Many news outlets watched speeches from Munich & obsessed over an AOC "gaffe" (i.e. accurately describing longstanding US policy in Taiwan). @prospect.org had someone in Munich (the excellent Jen Kirby) who saw a Democratic party struggling to articulate a foreign policy vision.

There hasn't been enough of a look back at agencies that have seen significant attrition during Trump's assault on the federal workforce. Today we do that with a profile on those who departed the VA health care system, many of them vets themselves. The system is struggling to survive.

How is this even possible? Rep. Haley Stevens, who is running for #MISen, "seemed generally impressed with the staff" at an ICE detention facility, per the @michiganadvance.com. At the same event, Rep. Hillary Scholten spoke of a man "being kept in a freezing room where he couldn’t feel his toes."

Except Trump unilaterally eliminated agencies and cut hundreds of billions of dollars of appropriated funds, forcing the judiciary to expend monumental effort to get things restored (which hasn't been fully successful). This idea that Congress secretly vanquished Trump doesn't fit with these facts.

There's been this endless, tedious discourse about the role of "the groups." These are the fucking groups! These 3 PACs have nearly half a billion dollars to spend on elections. Slightly more power than a goddamn questionnaire.

If you're a Democratic voter who wants to save our democracy you need to be reading The American Prospect.

We've been waiting for the crypto money to drop this election cycle. Now it has, in attack ads against two state senators in Illinois who voted to regulate digital assets. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Go birds

I feel like Tom Gores and the Pistons should be included here, his private equity firm owns the prison phone monopoly, it's at least adjacent to the DHS concentration camp industrial complex.

Great tribute here to Jesse Jackson from Harold Meyerson, who eloquently and forcefully championed America’s multiracial working class during the heyday of neoliberalism. prospect.org/2026/02/17/t...

This stuff, more than any of the Pizzagate 'Knives Out'-style MacGuffin clues, is like putting on the glasses from 'They Live'

ICYMI we talked to Ro Khanna for our podcast Organized Money about working on Epstein files transparency and how it vaulted accountability to the top of his political agenda. prospect.org/2026/02/17/o...

This is such a good article. A brief and concise explanation of how corruption and political rot oozes out of both parties as they actively and strategically resist being held accountable for any wrongdoing no matter how damaging and heinous it is.

‼️ www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

We don't need a disquisition about right-wing populism or theories of market dynamics to understand that lobbyists bought the Justice Department. From me, from yesterday (I was off sorry): prospect.org/2026/02/16/j...

“There is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well.” Read the article

Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, a leader in organizing college presidents, has proposed Democracy Summer 2026, evoking the heroic Freedom Summer of 1964 that aimed to advance voting rights in Mississippi, now employed to safeguard the midterm elections. From Bob Kuttner:

Turo is the Airbnb of car rental, where people lend out their vehicles. The unclear criteria for approval for both renters & car owners makes the service perfect for crime, & the company's platform model allows it to disclaim responsibility. Good piece by David Isenberg. prospect.org/2026/02/17/t...

"This is the Epstein class in all its glory. It’s an elite that schemes to remain as unaccountable for sexual crimes as it does for corporate crimes. It has its own hierarchy of friends and foes, and it will defend those friends no matter what they do, while the spoils of privilege flow."

Guys I found the best Epstein Files email. The one that illuminates an elite class that's cocooned themselves into an unaccountable shell of wealth and privilege, fighting to protect their secrets and offenses. I could write a novel about this email. prospect.org/2026/02/17/e...

Great article about ticketmaster and sports pricing by @ddayen.bsky.social prospect.org/2026/02/12/t...

Appreciate Ronan summarizing all the work I've done in the last 18 months. prospect.org/economy/2024... prospect.org/2025/12/02/p...

Sanyu Mojola writes about health inequality in Washington, a city of economic extremes. Naomi Bethune interviews Mojola about policy design, segregation and the role of policing. prospect.org/2026/02/16/r...

It's been said that America's public sector is a health insurance company with an army. Increasingly, America's private sector is just the health insurance company. Health care jobs are propping up the U.S. economy, a long-term trend that Harold Meyerson breaks down. prospect.org/2026/02/16/e...

ICE/CBP have gone unfunded for 3 days; how about 3 years? The best way to claw back the $170 billion immigration enforcement surge in the Big Beautiful Bill is to just claw it back. The 2nd-best way is to slowly drain it by never funding the underlying appropriation. @ryanlcooper.com makes the case:

As someone who spent a lot of my career writing about sports as a funhouse mirror of social and economic pathologies, I wholeheartedly recommend this @prospect.org theme issue— @ddayen.bsky.social and his team did a good job! prospect.org/sports/

We decided to send out next week's episode of Organized Money early because it's so timely. We talked to Rep. Ro Khanna about his work on the Epstein Files & how it actually changed his politics, making him recognize why elite impunity is such a primary issue. www.organizedmoney.fm/p/the-epstei...

Bob Kuttner has some news here: Democrats offered to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP, while negotiations continued on reforms. Republicans rejected that. prospect.org/2026/02/13/i...

ICYMI private prison company GEO Group is making big money by violating the human rights of detainees. 800 percent jump in revenues last year, thanks primarily to ICE. prospect.org/2026/02/12/i...

Fun @franifio.bsky.social essay on how the World Cup has often been political, and why the U.S. might get what's coming to us this year. prospect.org/2026/02/13/f...

We're going regime villain deep-cut today with a look at Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Guess what: he's bad, in all the ways Trump cabinet members are bad: anti-science, pro-selloff of public resources, and sycophantic to an absurd degree. From our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted for stealing $5.7 million from a government overpayment to her company & using it to get self-fund her election. Her primary challenger pointed this out, so she sued him for defamation. But she never served the lawsuit. It was just for negative publicity.

ICE may be leaving Minneapolis, but the damage to thousands of lives is done. And economically, it's a localized heart attack not unlike the one that hit the planet in March 2020, writes @ryanlcooper.com. prospect.org/2026/02/13/i...

A birthday 🎂

Sunset in the desert

George Zoley was on a conference call just a few hours ago talking about GEO's outstanding 2025. For fiscal year 2025, the company clocked an 800% increase in profit, thanks to our tax dollars. Just a massive wealth distribution upwards to this guy and his fellow profiteers. 800%.

We've written consistently about the violation of access to counsel for immigrant detainees. prospect.org/2025/10/06/2...

ICE contracts increased private prison company GEO Group's revenues by 800% in 2025, according to an earnings call attended by @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social. But none of that money seems to be going to oversight amid a spate of sexual abuse & physical assault complaints against GEO Group guards.

As ICE retreats in Minneapolis (or at least claims to), Harold Meyerson relates it to the patriot militias that drove British troops out of Boston 250 years ago next month. prospect.org/2026/02/12/o...

Visa will be the next case settled once Bondi gets Live Naiton-Ticketmaster out of the way.

And now Gail Slater, the chief antitrust enforcer at DOJ, has just resigned, a prelude to this settlement happening. Slater was cut out of the negotiations with MAGA lobbyists on the Live Nation case. DOJ is just a corrupt shell at this point.

In a sense Venezuela was the test run for the Latin American regime change Holy Grail in Cuba. Marco Rubio is playing the long game. Great analysis from Nathan Thompson. prospect.org/2026/02/12/m...

Did The Atlantic really write a story entitled "What Happened to Pam Bondi?" Nothing happened! She's always been willing to do anything for power. She fired the only prosecutors looking into foreclosure fraud on behalf of a campaign donor. She was an Amazon lobbyist! prospect.org/2024/11/22/2...

Another year in the 18-54 age bracket. I will also be posting this next year. (Don't ask about 2028)

Tired: Getting mad at Pam Bondi for high school theater-level theatrics at a hearing Wired: Getting mad at Pam Bondi for letting the Ticketmaster monopoly continue and settling the case that would break it up. From me: prospect.org/2026/02/12/t...

To close out our sports issue, we came up with some positive examples, where financialization and the desires of oligarch ownership is not placed over basic respect for fans and athletes. 🧵 prospect.org/2026/02/12/f...

Kate is a reporter for the American Banker. Trump’s DOJ & CFPB turn a predatory lending discrimination lawsuit into an anti-immigrant crusade. Instead of providing restitution for victims of discrimination they use $ to fund more police resources aimed at “illegals.” (Full article paywalled.)

Some personal news

The 6 Rs who crossed the aisle to block Trump's Canada tariffs: Thomas Massie Don Bacon Brian Fitzpatrick Jeff Hurd Kevin Kiley Dan Newhouse Jared Golden (D) voted with the Republicans to maintain them.

Incredible that this many Republicans are still backing Trump on this wildly unpopular policy. They'll now have to do it again after Trump vetoes and an override vote is held. Just generating mountains of votes for midterm ads.