@laist.com laist.com/news/politic...

The Masumoto Family Farm in Fresno County is accepting applications for its annual Adopt-a-Tree program, which lets teams of up to 12 people harvest certified-organic heirloom peaches and nectarines over two weekends in the summer. 🔗 https://ow.ly/rH7o50YgPSV ✍️ Gab Chabrán 📸 Nikiko Masumoto

More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers remained on strike Monday as the open-ended walkout entered its fourth week, disrupting patient appointments, surgeries and treatments across California and Hawaii.

Staffan I. Lindberg, the founding director of Sweden's V-Dem Institute, which monitors democracy across the globe, says the U.S. has already crossed the threshold and become an "electoral autocracy."

Rep. Ro Khanna Just Said :UN human rights experts just concluded the Epstein files may have "crimes against humanity." The DOJ continues a cover-up. Here's what needs to happen now:

The U.S. military says it carried out strikes on three boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing at least 11 people and again providing no evidence of alleged drug smuggling. This brings the total number of strikes on boats in waters near Latin America to 42, resulting in at least 145 deaths.

New Mexico is pursuing long-overdue answers by investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch through a new subcommittee that was just created by the New Mexico House. I’ve got the details, including why the state’s AG’s Office stopped investigating Epstein back in 2019. youtu.be/eTfTAvLSv6Q?...

The way that Meta and YouTube designed their products — allegedly luring users into a nonstop loop of taps and scrolling — is at the heart of this month’s bellwether social media trial, which sets the stage for thousands of similar lawsuits. Read more from @laurenfeiner.bsky.social: buff.ly/ndKT7WQ

AXIOS: “The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.” Is Iran in the Epstein files? www.axios.com/2026/02/18/i...

Kaitlan Collins Responds to Donald Trump Saying 'I Don't Think I've Ever Seen You Smile': "You shouldn't smile when you're asking questions about a sex trafficker."

"The measure also establishes that “willfully” disseminating or helping a minor access material deemed “harmful” without their parental consent would be a crime... possibility of imprisonment of up to a year, and a fine between $500 and $2,500." I. TOLD. YOU. littlevillagemag.com/iowa-house-b...

NEW: ICE has raided dormitories at the Dilley concentration camp to confiscate letters from children per @pabloreports.bsky.social. I have filed a FOIA request for them. @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social: the second we get anything, we will send it to you. 1/ www.muellershewrote.com/p/new-ice-co...

I get to work with one of best directors and ensemble cast of my career AND get a Spirit Award?!? Yes, please. 🙏 #TheLongWalk #FrancisLawrence #FilmIndependentSpiritAwards

Kudos to Stephen Colbert for standing up for himself and against tyranny. I've always been a fan of his — going way back to the Colbert Report years. I enjoyed chatting with him in August. Here's a brief clip from our discussion.

Pope Rejects Trump’s “Board of Peace” Invite

🚨 Susan Collins just backed Trump’s voter suppression bill — after Maine voters overwhelmingly rejected it just 3 months ago. Photo ID + citizenship proof = a barrier for seniors, low-income folks, & women who’ve changed names. That’s not “security.” It’s suppression.

This country is of the people, by the people, and for the people. It’s not for Convicted Felon Donald Trump & his cronies to grift their way to even more wealth. Join me & @joyannreid.bsky.social as we lead the charge to boycott the SOTU & instead highlight real people impacted by this Regime.

NEW: DOJ told a judge in New Jersey that it had violated court orders about 54 times between Dec. 5 and this week — the latest accounting of a phenomenon that used to be rare and is now rampant. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

NEW Les Wexner to be deposed in congressional investigation into revelations from Epstein files.

NEW: Palantir, which is powering ICE, says that increased regulation of immigration may impact the company’s ability to hire the talent it needs.

Is it any wonder why so many people have given up on the system?

I have seen enough: The Wall Street Journal published a story today with the headline "Billionaires’ Low Taxes Are Becoming a Problem for the Economy"

The model from Mexico who in 2009, fled from an “Elite’s” modeling party, screaming "They were eating people!" She was arrested immediately, they declared her unstable, and no one has seen 21-year-old Gabriella Rico Jiménez since. Allegations in the Epstein files sound eerily similar.

From YT Righteous Eats and Jaeki Cho youtube.com/shorts/crOjx...

Millions of Epstein files suggest the existence of a 'global criminal enterprise' that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council says.

NEW: The FDA has removed a webpage warning about dangerous therapies claiming to treat autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under RFK Jr. to discredit long-established science. By @megomatz.bsky.social

We are in a bubble here on Bluesky Most people here lean democrat. We want our democracy back! Actions will always speak louder than words March 28th is eons away But, commit to that day, to show up at a local protest. We are powerful! www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...

If we’re too focused on listening for whispers from the White House, we will close our ears to what Trump is saying out loud. We must not war-game improbable scenarios when his administration is giving us a playbook of its next moves. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/in-t...

NEW: Rather than turn former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández over to immigration officials when he was released from prison less than four years into a 45-year sentence, the Trump administration paid to transport him 350 miles to a posh NYC hotel. By @keribla.bsky.social

So @MarshaBlackburn wants to make herself out to be a hero for banning a statewide property tax we haven’t had in Tennessee since 1945? Again: She thinks we’re all morons Stuff like this is why she hasn’t had a town hall since 2017

February 17, 2026

This is what the Epstein network is trying to implement

This is just thing that should be released with names.

Tomorrow, the Oversight Committee will have the opportunity to question Les Wexner about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Survivors told us from day one: follow the money. That is exactly what we intend to do.

Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

The Democratic Republic of Congo is seeing a significant increase in acts of sexual violence against girls and young women. A support center offers a sanctuary for treatment — and to be heard. n.pr/4rGG1Hv

Longtime civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson dies at age 84. And, the U.S. and Iran are set for high-stakes negotiations today in Geneva about Iran's nuclear program. n.pr/469rKu1

These words have only become truer since Robin Williams first shared them in 2012.

Trump admin’s FCC reportedly blocked Colbert from airing a Talarico interview, as chair Brendan Carr targets late-night critics like Kimmel.

Minnesota Investigators Say FBI Refusing to Share Evidence in Alex Pretti’s Killing

This tracks The National Geographic voice caps it off though ☠️

Experts say newly released documents show the need for an independent investigation into Epstein's sex-trafficking ring.

The concentration camps will not only be for immigrants, documented or otherwise. They already aren't. They won't only be for brown and Black people. The targets will keep expanding. It will not end. The only way it will is if we stop it. Both in and out of the system. There is no other way.

Mamdani: "$5.4 billion is a very steep mountain to climb ... We want to work with Albany to raise personal income taxes by 2% on the 33,000 New Yorkers earning more than $1 million per year and to raise corporate taxes on the most profitable corporations."

WATCH: “That’s not America. That’s not Tennessee. I’m ashamed of those sons of bitches.” A decorated veteran from a family of soldiers warns Republican anti-immigrant Stephen Miller bills are creating a “Gestapo”. (Bonus: turns out this patriot is a Holler fan 🎉)

DHS is holding a 2-month-old BABY at a detention facility in Texas. Last night, Juan Nicolás was rushed to the hospital after choking on his own vomit & being unable to breathe. This demands accountability — not a blank check for more cruelty.

Any elected official, celebrity, leader or influencer who is staying silent on the Epstein files is choosing silence over accountability. History will remember those who looked away.

I couldn't forward the article but I think the headline says it all.

There are thousands of emails exposing the predatory tactics used against girls and young women (“pussy checks” for tightness) suggestions for nose jobs, exposed to STDs from powerful men, coercive control over their entire person. Epstein’s network shares this view of women