Busy with life stuff
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Keep Talking
Senate Republicans are coming under intense pressure from President Trump and right-wing colleagues to embark on an old-fashioned filibuster fight in an effort to ram through a voter identification bill that their party regards as crucial to salvaging their dimming chances of winning the midterm elections.
Hamster Treat Button
A Tax On Patriotic American Companies
Friday, February 20, 2026
I Guess We're Still Doing This
Free speech is threatened when institutions listen to public pressure from the wrong sorts of people - the people who don't have have newspaper columns and who disagree with me! - and not when (looks around at the United States, 2026).
Find it yourself, but you can guess the topic. Kirchick is an absurd guy. He gets published because the people who run the New York Times basically agree with him (no this is not true of everything they publish, but it is true of this shit).Security And Confidentiality
I have an idea. Why don't we force these onto every machine in the country, give them super-admin* access permissions by default, and have them send everything unecrypted into the generalized plagiarism machine. What could go wrong?
Oh I forgot - make sure it has access to everyone's passwords and bank/card information so it can do whatever it is supposed to do more efficiently.
*I don't know if "super-admin access permissions" is a thing but you get my point.
Popularism!
Americans are roughly split over whether the federal government should deport all undocumented immigrants living in the United States, but a growing share oppose expanded ICE operations -- and by a 2-to-1 margin, they oppose ICE's tactics.The results come following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 -- just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.Half (50%) of Americans support the federal government deporting the about 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and sending them back to their home countries while 48% oppose this.
This is basically an even split on DEPORTING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS when of course the Trumpers are also (mostly) kidnapping, imprisoning, and deporting people who have permission to be in the country.
The Tariff King
Headlines say the Supremos took away his favorite toy, 6-3. No tariffs for him! Don't know if there are any nuances...
...no idea what this means for collected tariffs, but it does mean all the countries that slapped tariffs on US products in "deals" don't have to remove them, of course.
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that it’s been a “very strong” holiday shopping season so far and predicted that the U.S. economy would end the year on strong footing.
“The economy has been better than we thought. We’ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,” he said in an interview on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation.’ “We’re going to finish the year, despite the Schumer shutdown, with 3% real GDP growth.”
Actual: 1.4%
Thursday, February 19, 2026
The Best People
The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times.
One of my little theories is that these are all horrible people, who have surrounded themselve with horrible people, and they have no idea that not everyone lives like that .
Not just him!
The inspector general’s office is investigating a formal complaint that Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate — a member of her security detail — and abusing her office by taking staff to strip clubs, drinking alcohol on the job and taking personal trips at taxpayer expense. Her lawyer has denied the allegations.


