Frank Bajak

Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace

The interagency process has atrophied under Mr. Trump, who has dramatically shrunk the size of the National Security Council during his second term, even as the portfolio of international crises has grown. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/u...

Who Loves Turbulence, Airplane Food and the Middle Seat? They Do.

There is a lot of fluff in the NYT these days. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/t...

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Death toll in U.S. military’s high-seas murder of alleged low-level cocaine traffickers begun in Sept now exceeds 131 as media attention wanes. We can’t let this be normalized.

I read right past that ;-)

US needs to impose ‘real costs’ on bad actors, State Department cyber official says At the Munich Cyber Security Conference, senior U.S. officials signaled that a defensive cyber crouch is giving way to something closer to Cold War–style deterrence — an effort to convince adversaries...

More idiotic Trumpian policy: The U.S. is urging allies to align behind “trusted” technologies and coordinated responses even as it steps away from many of the institutions designed to organize that very cooperation.

therecord.media/usa-cyber-ac...

Second US aircraft carrier is being sent to the Middle East, AP source says, as Iran tensions high The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has been ordered to sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East.

Remember when Trump voters believed he would end the Forever Wars?

apnews.com/article/trum...

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FBI Counterterrorism Agents Spent Weeks Seeking a Climate Activist — Then Showed Up at His Door The visit suggests a possible FBI probe into Extinction Rebellion NYC as the Trump administration increases surveillance of activist groups.

SCOOP: An FBI counterterrorism agent spent weeks pursuing a nonviolent climate activist, and showed up at his door. The visit suggests a possible probe into the climate group as the Trump admin increases surveillance of activists, calls them domestic "terrorists."

theintercept.com/2026/02/12/f...

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CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for ‘Tactical Targeting’ US Border Patrol intelligence units will gain access to a face recognition tool built on billions of images scraped from the internet.

NEW: CBP signs a new deal with Clearview AI to access its scraped image database for "tactical targeting," including efforts to “disrupt, degrade, and dismantle” networks of people labeled security threats.

Exactly how much Trump cares about Ukraine.

Harsh enough penalties have yet to be defined for the environmental crimes Trump and his gang are committing.

FDA declines to review Moderna's mRNA flu shot Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration has taken an aggressive stance against mRNA technology.

I genuinely cannot believe the degree to which we are pissing away this generational breakthrough, even given the fuckmuppets who are involved www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Trump administration fails to secure indictment in connection with Democrats involved in 'illegal orders' video President Donald Trump had accused six Democratic lawmakers of "seditious behavior" after they urged members of the military and intelligence communities to refuse unlawful orders.

NEW: Trump DOJ tries, fails to secure indictment over Democratic lawmakers' social media video on unlawful orders. www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

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."

Lawmakers weigh seismic changes to Georgia’s voting equipment Lawmakers introduced ballot-marking devices across the state in 2020. Nearly six years later, some are ready to pivot again.

Georgia still uses Dominion’s ballot-marking digital devices for voting statewide instead of the gold standard for integrity, hand-marked ballots. But how could Maduro have possibly rigged Dominion’s machines in 2020 election? Who is going to believe that? www.gpb.org/news/2025/11...

Dear Ms. Wolfe, Petitioner-Appellee Rümeysa Öztürk submits this Rule 28(j) letter to advise the Court that on January 29, 2026, the immigration court held that the Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving removability, and the immigration court thereby terminated removal proceedings against Ms. Öztürk.' This development underscores the dangers of the government's interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the government's view, it could punitively detain any noncitizen in retaliation for her speech for many months, so long as it simultaneously institutes removal proceedings—no matter how unmeritorious—all without any federal court review of the lawfulness of detention at any time. To be clear, the termination of Ms. Öztürk's removal proceedings does not moot her habeas case. (By contrast, as Ms. Öztürk has argued, this appeal is moot. Br. 18-20.) Without habeas jurisdiction and the bail order that is currently in place, any government appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals would again subject Ms. Öztürk to re-detention. See 8 C.F.R. § 1003.6(a). For that reason, she continues to suffer the threat of continuing "now-or-never" First and Fifth Amendment harms. Br. in Opp. 55-57.

NEW: An immigration court has terminated removal proceedings against Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding that DHS did not meet its burden of establishing that she was removable, her lawyers tell the Second Circuit. live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io/app/uploads/...

I understand Bad Bunny won the Super Bowl. Chévere!

Solid blow-by-blow recap of Bad Bunny's halftime show. Including some English translation and explanations of cultural references.

Inside Olympic Destroyer, the Most Deceptive Hack in History The untold story of how digital detectives unraveled the mystery of Olympic Destroyer—and why the next big cyberattack will be even harder to crack.

Russia has a history of cyberattacks against Olympic games. Remember 2018? cyberlaw.ccdcoe.org/wiki/Olympic...

Russia and Belarus are banned from these Winter Olympics because of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Which makes Russia a natural suspect.

www.bbc.com/sport/articl...

NSA detected phone call between foreign intelligence and a person close to Trump Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff

The Guardian has a rough outline of what the Tulsi whistleblower complaint is about: NSA found someone close to Trump in contact with foreign intelligence, and rather than doing something about that, Tulsi brought the report to Susie Wiles.

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

The broligarchs are winning right now but we must keep the faith because we know who the real losers are and they can’t be permitted to win. Don’t be discouraged. You’ve got audience, sources and huge respect. Looking forward to more great work from you.

This report is based on an anonymous Polish source. So it’s not solid, but makes sense.

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‘Ambasador’ is the Polish spelling. ;-)

WSJ reporter Trofimov on Tom Rose’s very much inappropriate behavior unbefitting of an ambassador to a valued NATO ally.

Former Twitter is ablaze with the U.S. ambassador to Poland insulting and alienating his hosts.

Polish parliament member Roman Giertych tells U.S. Ambassador Tom Rose on former Twitter to respect Polish elected officials or “change your job.” What a terrible embarrassment Rose is.

Trump appoints conservative commentator Thomas Rose as new U.S. ambassador to Poland U.S. President Donald Trump has named Thomas Rose, a conservative columnist and former publisher of The Jerusalem Post, as the new American ambassador to Poland, pending Senate confirmation.

Tom Rose is a former Jerusalem Post publisher and radical right Sirius satellite radio show host who before being named ambassador characterized the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as “the largest Democrat money-laundering operation in history.” www.polskieradio.pl/395/7784/Art...