So apparently the ceasefire deal includes Iran continuing to charge tolls (split with Oman) on transit through the Strait, as reported by the NYT, AP and others. If that's true, I have a hard time seeing this as anything other than a capitulation by Trump. Just abject surrender.

Is this good

A mental-health counselor in the same sense that George Wallace was a civil rights activist

Israel simply does not have the power to force the US government to do something it does not want to do. What Rubio is doing here, by claiming Israel forced the US hand, is making Israel the scapegoat for a US policy he knows is unpopular. This framing is going to be so bad for Diaspora Jews.

So in case anyone doubted, trackAIPAC really should just be called TrackJewish, because to them all donations from Jewish groups are the same. So all of you who believed them out of hand - you got conned.

This question from a recent poll of Texas Dems is interesting (and surprising).

Great brief, really enjoyed reading through this - Very nice work @nbaron.bsky.social and team.

this is a great brief and it appropriately ends with a killshot: the simple observation that if trump's meaning held, the birthright clause would not have overturned dred scott, the one thing it was absolutely meant to do.

Quite proud of this brief I worked on—filed on behalf of eight immigrant rights orgs—which points out the disconnect between the govt’s legal theory of birthright and the terms of the EO, which would affect millions of people with deep ties to our country. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

Let them eat cake, etc.

First up, CASA et al explain how any child of their client Monica subject to the EO would likely be rendered stateless. They explain how byzantine process outlined by the Trump Admin for how the EO would be implemented only increases that risk. 2/

“You finished those DC metro stations?” “Sure thing boss, beautiful, moodily lit and oddly unsettling, just like you asked.” “What?”

I love a bit of whimsy

You can explain a lot of the shift towards blatant transphobia by the centrist political class from them remaining on Twitter after Elon bought it. It's one of his singular missions to destroy the trans community to get back at his daughter Vivian. nymag.com/intelligence...

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending. . . there have been no convictions. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

I just woke up. Am I to understand that Mr Justice Originalist Thomas is of the belief that expressly committing a specific power to Congress in Article I is not enough to make it a core legislative power because the famously monarchist founders wished to preserve the prerogatives of the king?

The plot of Footloose (1984) couldn’t have happened if there were a single decent lawyer in that town.

We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss. #txlege

In one 30-minute stretch, three legal observers were arrested — as Trump’s Border czar Tom Homan calls on locals to “end the resistance.”

*Green card application in process and work permit, married to US citizen *Lived in US for 20 years, no criminal record *In detention for five months with no charge, despite judge approving release *He disputes ICE claim that he signed forms agreeing to deportation

the “suspected” political message in question

Snakes began manifesting in my home when the Dunkin’ ad came on

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

Just like with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the biggest sin any targeted immigrant can commit is winning battles — legal or PR battles — against the government, and they just won’t let those losses go

‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." … She offered me $2600 to self-deport. I refused. I wanted to talk to my attorney. They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’

It's not disagreement about what's happening, it's disagreement over whether what's happening is bad.

This is unreal. An AUSA talking like that in open court is about as close as you can come to a total breakdown. Never heard of anything like it.

Another one for the “the Times really needs an ombudsman” file Three reporters on this for months, tons of breathless push alerts and promises that Harvard was about to bend the knee…did things change, or did preserving access cloud their vision on this all along?

In other words, a ~30 point swing to Dems statewide would only result in 4 additional Dem wins.

It’s 2026. There is a measles outbreak in the prison for babies

"A 2-year-old boy was breastfeeding in detention. One 6-year-old boy had leukemia. An 8-year-old girl began wetting the bed. A 14-year-old girl engaged in self-harm...None of these children or their parents had a criminal history anywhere in the world." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...

Ferbruary #oldknees

Protests also serve an important role in activating the conscience of others, even that of the perpetrators. Arendt noted: “the most potent factor in the soothing of [Eichmann’s] own conscience was… that he could see no one… who was actually against the Final Solution.”

“You are good to go.” Good to go?!?! This is what ICE tells a young woman they tossed out into dangerously freezing temperatures after four agonizing days in detention at Whipple. Today’s front page Strib report: www.startribune.com/no-humanity-...

This morning, federal agents staged at the Powderhorn Park Recreation Center lot and began to throw chemical irritants at observers. They also kidnapped an observer. Our parks are meant for our children, youth, and neighbors. They should never be militarized zones meant to separate families. 1/

For @thepointmag.bsky.social I wrote one of the most personally important essays I’ve ever written. Please give it a read if you’re someone who cares about education. thepointmag.com/examined-lif...

Ezra Klein had a hilariously bad 2025: started with that embarrassing Abundance book, declared Marie Concentrationcamp Perez the future of the Dem party, wrote that Charlie Kirk was doing the politics the right way, and argued that Epstein kept his pedophilia separate from his business life.

i was raised on liberal democracy so all that "vote-scolding" shit never hit for me, i believe in begging for the vote. outside in the rain, crying, throwing up, just for a ballot. thats your role as a citizen

DHS doesn’t even bother trying to lie well. The man whose skull was shattered told the hospital he’d been struck by ICE officers, an ICE officer told hospital staff the guy “got his sh*t rocked,” then when it became clear how badly he was injured, they claimed he deliberately ran into a wall.

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?

I wake up at 6am i remove my phone from three layers of Faraday fabric, and check Signal messages using a dedicated burner laptop running Tails OS from a thumb drive I don’t use a mouse; the movement of the cursor could be used for biometric identification

This is illegal btw

Among the batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein telling Peter Thiel he would “gladly share…expenses for the Gawker suit.” This was sent the day after @rmac.bsky.social and @mattdrange.bsky.social reported in Forbes that Thiel was behind the lawsuit that would bankrupt Gawker

Lol

“I’m observing!” Guns drawn, grabbed out of her car for observing. Homan has changed nothing. More: www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

We need statutory Bivens now