Burck Smith

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman

"The most effective consumer boycotts in history share two qualities: they are narrow and they are easy," writes @rutgerbregman.com

Close to 650 federal agents remain in Minnesota weeks after border czar announced end of operation There are still more than quadruple the 150 agents Tom Homan said there would be in the state by the end of last week.

They’re still lying to us.

www.startribune.com/close-to-650...

Horrifying. Jesus Lord in heaven.

Exclusive | Trump Administration to Drop Defense of Law Firm Sanctions The Justice Dept. plans to abandon its defense of the president’s executive orders that targeted Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey.

Those big law firms never needed to cave but they caved. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Today's news is a shocking betrayal of the FIFA Peace Prize and everything it stands for.

Deadline looms as Anthropic rejects Pentagon demands it remove AI safeguards The Defense Department has been feuding with Anthropic over military uses of its artificial intelligence tools. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and access to some of the most advanced AI on the planet.

The Defense Department has been feuding with Anthropic over military uses of its artificial intelligence tools. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and access to some of the most advanced AI on the planet. n.pr/47fLZ9N

Kara called it
bsky.app/profile/thef...

ICE agents misrepresented themselves to arrest a student at Columbia, lawyers say Columbia University says federal immigration agents entered a residence hall under the guise of searching for a missing person and then arrested Ellie Aghayeva, a student from Azerbaijan.

Columbia University says federal immigration agents entered a residence hall under the guise of searching for a missing person and then arrested Ellie Aghayeva, a student from Azerbaijan. n.pr/3OAlkhD

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

The Epstein files published by DOJ briefly mention a woman’s unverified accusation that President Trump assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was a minor. But several key FBI memos related to the woman's account have not been released.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo. A nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol miles from his home dies in Buffalo after having been missing for nearly a week.

This blind man - a refugee from Burma - was dropped off by Border Patrol at a Tim Horton's in Buffalo, NY.

In the middle of February.
A mile from a home where he no longer lived.
While his relatives were searching for him.

Cops found his body 5 days later

www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump Documents released by the Justice Department briefly mention a woman’s unverified accusation that Donald J. Trump assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was a minor. But several memos related to her account are not in the files.

Breaking News: The Justice Department did not release key records in the Epstein files about a woman who made an unverified accusation against Donald Trump. In 2019, the woman said she had been sexually assaulted by Trump and Jeffrey Epstein decades earlier, when she was a minor.

A White House Staffer Appears to Run Massive Pro-Trump X Account A popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes "a masterpiece" appears to be run by a White House staffer, according to records reviewed by WIRED.

SCOOP: An X account called Johnny MAGA with 300k followers that described the Obamas-as-apes video as "a masterpiece" appears to be a sockpuppet account for a White House rapid-reaction staffer. @makenakelly.bsky.social has all the details:

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.

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

A U.S. veteran adopted an orphan from Iran. Decades later, ICE is trying to deport her The woman has no criminal record and is unsure what prompted the threat of removal. She fears being deported to Iran given her father's military service and her Christian faith.

The woman has no criminal record and is unsure what prompted the threat of removal. She fears being deported to Iran given her father's military service and her Christian faith. n.pr/4rB8gap

Kash Patel says he now has a lead that Savannah Guthrie's mom is being held at either the NCAA Final Four or the Masters golf tournament, plans to personally investigate.

A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers Observers watching federal immigration enforcement in Maine who were told by agents they were "domestic terrorists" and would be added to a "database" or "watchlist" are now part of a new federal class action lawsuit.

Observers watching federal immigration enforcement in Maine who were told by agents they were "domestic terrorists" and would be added to a "database" or "watchlist" are now part of a new federal class action lawsuit. n.pr/4s6JWgo

Pretty amazing that comms person at FBI called my @ms.now colleague @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social a liar and demand a correction only for Kash to post a photo from the locker room

The FBI Director, everyone. You paid for it.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A Fatal ICE Shooting Occurred in Texas Months Before Renee Good’s Killing

This case is insane:

ICE shot and killed a citizen last March then *hid it for a year.*

The young man they killed had no criminal history.

All we know about shooting is from internal ICE docs.

We don't know officers' names.

We don't have footage.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...

Today’s Supreme Court ruling reaffirms that only Congress has the constitutional authority to impose tariffs, and the President can only do so under a clear and limited delegation of authority from Congress. My votes against the President unilaterally imposing tariffs on Canada reflected the same conclusion as well as my belief that these tariffs often harm Maine’s economy and consumers.

Susan Collins praises the Sup Ct ruling on tariffs...but she refused to lift a finger to kill the policy; declined to sign a legal brief arguing they were illegal; and actually PRAISED Trump for "working very hard" on the issue.

Behavior of a pundit -- not a senator with actual power. #MEpolitics

Today in "Marginal income, wealth, & capital gains taxes are too low & this poses an existential threat to American democracy."

President Obama: "When I was president, I suppose I could have simply unilaterally ordered the military to go into some red state and harass and intimidate a governor there or cut off funding for states that didn't vote for me... but that is contrary to how I think our democracy is supposed to work"

CCTV footage appears to show DHS agents posing as people having car trouble in order to lure a target out of his house before arresting them. The target comes out and starts helping them before 3 vehicles surround the scene. The car "experiencing" trouble then drives off with them.

DHS says immigration agents appear to have lied about shooting in Minnesota Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg during the incident. Another Venezuelan man was also accused of attacking an immigration officer.

Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg during the incident. Another Venezuelan man was also accused of attacking an immigration officer.

This is what Kristi Noem said when this incident happened: “What we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.”

Congresswoman Uses Simple Math To Show How Broken ICE Is

A stunning detail the ICE chief shared in this hearing that was supposed to be a brag, except it isn't: ICE has arrested 379,000 people between Jan. 2025-Jan. 2026 -- but only 8,700 were suspected gang members or known suspected terrorists.

That's 2%! www.huffpost.com/entry/latest...

US Olympic Curling Team member speaks out against ICE:

"I'm proud to represent Team USA. But we'd be remiss if we didn't mention what's going on in Minnesota and what a tough time it's been. What's happening is wrong. There's no shades of gray."

Thune’s plan has been obvious - drag this out as long as possible to put distance between the Pretti/Good murders and the final vote on DHS funding, hoping that the American public moves on. Senate Dems will never have more leverage for ICE reforms than they do right now.

Immigrant whose skull was broken in 8 places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked Alberto Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized with eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages. Officers claimed he ran into a wall, but medical staff doubted that account.

Alberto Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized with eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages. Officers claimed he ran into a wall, but medical staff doubted that account. n.pr/4bHoZDU