AOC on DHS Warehouses: I think every American should be alarmed. They are building—and have built—a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Fun literary rabbit hole: I read a book of Connie Willis stories which included a reprint of a speech she gave, in which she said she got interested in sci-fi when she first read a Robert Heinlein in which the character was reading 3 Men in a Boat by Jerome J Jerome. #booksky

Bad Bunny ends his Super Bowl halftime show in front of a sign reading "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE"

10/10 no notes

Former VA Redistricting Commission citizen member @jamesabrenio.bsky.social nails it: "It's fair to disagree, it's fair to not like it. But what is not fair is to pretend that this is anything other than Trump." bluevirginia.us/2026/02/8-wi...

Warner: "There is a very real threat without reforms at ICE that you could have ICE patrols around polling stations. And people say, 'Why would that matter if they're all American citizens?' We've seen ICE discriminate against Latinos ... you don't need to do a lot to discourage people from voting"

The media moved on when trump said he had a new tone because as the constitution states the president is the editor in chief of all news outlets

“Renee was not the first person killed, and she was not the last,” Becca Good said. “You know my wife’s name and you know Alex’s name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don’t know — their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don’t look like mine.”

Anyone have any favorite essays? Some of mine: Iron and the Soul - Henry Rollins On Thud and Blunder - Poul Anderson What to the Slave is the 4th of July - Frederick Douglass Citizenship in a Republic - Theodore Roosevelt #booksky

This is the ad that Fox News does NOT want you to see. Fox News rejected our newest ad, which demonstrates that Trump has “gone too far” with ICE. But we will not remain silent in the face of these attacks. Share our ad and follow @usjewishdems.bsky.social to join us in the fight.

They are in one of the best places in the world to eat food but can't go out either because Italian food is too exotic, or because they know they would be booed. Not just the VP, not just abroad. Key members of the Trump cabinet live on military bases (Hegseth, Noem, Rubio, Miller).

ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.” What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.

So far it has been revealed that the WH Faith Director advisor is pushing group sales of Melania tickets to her email lists, a GOP Rep seeking Trump’s endorsement is buying them in bulk and giving them to primary voters, and military commanders are pressuring troops to buy tickets.

By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet

NBC is editing out JD Vance being booed at the Olympics. CBS and ABC paid millions in bogus settlements to fund Trump. CNN made Scott Jennings a rightwing star. The Washington Post just laid off 300 journalists. Support independent media. Subscribe to Democracy Docket. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

“If you read or share only one article today, make it this: HOW TRUMP HAS POCKETED $1,408,500,000 … Historically, one thing that has helped bring down authoritarians is public awareness of their use of power of the office for self-enrichment.” @leahmcelrath.bsky.social No paywall: archive.is/ZmfJC

So there was just a very loud and sustained "Fuck ICE" chant during a pro wrestling show on live primetime television, if you wanna get a sense of the vibe shift. (One of the wrestlers, Brody King, is an outspoken prigressive and wore an "Abolish ICE" shirt at a Mexico show in June.)

This is how Sen. Ron Wyden clues the public into activity that he finds extremely alarming. He does a press release about a letter he sent to the director of the CIA that basically says, 'I want to make sure you saw the classified letter I sent early today.' www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

FLASH: Weeks after Trump Admin pushed for crackdown on "fraud in Minnesota", the four prosecutors spearheading the case have *all left their jobs* Wave of departures is growing inside Justice Dept office in Minneapolis www.cbsnews.com/news/minneso...

I keep wondering...how many babies need to suffer and die at the hands of this administration? A recent example: a New Mexico newborn has died after contracting Listeria through the unpasteurized milk consumed by their mom. www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mex...

You may not have heard, but it’s important. Dems are holding shadow hearings on ICE crimes. Witnesses provided harrowing and explosive accounts yesterday. I provide some highlights from the day, and I urge everyone to watch and amplify them. Link in the replies.

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

According to FOX 9, a Minneapolis federal judge demanded to know why DOJ is missing deadlines & AUSA Julie Le said, "The system sucks, this job sucks" & asked to be held in contempt so she could sleep. PACER shows she got assigned to defend the govt in 88+ cases since Operation Metro Surge started.

Sen. Mark Kelly: "Right now they need to get out of Minneapolis & really reevaluate what this agency agency should be. Kristi Noem needs to be fired, by the way. That's a good starting point here. And the senior leadership there, the ones who have implemented these policies, these people need to go"

It happened so fast it made everyone's head spin in the legal profession—and no doubt caused the panic that led other firms to capitulate. It never really made sense.

A retiree wrote this email to a DHS attorney. Within five hours, DHS demanded Google turn over records for his account. A Kafkaesque form of domestic surveillance, intimidating Americans for lawful speech. New from us at the Post: www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio... @johnwoodrowcox.bsky.social

Lawyer: “Have you ever had a personal relationship with Donald Trump?” Epstein: “Yes” Lawyer: “Have you socialized with him in the presence of females under 18?” Epstein: “I’m asserting my Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.” via @meidastouch.com

Year 1 of Trump’s immigration crackdown: - U.S. citizens were held against their will. - ICE placed at least 600 immigrant kids in federal shelters. - Student activists became a target. That’s not all. Our year in review:

A manager for the Immigrant Defense Network told MPR News that back in November, 2,500 people were trained as constitutional observers. Now, the total is nearly 30,000 trained observers in 77 of Minnesota's 87 counties.

They want to send this child back into ICE detention. They are monsters.

Because

New in PN: Guns for me, but not for thee "The larger lesson of Pretti’s murder is that when it comes to guns and gun rights, most defenders of Trump’s proto-fascist police state clearly believe the Second Amendment exists to protect conservatives but bind liberals."

They're literally running out of lawyers in a state where the district judges are practically at war with the administration.

Well, at least we know which members of the Dem coalition we should never listen to... bluevirginia.us/2026/02/mond... h/t @tbonier.bsky.social @gelliottmorris.com

Trump could not be more explicit about his intention to rig elections this year and in 2028

If Tulsi isn't a paid foreign asset, then she's perhaps the most undervalued useful idiot of all time.

I was a White House ethics lawyer. I used to advise people not to even accept a free cup of coffee from someone who had interests before them. And staff followed those rules. I can’t even find the words to describe the scale of Trump’s corruption here.

The US could be solving this problem. We are letting Russia kill, injure, and harm people. Enabling massive human suffering — a cold winter without heat and water — is wrong in itself and will not lead to peace.

In Springfield, Ohio, people are preparing in advance of a “large deportation” promised by the president. To all appearances, the city is two or three days from a federal ethnic cleansing, grounded in a hate campaign organized by the vice-president and American Nazis.

🤔

“You are not entitled to a response from us, or anyone, ever,” is what an Education Department spokesperson wrote to one of our reporters, @megomatz.bsky.social, after she repeatedly tried to get comment from the department and its officials. (Published Dec. 2025)

I wonder if the New York Times will go after any of the prominent academics in the Epstein files for being rapists as hard as they went after Claudine Gay for being kind of sloppy with citations in her graduate thesis. If not, why not?

Halt! This is a bookish checkpoint. Last book: Elric of Melniboné, Vol. 1 by Michael Moorcock Current: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn Newest on TBR: Inkspell by Cornelia Funke Next: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie #booksky

And of course Schumer went Schumer.

Thinking of books/stories for winter: To Start a Fire - Jack London The Terror - Dan Simmons Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K LeGuin Who Goes There? - John W Campbell Other ideas? #booksky

They're teargassing preschools, dude...

I guess he just got lucky.

The government’s lies need to be called out and legacy media are not doing that. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/jimacost...

Democrats must take a stand and refuse to fund this deadly violence. Not another dime for this regime's brutality.