Elle Fire

JD Vance’s joke bombed massively at today’s Board of Peace meeting. Totally humiliating. But it also illustrates a larger point: There’s a reason MAGA can’t be funny. It’s because every single trait that defines a person with humor—these are traits we value highly— is a trait they do not possess.

This thread about how the Trump administration is trying to give us to symbolic victories instead of making any substantive changes to ICE is now an op-ed.

Missouri volunteers say they were harassed by paid GOP canvassers. It’s likely the same group accused of forging signatures in Utah “They were like, ‘Actually, no. We’re here to stop you from getting signatures.’”

When a Missouri volunteer asked two men to sign a petition to block the state's GOP congressional gerrymander, he wasn't expecting them to say:
“Actually, no. We’re here to stop you.”

But the duo belonged to the MAGA-aligned political firm behind some of Republicans' biggest map rigging efforts.

No one wants this, @substack.

A man claims his grandmother in Colombia—a former housekeeper at Epstein’s Manhattan home—kept hidden memory cards, photos, and tapes when she was fired. He says it includes child abuse evidence, and both ABC and Fox refused to release it. If true, she may be holding what investigators searched for.

If the White House ever tries to interfere with the vote, outrage won’t be enough. Here’s why...and how... Senator Ruben Gallego's suggested shutdown threat works...and how to make it disciplined, strategic, and impossible to ignore.
www.jackhopkinsnow.com

I received notification of yet another death at an ICE facility, meaning 38 people have died in custody since Trump returned to office.

ICE is failing to ensure the health and safety of the people it is responsible for.

We need immediate oversight of this entire operation.

Trump: "I want to let you know that United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace." (Congress has not appropriated this money!)

Since there is so much crap going on here is Dick Van Dyke at 100 years of age:

More below.

Solar industry accelerates shift from silver as costs soar Solar panel producers are intensifying efforts to replace silver with alternatives such as copper after silver rallied 130% over the past year, squeezing margins already under pressure from production...

Solar industry accelerates shift from silver as costs soar - www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

The “optimizing” trend is all about shifting responsibility for health onto the individual and profiting from it.

You can do everything “right” and still get cancer. Ask me how I know.

Picture via a CNN reporter of a banner with Trump’s face going up on outside of DOJ building

Biden would’ve been instantly impeached in a bipartisan vote if he put his face on the freakin’ Department of Justice building

Polish Prime Minister launches investigation into Epstein files.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admits that the DOJ excluded all images showing “death, physical abuse, or injury” from Epstein files release.
DEATH? The truth is probably far worse than anyone can imagine.

Personally, I think it’s bad that a wildly corrupt pedophile with dementia is President of the United States and is trying to make himself dictator for life.

They vilified him for :: checks notes:: ordering the torture of a brown man in his charge that directly led to that man’s death.

Definitely has some type of a “vibe” 😵‍💫

ICE drawdown? Indications point to steady enforcement activity outside the Twin Cities Some people who observe ICE activity are skeptical about a large scale drawdown of agents in the state. There are indications that activity has decreased in the Twin Cities, but has continued outside ...

Two female ICE agents popped the hood of their car and knocked on the door of a mechanic born in Mexico. He went out to help.

“A bunch of agents jump out and tackle him, essentially restraining him, and take him away...His six kids are now without their father." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

As everyone marvels that a parliamentary constitutional monarchy is better at elite accountability than competitive authoritarian presidentialism, I'm reminded of @dylanmatt.bsky.social's very good 2019 piece that makes lots of Americans (though not this immigrant native 🇨🇦) instinctively very angry.

Norms and precedents turned out to be weak guardrails incapable of standing up to first, extreme negative partisanship, and second, looters willing to ride that negative partisanship to a license to loot the republic.

A majority of the 16 U.S. states under total Democratic control now ban 287(g) partnerships with ICE. Maryland and New Mexico just joined that list, following Maine in January.

I wrote about this landscape and these new reforms in @boltsmag.org:

boltsmag.org/maryland-new...

Americans aren't illiterate apolitical 1940s German farmers living far from any camp(s) and arguably (notionally) ignorant of what's being done in their name.

It's 2026. Americans will never—ever—be able to say we didn't know Trump was putting innocents into concentration camps.

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it a thousand times more: If you believe you love freedom but don’t care if it applies to everyone, what you actually love is privilege.

Russell Vought, Trump’s Shadow President From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that inside...

"The Shadow President," @andykroll.bsky.social's deep dive into Russell Vought, has just won a George Polk award for political reporting.

The piece chronicles Vought’s rise from the Senate mailroom to his position as one of the most influential players in the Trump administration.

Read it here:

Justice for Dr. Linda Davis. ICE must be held accountable for the deadly chain of events and the cruel aftermath.

Her memory lives on in every life she touched.

“Mitigating factor: bad at planning your own insurrection” is an incredible court ruling

Trump’s Sons Say Their Open Corruption Is Our Fault Instead of denying the corruption accusations, Donald Jr. and Eric tried to shift the blame.

Trump’s Sons Say Their Open Corruption Is Our Fault newrepublic.com/post/206737/... via @newrepublic.com

Alternate headline: “47% lie to pollsters”

I find it frustrating that the left has been characterized as more prone to scolding when the right’s entire culture is built on an openly insidious kind of scolding