Clarence Thomas Just Struck Another Blow to Black Power In his majority ruling in a sleeper case about mail delivery, Thomas opened the door to a new way for Republicans to suppress the Black vote.

In an overlooked decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the post office can refuse to deliver your mail, which is KIND OF SIGNIFICANT if you choose to mail your ballot.
To do this work, the anti-democracy wing turned to their favorite “black friend,” Clarence Thomas.

Oregon ICE Activity — Weekly Update (2/26/26) Only One Reported Detention, ICE Agent Threatened to Shoot Someone, and Unions Pressure PDX Electeds

If you want weekly updates on all the news about ICE in Oregon, subscribe to my Substack Last Week in Hell.

I try to keep these tings short while giving updates on detentions, ICE tactics, and the major stories.

Today, we're prepping for Oklahoma's second explicitly anti-trans bill in as many days. We could always use the support to fund the fight for freedom here in Oklahoma.
www.freedomoklahoma.org/donate

We shouldn't be basing higher ed decisions solely on numbers like these because higher ed isn't a business, but we *definitely* shouldn't let people use 'run higher ed like a business' as a pitch and then bury the numbers that show they're killing profitable programs.

Black Residents in West Tennessee Just Won Fairer Districts. Now Comes SCOTUS. - Bolts The Supreme Court may further erode the Voting Rights Act in an upcoming decision. Beyond affecting Congress, that would reverberate across local governments nationwide.

One big takeaway here: when Callais drops, it risks impacting not just *federal* districts and congressional maps, but all sorts of local and state institutions as well.

Here, Mississippi's state supreme court.

In the fall, we reported on how it could impact a county commission in Tennessee:

Mississippi's Black Voters Brace for SCOTUS to Gut Their Political Clout - Bolts Black Mississippians won a key ruling last year in a case that challenges how the state elects supreme court justices. But the U.S. Supreme Court may soon weaken the Voting Rights Act and erase their ...

NEW: Black voters in Mississippi are on the brink of a major victory — a federal judge ordered the state to redraw its state supreme court districts to ensure greater Black representation.

But GOP lawmakers are dragging their feet for now, looking toward SCOTUS & its Callais order to "save" them:

I understand the instinct to donate to orgs that are helping trans folks flee red states but let's not forget about the orgs that are still fighting for trans folks in red states.

The things that gets buried talking about the Kansas thing is... everyone says "just move" every time something like this comes up. And to loose your license? You can't move.

I am currently moving from one state to another right now. Thus far I have used my old state license to:

If you have the means, please donate to the Trans Continental Pipeline right now. They are a Colorado based org that helps trans people relocate and they are overwhelmed with requests. Colorado borders Kansas, and TCP has the infrastructure to help get people out.

tcpipeline.org

In an Intense Election Year, New Post Office Rules Could Trip Up Voter Registration A change in how mail is postmarked could lead some voters to miss key deadlines, including voter registration. Advocates worry the people most affected will be those already facing voting barriers.

“Any mail that’s getting dropped into a blue box is not getting postmarked on the same day, and likely not on the day after either,” says the leader of a postal workers’ union.

This could have tremendous implications for voting:

Came across the phrase "cognitive DDOS" to describe our present culture.

Understood instantly what it meant.

Attention: Men!

it took an expensive, coordinated effort & a lot of people saying “this doesn’t matter” to get from a bathroom ban costing one state $400 million & a gubernatorial race to “trans people must turn in their documents which become invalid in a few hours or face fines & potential jail time” in 10 years.

This is a Nazi move. Stripping people of rights, invalidating their IDs, setting them up for criminalization and imprisonment.

If you don't support trans rights, you support fascism.

Eye-popping margins in the Pennsylvania special elections today:

—Democrats won HD94 by 63 points.
(Harris won it by 30 in 2024.)

—Democrats won HD42 by 35 points.
(Harris won it by 17 in 2024.)

[The 2024 numbers are via the essential @the-downballot.com].

trump is calling for banning congressional stock trading, but he leaves out the key detail: the reason there's a standstill right now is democrats want it to apply to trump and the white house, but trump issued a veto threat over that.

Aliya Rahman, woman who was dragged out of car by ICE in Minneapolis: "I've spent the last month learning the names of the tendons in my shoulder, because both of my shoulders are torn -- cartilage and tendons. But what I haven't learned is the names of the people who did this to me."

“Cut ICE’s budget to restore federal health care funding” is an extremely popular message www.politico.com/f/?id=000001...

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

“The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.”
www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

ORDER Therefore, based on the foregoing, and on all the files, records, and proceedings herein, IT IS ORDERED THAT effective March 1, 2026, Petitioner Fernando T.'s Motion for an Order to Show Cause and Request for Compensatory Sanctions [ECF No. 15] is GRANTED as follows: Respondents are found in civil contempt of this Court's January 20, 2026 Order; Compensatory civil contempt sanctions are awarded in favor of Petitioner in the amount of $568.29, representing Petitioner's documented travel expenses incurred as a direct result of Respondents' violation of the January 20, 2026 Order; and Respondents shall pay the sum of $568.29 to Petitioner (or to Petitioner's counsel if payment was advanced by counsel) on or before April 1, 2026. Dated: February 23, 2026 s/ Eric C. Tostrud Eric C. Tostrud United States District Court

NEW: Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, issued civil contempt sanctions against DOJ today for moving a man out of Minnesota against an order, not releasing him under the timeline ordered, and not returning him to Minnesota.

[h/t @kyledcheney.bsky.social ]

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Twitter: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Here’s last night’s story about Twitter, how it went from bad to worse under Elon Musk, and the real reason why John won’t be tweeting in the future. Hint: it has something to do with his amazing feet. youtu.be/p7ZG_xWYLzI

It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News We now have a full year of data for the Cybertruck, and a strange preponderance of headlines about Cybertrucks exploding into flames, including several fatalities. That’s more than enough data to comp...

The Ford Pinto had a death rate of 85 people for 10 million cars sold. The Cybertruck hasn't sold 10 million, but the fatality rate so far maths out to 1,452 people killed per 10 million sold.

The Cybertruck may be the deadliest road car, for the occupants, ever sold.

fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...

You still have the right to go into the post office and get a same-day postmark at the counter. If you have any doubts at all about whether you'll make the deadline, add some extra time to go into the Post Office, go to the counter, and get your voter registration or ballot hand-stamped!

Newsom’s message to the Democratic Party: Be more ‘culturally normal’ | CNN Politics California Governor Gavin Newsom sits down with CNN’s Dana Bash to talk about the future of the Democratic Party. He says the party should be “less prone to spending disproportionate amount of time on...

Part of the problem with Gavin Newsom is that he's a stupid asshole who listens to stupid asshole right-wing podcasts and invites those stupid asshole right-wingers on his podcast and all of this stupid asshole influence leads him to believe and say stupid asshole right-wing talking points.

The Pentagon will now use Elon Musk's Grok AI on classified projects and weapons development systems.

This comes after Grok drew controversy for producing explicit images of underage girls.

This guy gets it.

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

The trove of files released by the Department of Justice, illuminates Epstein’s deep interest and entrenchment in the scientific community.

But the files also underscore how he used his power and money in ways that kept women out of places where they might succeed. https://bit.ly/4qWgPLz

In an Intense Election Year, New Post Office Rules Could Trip Up Voter Registration - Bolts A change in how mail is postmarked could lead some voters to miss key deadlines, including voter registration. Advocates worry the people most affected will be those already facing voting barriers.

NEW: The USPS changed its rules on how it postmarks ballots.

This may affect elections at every stage at which there's a mail deadline.

An underplayed one: VOTER REGISTRATION.

Many voters who send in their registration forms by mail could be postmarked late, missing out without realizing it.

Again, I know it feels good to send a donation to someone who is finally going to send Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham packing, but you're going to see a *lot* more bang for your buck with less exciting but much more meaningful state legislative races.

This is a great way to do that: