marisa Kabas‬
✧@marisaka✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 45m
i'm jealous of people on the west coast who didn't have to deal with any of this bullshit in real time

MS NOW: "A congressional official with knowledge of the matter is telling MS NOW the cause of the shutdown of El Paso airspace is a lack of communication between the Pentagon and FAA. The official told us the FAA and DOD are 'not in clear communications with each other.'"

"Hey FAA"

"Hi Pentagon. How's it going?"

"Tough morning - we're doing some drone exercise this morning and it ain't going well"

"Ah that's a shame. But what can ya do, close the airspace?"

This Just In: The DOD has ghosted the FAA.

Yeah I'm gonna need you to go ahead and disrupt transportation networks

https://filmdaze.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Gary-Cole-Office-Space-Lumbergh.jpg

Pam Bondi is something else

"THE DOW!!"

Wow who'd have thought hollowing out the federal workforce would have led to operational problems

she is losing her mind right now

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3melu4tpj7u2q

keep digging, fuckers

Her speaking voice reminds me of someone getting agitated at a PTA meeting

ah pretty interesting

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:izxpomdyri45gzhppiiyattq/bafkreiac3qpw4heerep23qy44jqtcrmuyw7jhwy6op5os4wbhece2jjrdu@jpeg

not really

lmao xp

many people in the comments seem very interested in explaining this away when they could just be saying well thats not great https://bsky.app/profile/coachfinstock.bsky.social/post/3melskicrxc2n

It's a form fundraising email probably sent to people who had donated to Dem candidates. zzzzzz.

damn this mfr fell right asleep

I think decorum may be dead

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3melv5enofu2k

that email is basically spam

im putting yr names in a document

I think decorum may be dead

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3melv5enofu2k

― frogbs, Wednesday, February 11, 2026 11:24 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

theres been a few heartening signs of life in america recently

lol that's the congressman who Nathan Fielder met with in The Rehearsal

I support Kristi Noem’s right to murder her pets but I don’t think she should be allowed to publish books

Idc about Jeffries but I think that's spam from a fundraising consultant. https://www.dynamicsrg.com/our-services/

why are dem fundraisers inviting sex offenders to dinners with congresspeople

what are mailing lists

Darren Rigger has worked on more than 100 races for over 16 years with Democratic elected officials including: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, Carolyn Maloney and Charlie Rangel. As a staffer and a consultant Darren has experience working in every level of government; local, state and federal. He has raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates and has extensive contacts with business leaders and major donors across the country.

I would not expect someone with that track record to have ethical (or moral) standards but this is extremely normal fundraising behavior. Look at those chumps.

what are mailing lists

― bulb after bulb, Wednesday, February 11, 2026 12:03 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

im sorry this really stupid

I agree

"Brooklyn's Barack"?

There you have it, new headline, Obama is in the Epstein files.

Okay that was unfair to Rangel, I'm reading his wiki now. I mostly know his name from the ethics investigations but you know what, all of that is peanuts compared to [waves hands] everything.

these dem fundraisers do not care that theyre inviting a sex offender and who knows who else to dinner, if they did they could exclude them, and you guys are all *pushes glasses up nose* actually ever heard of fundraising, the professionalization of the liberal political mind is one of the most successful psyops of recent times

Okay, let's prosecute whatever fundraising operator who was behind this.

it should probably be a job requirement for fundraisers to make sure you don't invite sex offenders.

No I'm agreeing with you that they wouldn't care, and that their conduct is bad and wrong. It should be a job requirement if they cared where the donor dollars came from, but we know that they don't.

not you laurel, just the rest of these fiends

ICE still fucking at it

Federal agents at scene of multi-car crash in St. Paul | MPR News https://share.google/Xf8wfNCrnXkVOytfF

Witnesses at scene claim victim transported covered with a sheet, but that neighbors indicated the patient requested it for privacy.

Grain of salt because early reports but these fuckers are using vehicular tactics you'd use in a car chase on a highway to apprehend a "dangerous" suspect...to arrest people who are undocumented in busy foot traffic areas.

(Or in many cases, documented and legally here)

yeah kinda lost in the mix of all the other atrocities but apparently theyre driving like total psychos, someone said it looked like they were following war zone driving guidelines, which i wonder if it will come out that thats exactly how they were instructed, no doubt a lot of them are ex military

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/airspace-closure-followed-spat-over-drone-related-tests-and-party-balloon-shoot-down-sources-say/

What a shock, the early reason given was bullshit

Duffy: "The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region."

haha, these fucking dorks

"That wily coyote smashed into the fake tunnel he himself had painted."

"The birthday party balloons have been compromised to a permanent end."

maybe do it at a different base idk

The Pentagon had undertaken extensive planning on the use of military technology near Fort Bliss, a military base that abuts the El Paso International Airport, to practice taking down drones.

I know this is the least of the atrocities but it is becoming increasingly clear lately that foreign artists ate not welcome in America. I am on a lot of arts mailing lists and I have never seen so many last minute cancellations of tours by foreign artists due to “visa issues”.

^^^prompted by seeing an African ballet company cancel a performance next week in Northern Virginia and the last minute cancellation of a jazz group from the UK from their Brooklyn residency that I was looking forward to.

(an aside - pam bondi is always really fucking annoying, but no more so than when we starts foaming at the mouth and yelling about 'trump derangement syndrome')

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:symtzz3cpjxrnsmckt54qatk/bafkreidksztya5hrvyka3egtz6wd35tizu7s4lpvxo3y5citjxru4xjdme@jpeg

this fuckin incompetent fascism speedrun

two freedom dollars buys you one order of freedom fries

the only thing accomplished by calling them "freedom dollars" is to give soldiers something new to make jokes (and complain) about

xxp "thing & thing" #onethread

hahaha

The Army will open a new dining hall at one of its largest bases later this month, which the service has closely modeled off cafeterias on college campuses. Soldiers will be given $39 worth of what the Army is calling “freedom dollars.”

Freedom dollars is the term the Army is using to refer to the funds that are taken out of soldiers’ paychecks to go toward meals at dining facilities.

Gallup shutting down presidential approval polling

Gallup will no longer track presidential approval ratings after more than eight decades doing so, the public opinion polling agency confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.

The company said starting this year it would stop publishing approval and favorability ratings of individual political figures, saying in a statement it “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

...

The Gallup Presidential Approval Rating has for decades been the among the top barometers cited by media outlets measuring public opinion of the president’s performance.

President Trump has seen his rating by the agency slip in recent months, peaking at 47 percent last February and dipping to less than 37 percent in its last poll taken in December.

...

When asked by The Hill if Gallup had received any feedback from the White House or anyone in the current administration before making the decision, the spokesperson said, “this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.”

Trump’s Gallup approval rating as of last December was among the lowest the organization had found since it began taking the poll in the 1930s.

Freedom dollars is the term the Army is using to refer to the funds that are taken out of soldiers’ paychecks

We are freeing the dollars from your paycheck.

incredible stuff

they don't even get free fucking meals?

how dare you talk that way about Freedom Dollars, Andy

Freedom Dollars don't grow on trees. They grow on Christmas trees.

thought you all were boycotting not giving money to the worst possible thing

The Canada Pension Plan is investing in xAI, including Grok, which has been creating mass nonconsensual deepfakes and CSAM.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cppib-xai-infrstructure-funding-musk-9.7057078

oh dont take one sip of the innocent whiskey but yeah sure pile hundreds of millions of dollars into the second worst person in the countries fraud and crimes empire

who is the third worst person in the united states

Thiel

The guy who invented beef tallow.

Zuck

1. Trump
2. Elon
3. Zuck
4. A serial killer maybe?

https://i.postimg.cc/c18hR6P1/image.png

So redundant to call them freedom dollars if you are in the land of freedom already, duh.

i thought wormtongue would at least make the bottom 5

He is technically a citizen of Hell.

1. Trump
2. Elon
3. Zuck
4. And one other thing

What can you buy for a freedom dollar, Alex?

would like to cut them into pieces

Nothin' left to lose dollars

would like to cut them into pieces

That would be the last resort.

are you sure you were watching the same thing we were?

A sitting member of Congress, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, has called for an investigation into Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show, suggesting it amounted to broadcasting “gay pornography” during prime time.

maybe it was the softly swaying sugar cane that got him riled up

He probably thought the electrical wire shocks were some kind of kink thing

Ogles is the rep for my district and I despise him. a thoroughly corrupt, racist, hateful, Trump-glazing asshole

oh my god

Pam Bondi loves dogs. Always had them, one after another. She got involved with dog shelters and dog rescue, and once pulled off to the side of a busy road and got out of her car to chase down a stray. Another dog she helped was a Saint Bernard named Master Tank. She adopted him from a shelter after he was lost during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, not long after her own Saint Bernard had died. The story has been told but bears repeating. Master Tank belonged to Steve and Dorreen Couture and their grandson, who was 4, recovering from the murder-suicide of his parents and losing his dog during the storm. Bondi said the dog was a “walking skeleton” and “dying from heartworms” when she adopted him. The Coutures eventually tracked down Master Tank, but instead of giving him back, Bondi hired a lawyer, who accused the Coutures of abusing the dog, which Bondi had renamed Noah. “She lied,” Dorreen told a Palm Beach Post columnist years later. “My little grandson begged her to take the dog home, and she refused. She thought she would just wear us down. That we were unstable people and would just quit.” The case was settled out of court, with Bondi securing visitation rights, but she never did visit. She got another dog.

https://archive.ph/KhibW#selection-1201.0-1209.295

xp so performative... there will be no 'investigation,' not a hint of one.. and he knows it

Ogles is the rep for my district and I despise him. a thoroughly corrupt, racist, hateful, Trump-glazing asshole

He's the only reason MY rep isn't the worst Tennessee congressman. (Tho it's a hard call.)

update on El Paso “cartel drone” - they shot down a fuckin ~party ballooon~ bwahaaa

https://newrepublic.com/post/206483/el-paso-airport-closed-military-shot-party-balloon

Correction: they heroically shot down a party balloon

our airspace is safe once more

there could've been a boy in there!!

https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WQAD/images/ee0eb529-9a7d-466e-8c6a-84f8bf69a4c0/ee0eb529-9a7d-466e-8c6a-84f8bf69a4c0_1920x1080.jpg

cartel balloon

how did they did they come up with the initial 10 day shut down?

because there were initial reports of 99 Luftballons

kept the ducks hat tho

Soylent D Cracker cinemacultist.bsky.social‬

SHE REMOVED THEIR WEDDING PHOTO LMAOOOOOO
Oh she HATED his guts

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:arxdcimdyegwpsjw7u3lyjhe/bafkreih5b6qauks33jwnrkoa365uqlo4r6ipopebh2tdzvnd265ph3ax4u@jpeg

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:arxdcimdyegwpsjw7u3lyjhe/bafkreieunvrh4iczdhqhywzaoeiev32az5lfz2uhprz6q65rqq7n6giivm@jpeg

https://bsky.app/profile/cinemacultist.bsky.social/post/3mekkkcyip22j

should've been replaced by that masterpiece portrait of him some grief-stricken rando did

That Gallup news feels weird

‪Lance Ellisor‬
✧@elli✧✧✧.n✧✧‬
· 3h
seems almost certain we’ll later find out they were coerced

re: Gallup

prob got some epstein files on mr gallup

xpost re Gallup they did it in 2018 as well

Gallup is one of the pollsters that skewed Republican though. Surely his numbers with them were better than othes, won't tgis hurt his aggregate

i have a suspicion it’s a poorly timed thing that they had been planning all along, but I’m not ruling out coercion. There are lots of other reputable polling firms and Gallup can still gauge approval in other ways.

Seems crazy to stop doing a tracker that's been running for decades on such a basic question

And they’re retiring it when he’s historically unpopular. You’d think they’d have stopped a year ago when his numbers were better.

xp not denying it is 🤨

Maybe they have some cooler methodology or something but the whole point is to be able to compare historically with other presidents which you can't do if you switch it up

Levon sells cartel balloons in town

i have a suspicion it’s a poorly timed thing that they had been planning all along, but I’m not ruling out coercion. There are lots of other reputable polling firms and Gallup can still gauge approval in other ways.

Apparently they also announced back in 2018 (when I forget who was president) that they were switching from a rolling poll to a monthly one.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO: Well, I was in Dilley in late January and then back again to help release Liam Ramos and his dad. And the best way I would describe the Dilley facility is that it’s a kind of trailer prison. There are 1,100 people there. None of them have committed any crime, because you’re not sent to Dilley if you’ve committed a crime. And they’re in 12-person rooms, multiple families, up to 12 people in a single room. There’s cameras everywhere. Their movements are controlled. It’s like prison, where when you come in, you leave your belongings. They’re inventoried. When you walk out, as when I walked out with Liam, they give you all your stuff back.

And what I saw with Liam was what I saw with a lot of the kids. They’ve been traumatized by the experience. He wasn’t eating very well. He was sleeping a lot. He was despondent, missing home, missing his mom. That’s the case not only for him, but for a lot of the kids that are there. And I think the most shocking thing to me going through there was when I asked one of the folks who worked there what the youngest person there was, and he told me eventually that it was a 2-month-old baby, who was in, basically, that trailer prison.

nd so, you know, we asked people also — we were trying to get a sense for how do these people end up here. We asked them how many were seeking asylum, how many had court cases, how many had used the CBP One app, which was supposed to be an orderly and efficient way to apply for asylum and then come into the United States, rather than rushing the border. And there were a big chunk of people who had used that app, for example. And so you have a lot of people who did things the right way and now are shellshocked to find themselves in a trailer prison in rural Texas and on the verge of being deported, even though they followed the government’s advice for how they should apply for asylum and come into the United States.

Speaking of babies:

In more immigration news, an immigrant family filed a lawsuit earlier this month, saying their 18-month-old toddler was returned to the ICE jail in Dilley, Texas, amid a measles outbreak and denied medication after she was hospitalized with a life-threatening respiratory illness. The girl is identified as “Amalia” in the lawsuit. The girl and her two parents have since been released from ICE custody.

Re Gallup I remember when they made that 2018 switch (because I was watching it obsessively lol), and it felt weird then too. I can believe Trump would fixate on something like Gallup, it's a brand he's probably aware of, like being on the cover of Time. If he looks at it, I'm sure he hates the comparison lines, with Obama in particular. Whether he willed it or not, he won't be sad to see it go.

Re detention centers, Texas may be the worst — four people have died in ICE detention there in the last 2 months — but obviously they are all terrible. It's obscene what we're doing. And they're building more of these camps.

ICE is 'only getting started'
In their opening statements, the three immigration chiefs defended the White House's policy on immigration and the agency's practices.

ICE's Lyons said his agency was "fulfilling the mandate" of Trump's mass deportation agenda, saying that officers faced the risk of assault.

"Despite these perils, our officers continue to execute their mission with unwavering resolve. And we are only getting started," he said. "ICE remains committed to the fundamental principle that those who illegally enter our country must be held accountable."

CBP's Rodney Scott celebrated his agency's efforts on the southern border, saying it had "spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border" and that "the United States... enjoys the most secure border in our nation's history."

Arent they still having trouble recruiting

Had an interesting talk with my 21-yo spectrum kid. He was shocked to learn how low the job qualifications were for ICE — that he could go walk into a $100,000 job, and with his associate's degree probably have more education than most of the people he'd work with. He said, "I'm exactly the kind of person they appeal to. I don't like myself or feel confident a lot of the time, I have trouble interacting with other people. And what do they give you? A gun and power over other people." He is 180 degrees opposed to everything ICE is, but he got why some people would go there.

Isn't the other issue though that the ICE guys arent actually being paid what they've been promised? Thought I read that somewhere.

Yeah iirc it's something like a 50k bonus... to be paid after five years of service.

The sudden and surprising airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday stemmed from the Pentagon’s plans to test a laser for use in shooting down drones used by Mexican drug cartels, according to three people familiar with the situation who were granted anonymity to share sensitive details.

The story is that Hegseth has these anti-drone lasers that he wants to test, the FAA was not down with it but he went ahead and they decided these weapon systems can’t be trusted not to shoot down a comical jetliner, so they shut the airspace down for 10 days.

well, planned to shut down for 10 days. In the event, it was 12 hours into it when they reversed course.

Just obtained this footage

https://img.delicious.com.au/7PNXFhbO/w759-h506-cfill/del/2024/05/up-house-floating-211781-1.png

Comical Jetliner indeed

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities announce end to Minnesota immigration crackdown that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths.

mission accomplished

mission accomplished

This is literally insane:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-the-cabal-hating-special-government-employee-involved-in-the-fulton-county-fbi-raid

I called up one of the White House's "special government employees" involved in the Fulton County FBI raid.

I ended up on the phone for almost two hours hearing about the "deep state" "cabal," "Satanists," poison soda, and the "pure evil" of "gay pride."

just folks

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities announce end to Minnesota immigration crackdown that led to mass detentions, protests and two deaths.

― lag∞n, Thursday, February 12, 2026 8:25 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure

"led to... two deaths" = so sick of the passive voice

If you want Satanists, Parikh....you got it

"I can’t be normal because, if I do, I’m shirking my duties" for permanent politics thread title, just change the month/year.

Also: Parikh also said he was concerned they are no longer selling “real chicken” at Cracker Barrel, a restaurant that has become a fixation for conservatives following a recent rebrand.
....
Along with food, Parikh said he is concerned about soda and claimed he always mixes it with alcohol “to sanitize it.”

Yeah I used to use that reason a lot too. Can't be too careful about pathogens in soda.

Even when I mix in a ton of alcohol I get hallucinations

barkeep one coke and sanitize it with rum

One whiskey, one bourbon, one beer (and one more thing)

I totally missed this yesterday:

Rep. Balint slams Bondi over her comments about antisemitism https://share.google/oPl80J3HYkhmSKysU

Rep Balint: This is not a game...secretary

Bondi: I'm attorney general

Rep Balint: I apologize, I couldn't tell.

(This before Bondi accuses Balint, who is Jewish and lost a grandfather in the Holocaust, of being anti-Semitic)

Aaron Rupar

Yeah, let's not give Stancil any credit at all, even as a joke

seems frivolous for such a serious situation

otm

I actually do give Stancil some credit, he's on the ground doing shit putting his money where his mouth is

there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people you could say the same thing about though

you mean collaborating with ICE and refusing to follow opsec protocols of the movement he shoehorned himself into?

like sorry, this guy ain’t shit

and thousands of these people aren't preening on Bluesky.

you mean collaborating with ICE and refusing to follow opsec protocols of the movement he shoehorned himself into?

― a tv star not a dirty computer man (the table is the table), Thursday, February 12, 2026 4:43 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^

okay, I'll bite. How was Stancil collaborating with ICE exactly?

He claimed that he had ICE sources who were sharing information about their activities and tactics with him. So, you know, "collaborating with ICE."

that is like the textbook definition of "refusing to follow opsec protocols of the movement he shoehorned himself into" fwiw

xpost That's getting information from people within an organization, you know, how a journalist might. So therefore a very dumb definition of "collaborating."

Well, the bigger deal was him taking photos of members who lit a fire in a trash receptacle and/or calling cops on them

No photos is kind of a big rule for obvious reasons, and he and his followers were trying to concern-troll that these pretty inconsequential fires could have somehow spread to homes and burned them all down.

But also the idea is even if you don't have a problem with a fire, don't risk exposing people's identities or willfully bringing more fucking COPS to the protest

*even if you have

BLOB: Stancil is often right about things, often not. but he's a bit obsessed with his self-image and as such becomes a distraction at gatherings where you're supposed to be a unified whole

Calling the cops on people and doxing them for protesting in a way you disagree with is collaborating imo

totally agree

hmm. First I've heard of him calling the cops on protesters.

Yeah, I hadn't heard about that either. Got a link?

One thing I have learned about these situations is to listen to the people on the ground doing the work. They kicked him out of their group because he has Main Character Syndrome and was attracting unwelcome attention. Then he doubled down and vowed to "get back in." He's a dangerous liability.

xpost
He was very proudly posting about it on his Bluesky, so like 900k posts ago

My assumption is anyone lighting fires at a protest is an agent provocateur for the FBI.

that is definitely not true

and even if they were, you still shouldn't call the cops

I scrolled through Stancil's bsky for a while, and my conclusion is that he is an unpleasant and vain person whose brain has been deeply damaged by soc med and he should try shutting the fuck up if he's really worried someone is going to kill him for being a fed

xpost That's getting information from people within an organization, you know, how a journalist might. So therefore a very dumb definition of "collaborating."

― Who's going to stop 200 balloons? Nobody! (President Keyes), Thursday, February 12, 2026 12:35 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

like stancil as far as this stuff goes you dont know what youre talking about

don't set fires in the middle of neighborhoods

So I'll correct one thing I said - there's, as far as I can tell, no evidence Will himself called the cops. This was a telephone game error where I saw a few of his followers say they would call the cops if protesters did that in their neighborhoods. I misattributed to him, my bad.

But...he definitely photoed the people setting the fires and bragged about it and that he got punched for it:

https://i.ibb.co/dJB1SrNf/Screenshot-20260212-130917-Chrome.jpg

Then, not long after, began publicly questioning the point of masked protesting.

https://i.ibb.co/x853h6mZ/Screenshot-20260212-130642-Chrome.jpg

The point many organizers made is...they often feel like some of the actions of their individual participants are counterproductive. By taking it to the collective group and letting them politely explain that they're being too intense for the protest often works.

Individually deciding to take action that specifically violates the agreed-upon ground rules is pretty fucked up. Find another organization if you don't like their opsec policies

Ok bro

xxp

if you dont understand dont talk to cops then youre prob just be making shit up

That's getting information from people within an organization, you know, how a journalist might. So therefore a very dumb definition of "collaborating."

Yes that would be fine if in the context he was doing journalism. He wasn't - he was working with anti ICE groups, trying to get them to talk to the media, and when that didn't work publishing the "info" he got from his ICE sources to his socials for his followers. Within a journalistic context those sources would be looked into, or at least a conversation about their legitimacy would be had.