Republicans must feel comfortable enough with election integrity in California to swear in a new member before the election is even certified.

From the Texas Tribune: After Mexican officials confirmed case of screwworm in Nov. 2024, USDA, under Joe Biden, closed southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent spread of screwworm into U.S. Move also strained supply of cattle in Texas.... USDA reversed course in Feb 2025, after Trump took office, announcing opening of ports"

No snark, I genuinely don’t get it. Trump is one of the least masculine, most juvenile public figures out there. He’s needy, whiny, defensive, terrified of strong women, and visibly intimidated by powerful men. How does his base spin this into the ultimate “strongman” image?

Iranian hairstylist Ami Moghadam received death threats for posting videos of women receiving haircuts on Instagram. So she decided to troll the Islamic Regime and their oppressive mandatory hijab laws in the most epic, hilarious way possible. 😂

The U.S. DOJ let Pornhub’s parent company sign a deal: ADMIT to intentionally profiting from sex trafficking and pay a fine with no executive prosecuted. This isn’t justice — it’s a parking ticket. @ChuckGrassley @HawleyMO — hold a hearing before the charges vanish in 2027.

BREAKING: Israel just dropped bombs on the Qaraoun Dam in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley — a key water reservoir serving civilian populations across surrounding villages. This is not a battlefield target. It is a critical water infrastructure. This is an act of genocide.

🚨 Every Republican present in the House Appropriations Committee last night voted to make THEMSELVES eligible to collect from Trump's $1.8 billion January 6th slush fund. I am not making this up. I introduced an amendment to stop Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President from collecting a single dollar from Trump’s slush fund unless a court actually orders it. Every single Republican who cast a vote was AGAINST my amendment, making themselves eligible for settlement funds. Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President, have no business lining their own pockets by claiming they were victims of government weaponization. Trump set up this fund, now MAGA Republicans in Congress are ensuring they all can collect from it. That is exactly the kind of self-dealing corruption the American people are sick of.

#PrimaPagina Libano del sud, Villaggi rasi al suolo Dopo i bombardamenti entrano in azione le ruspe israeliane. Come a Yaroun dove nelle scorse ore è stata demolita anche una scuola cristiana osservatoreromano.va/it/news…

Vatican newspaper headlines the Israeli razing of entire villages in southern Lebanon, including Christian schools. “After the bombardments, the Israeli bulldozers get to work”. Why is no major western newspaper showing this?

Your party has had complete control of Florida for 15 years.

Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities - so long as they do it under the guise of “partisanship” rather than explicit “racial bias.” And it serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach. The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome. But that will only happen if citizens across the country who cherish our democratic ideals continue to mobilize and vote in record numbers - not just in the upcoming midterms or in high profile races, but in every election and every level.

The joke is premised on the idea that Melania is a trophy wife married to a very wealthy older man, and she's looking forward to the day when she inherits his wealth and no longer has to pretend she loves him. You can disagree with that portrait of Trumps, but it's a very conventional, even cliched, joke to make about a beautiful woman married to a much older rich guy.

There’s this never-ending debate about whether em dashes, semicolons, and colons have become signs of AI writing. As a result, many of us writers have stopped using them—swapping them for commas or reshaping sharp, effective sentences into something blander—to avoid suspicion. But AI was trained on the best of us. On millions of published works by real authors. It learned from our voices, our rhythms, our punctuation. And now we’re acting as if those marks somehow belong to machines. They don’t. Those tools were ours long before AI existed. Our teachers taught us how and when to use them, years before anyone imagined generative AI. So let’s take them back. Let’s use the full range of language with confidence. The em dash, the semicolon, the colon—they’re not signals of artificiality. They’re signs of craft. #WritingCommunity #writerslife

So, the US Army personnel is not allowed to attend….. MIT I am sorry, at this point, I have no other explanation to what’s happening than an extremely successful Russian sabotage operation. Or that this entire administration is nuts. I mean, 80% of your military equipment would not even be developed, or able to fly, or sail, or move otherwise without MIT

And here is the interview with @RepNancyMace, also worth hearing in its entirety. npr.org/2026/02/12/nx-s1-571…

Here's the interview with @RepJayapal, worth hearing in its entirety. 4/5: npr.org/2026/02/12/nx-s1-571…

A bit of news: Jayapal said "I actually spoke with Mike last night about this," meaning Speaker Mike Johnson, and she believes "there is bipartisan agreement" that they should review files without snooping. 3/5

Next, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal. AG Pam Bondi was photographed at Wednesday's Epstein files hearing with a document labeled “Jayapal Pramila Search History.” "It's completely against the separation of powers. We are supposed to be able to, as lawmakers, go in, review the files, take whatever we want from there, not be surveilled and spied on by the Department of Justice. That was my search history... I think [Bondi] probably opened it up to us on Monday, two days before the hearing so she could see what we were going to search and ask her about." 2/5

On NPR this morning, two lawmakers talk of the DOJ surveilling their searches in the unredacted Epstein files. First, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace: "There is a tech person who logs you into the computer. They log you into the computer because they're giving you your own identification. They are tracking all of the documents that members of Congress open. And they're tracking everything that you do in that room.” 1/5

The law requires Congress to permit a vote on Presidential emergencies within 15 days of being declared. Today the Speaker is trying to pass a resolution that literally says a day is not a day, just to avoid voting on the emergencies that underpin the tariffs. Smoke & mirrors!