Judge Goodwin: "An anonymous government is no government at all. It cannot be held accountable. A masked agent freely uses force without justifying his actions, and the public cannot name him to challenge his conduct. A regime of secret policing has no place in our society."

Current conditions: It's like Paul Bunyan tripped on Block Island and dropped his slurpee on us.

NY Times breaking fresh ground in comedy.

Some interesting choices on the list of occupations PPSD provides parents at registration. Abattoir operator leads us off, but you won't find consultant. British sign language, but not American.

Trump plans to send $10 billion in funds that Congress hasn’t appropriated from the US Treasury to an organization that he will continue to chair personally even after he is out of office. This is looting.

I missed this real banger of an opinion yesterday from judge sunshine sykes (the best-named judge), vacating the BIA ruling on mandatory immigration detention

One of the things that personally drives me crazy in the U.S. is how youth sports/athletic activities went from a part of the public good (municipal leagues and fields! rec centers! public parks!) to a privatized, expensive, highly competitive, highly structured pursuit for wealthy kids’ résumés

Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement

I have compared AI to the Game Genie in the past—in that you could use it incorrectly and it’s honestly more interesting as a result. But with a Game Genie, once you turned off the machine, everything was back to normal. That is not the case with AI agents.

John Roberts has somehow created a regal impunity, in a republic nonetheless influenced by British common law, stronger than that enjoyed by the British royals themselves. In-f’ing-credible.

You mean the people who took over a town, refused to levy taxes, and ended up with a village of bears because there was no one to haul away their garbage? Those New Hampshire libertarians? washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/l...

Loved this article on anxious parents of winter Olympians and the various ways they cope. Nothing can top the mom who tried skeleton. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/w...

No way in hell does it take 1252 jobs to put-in-place $158million in construction. Maybe 700. I propose boycotting any construction firm that works on reno or new ICE detention facility. Call your state reps. Have those companies restricted from ever bidding again on gov work in your state.

Construction Inflation for 2025 Materials inputs up approx 2.5% Labor cost up about 4.5% Margins up about 2% Overall construction inflation for 2025 up 4% to 4.5%

"During Winter Storm Fern, Vineyard Wind had a 75% capacity factor...Once fully operational, the project will deliver power at a price of $84.23 per megawatt-hour to the New England grid. That’s markedly less than spot wholesale prices during the storm, which spiked to over $870 per MWh on Jan. 25."

How do we disincentivize local media's unnecessary wall-to-wall coverage of awful tragedies?

Them: sorry the Constitution requires that children keep dying, can't even have any tiny regulation of guns. Also them: sorry Fourth Amendment we're going through a tunnel can't hear you

That's the point, isn't it? They don't like what it's become so they're tearing it all down. They want a 1950s culture with a 2026 military. And the billionaires are tagging along because for some reason they're never satisfied.

"Fascism has many faces and a new mask for every new country. But wherever it turns up, in whatever beautiful cover it begins to show itself, it always inwardly *is* and *must* be woman's greatest enemy." Sonja Branting, 1936

The commander in chief telling troops who they have to vote for is itself a presidency ending impeachable scandal.

Kazakhstan!

The EPA should do a cost-benefit analysis of Vought's protection budget.

"Meta is exploring who should be recognizable through the technology...Possible options include recognizing people a user knows because they are connected on a Meta platform, and identifying people whom the user may not know but who have a public account on a Meta site like Instagram."

In other words, long enough that habeas petitions can be filed on their behalf in Minnesota before they're whisked off to an immigration detention facility somewhere in the Fifth Circuit (where, under that court's current law, they wouldn't be eligible for a bond hearing).

Legal status doesn’t matter: if you exceed ICE’s melanin threshold, you get snatched. It is ethnic cleansing. There is no other word for it. The news has shown you video of these often violent detentions. What you don’t see is what happens to these individuals after. I’ve had a front row seat. 7/

To sum up: The only people acting rationally regarding the deployment of an anti-drone laser at a party balloon over El Paso was the person at the FAA who shutdown air traffic.

With the large downward revision to 2025 jobs, it seems likely some of that would be applied to construction. Before any revision, construction added only 88,000 jobs in 2025, the slowest jobs growth (sans recessions) in over 30yrs. Would not be unexpected, as volume of work in 2025 was down 5.3%

How about this heat wave!

"Due process is not a courtesy extended at the government’s convenience. Due process is the condition that makes custody lawful in the first place."

They tried to prosecute members of Congress under the Smith Act. Absolute scenes

This was Mike Johnson's third failed rule vote of the 119th Congress, bringing him closer to tying the modern era record for rule failure in the House. Which is currently held by... Mike Johnson, from the 118th Congress

How immigrant labor causes US citizens to be unemployed? What's the hold up? We have 10 units waiting for trusses. But the truss factory is shut down. They were all immigrants and were detained. Well, I can't pay roof installers to sit around idle. Send everybody home, temporary layoff.

The enshittification of everyday life accelerates; or, new Rousseau update dropped! Just say no, folks. x.com/aakashgupta/...

I'm looking for feedback on this you need to have a property's PIN to start (this link goes directly to the property PIN shown)

Gift 🔗

I was talking to my sister about the Trump cabinet over the weekend, and she said "where the hell does he find these people?" I said that when you, as a hiring manager, make punching a baby in the face a precondition for a job interview, a few things happen:

The governor is holding a presser today to bolster his proposal to slash energy efficiency & clean energy. Toray Plastics, speaking at the presser, ironically has received large investments from these programs to help lower their energy usage and stabilize bills: ripuc.ri.gov/sites/g/file...

New on Cabinet of Infographic Curiosities

Wednesday, February 11th at 11:50 am ET

Ossoff: "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman."

Nine-year-old keeping it real after learning about BC/AD. NYO: "So what comes after AD?" Me: "Nothing, we just keep counting up." NYO: "Yeah, we're counting till the world ends."

Ballot initiative notwithstanding, I suspect people in Nebraska will continue to vote for these very same legislators.

My favorite documentary. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYV6...

And people have let the stuff they do control (websites, email) go to pasture. It's fascinating to me that Smiley used his campaign email to oppose the Palestinian flag raising but not for disseminating important info about the storm.

A press secretary with any shred of decency and self-respect would resign rather than defend a proudly racist and incompetent boss. Let a chatbot carry their dirty water.

Reviewing video from Fulton County elections raid. Taken aback by the dismissive & sneering attitude from FBI agents toward the cop politely asking to see the warrant. Looked him up: He's an immigrant w/ a doctorate in philosophy. His thesis? "Force by police officers toward African Americans."

This is a remarkable @nytimes.com split screen: A huge 3,526 word + photos profile on Sen Britt who "can't stop thinking about the boy ICE detained" But Rep Jaoquin Castro- who actually got Liam Ramos out of detention & back home- gets no interview, no pix, just 116 words inside a story. WOW.