“Trump’s Private Company Files Trademark for ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport’” by @joshgerben.bsky.social

The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism.

RIP Robert Duval 🙏 "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

With Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, right around the corner, plans for suhoor and iftar meals, which bookend long days of fasting, are well underway across the globe. Some of these recipes are savory, others are sweet, but all are sure to satisfy.

It took only a 15-second clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out on a crumbling rooftop — made by A.I. with a two-sentence prompt and the click of a button — to draw swift outrage, and sizable fear, from Hollywood. "It’s nothing short of terrifying," one scriptwriter said.

Winning bigly? #EconSky

Frank talk worth paying attention to:

The heads of Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla all joined Trump at his inauguration. Since then, largely thanks to Trump's Big Ugly Bill, their companies have reaped $51B in federal tax breaks — paid for by huge cuts to our social safety net. This is what oligarchy looks like.

Column: Federica Brignone has in hand two gold medals. She won them not by dreaming big. She won them by taking one step, then another.

The Dow is 30 companies. And equivalent indexes around the world have risen far more than the Dow during the past year by percentages. bsky.app/profile/atru...

As illustrated in these MacroMicro charts, China’s holdings of US Treasuries have continued to fall. Given the steady issuance of new securities by the US government, China’s share of total UST holdings has dropped even more -- to 7%, a quarter of the 28% peak reached 15 years ago. #economy #china

NEW: "This was not a decision to reject the Moderna vaccine. It was a refusal even to think about approving it." www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-wh...

A passageway hidden below a dresser at the Merchant’s House Museum in New York City had long been a mystery. It was recently linked to the Underground Railroad. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/n...

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

When the MAGA standard is “I don’t care if the numbers aren’t precisely right,” you’re telling every future strongman that all they have to do is lie with a smile. This is how a party becomes a personality cult and how authoritarianism takes over.

Interesting.

Q: "Do you still have confidence in Pam Bondi as Attorney General?" Rep. Thomas Massie: "I don't think Pam Bondi has confidence in Pam Bondi…No, I don't have confidence in her. She hasn't gotten any sort of accountability there at DOJ."

When the U.S. House passed the SAVE Act last year, historians told us it was Congress’ worst attack on voting rights ever. Well, this week the House approved an even worse one. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

February 14, 2026

In case you’re not too much into Valentine’s Day.. On February 14, 1779, British explorer Captain James Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii during a violent altercation with Native Hawaiians.

😵‍💫

The big winners of TrumpRx seem to be not patients, but drug companies, Nick Florko argues.

From @theathletic.com: These are the gold medal events to watch on Sunday at the Winter Olympics. Here's the full schedule tracking every competition: nyti.ms/4rTg1YV

NYT: Trump secretly deported 9 migrants despite court orders to not remove them to their home nations. So, he sent them to prison in Cameroon: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...

The Democratic chief election officials of six states are denouncing two new voter suppression bills making their way through Congress — underscoring how the legislation would place a huge burden on voters and election administrators just as midterm election season kicks off.

Medicare for All would save $450B a year. Every dollar spent on food stamps generates $1.50-$1.80 in economic activity. Each dollar going to low-wage workers adds $1.20 to the economy overall. It’s not about what this country can or can’t afford. It’s about priorities.

no foreign foe has ever dreamed of being able to sack and pillaging this country the way Trump admin and its congressional and scotus enablers do every day.

I realize media doesn’t think it’s a big deal that Trump, Vance & Hegseth continue to give partisan political speeches to troops, evidenced by the fact that they are never asked about it nor are members of Congress, but it is one of the most dangerous things happening right now.

While this is true, nobody in the Trump admin or MAGA movement believes this.

When will Republicans, veterans organizations, & retired military officers speak up about this? No president in the history of the Republic has done this. Yet Trump, Vance, & Hegseth do it constantly. It betrays the most important core value of our military-no partisan politics.

NEW: President Donald Trump suggested he would issue an executive order attempting to impose a nationwide photo ID requirement for voting, a requirement to show proof of citizenship for registration, and a ban on mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterms. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

From @theathletic.com: Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov had the skate of his life and it wound up being worthy of gold. His shocking victory in men's individual figure skating is only Kazakhstan’s second-ever gold medal in any Winter Olympics. trib.al/3zGAOKI

Why was Dr. Oz inviting Epstein to parties 8 years after Epstein was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution?

Breaking news: Two immigration officers have been suspended and are facing a criminal investigation into whether they lied under oath about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis last month.

Narrator: "He lost the popular vote in 2016 by about 2.9 million votes."

interesting that these people — and fellow travelers like bari weiss — insist on large, expensive security details. they are status markers, i suppose.

A remarkable and powerful speech by Friedrich Merz at the Munich Security Conference is filled with surgically precise criticism of Trump and JD Vance. Their game will not destroy NATO or the EU, he says, but it may produce a NATO without the US. America has forfeited its leadership position.

Trump carefully selects the world's most corrupt and morally depraved dealers for his deportation deals and then pays them lots of cash. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The government has time to defend an ICE shooting on TV, but not to answer the Good family’s letters to preserve evidence in Renee’s killing. No outreach, no accountability, and reported talk of investigating her grieving wife instead. That’s how authoritarian systems treat state violence.

Breaking news: ICE expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the U.S. and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of people, according to agency documents.

whut

Breaking WSJ: The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

CBP didn’t give her or anyone any water; she asked 3 times accg to other reports. CBP killed a 7yr old. “8 hours after the girl & her father were taken into custody, she began having seizures & her body temperature was measured at 105.7 degrees by emergency medical technicians. shorturl.at/d2OTJ

GIFT LINK: www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

There are so many fucked up things with the current administration that it's hard to focus on one but this recent move is basically a death sentence for the planet. I've been involved with more boots on the ground actions over the years than I can count and this really bums me out.

I hate it here

The details of the Kristi Noem blanket incident are just fucking perfect

FT: “.. officials in the commerce department and US trade representative’s office believed the tariffs were hurting consumers by raising prices ..” 🤡 @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/f2ef...