Mike Varak

I wish my brain was as smooth as an NPR Focus Group member

After two weeks of negotiations, it’s clear the Trump administration and Republicans are not serious about reining in this goon-squad violence against American citizens.

It's not a new observation at this point but that wild Noem/Lewandowski story in WSJ really brings home the extent to which all the Trump 2 cabinet-level goblins see their jobs as flying private, doing short-form video, and screaming at underlings. They all hate each other and none of them can read.

I’m still mad that he’s a rapist felon and pedophile fwiw- it’s “baked into the cake” and tastes like absolute shit

38 Londres Street, as read by the author

Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.

More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...

I'd also just add that "if we don't go after immigrants, the fascists will" is the precise language Palantir's CEO has used for years to justify letting the government use his company's authoritarian tech.

He is now an open, unapologetic supporter of this administration.

View looking NE from the Whitefish Point Lighthouse complex, with the lighthouse in the foreground looking over the shoreline of Lake Superior. // Image captured at: 2026-02-12 17:18:03 UTC (about 1 min. prior to this post) // Image sourced from: wmta.org // Current Temp in Whitefish: 20.02 F | -6.66 C // Precip: overcast clouds // Wind: NNE at 3.825 mph | 6.15 kph // Humidity: 76%

Current* conditions near Whitefish, MI:

He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational

A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump was convicted of sexually abusing children A handyman from Florida who received a pardon from President Trump for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted on state charges of child sex abuse and exposing himself to a child.

A handyman from Florida who received a pardon from President Trump for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted on state charges of child sex abuse and exposing himself to a child. n.pr/4tx7oVq

You want to avoid civil unrest? Then leaders need to show people that they actually stand for something! Foremost, for *them!* For protecting their communities - including people convicted of crimes - from a masked paramilitary that has already proven lethally hostile to the community at large!

Trump's EPA will stop regulating greenhouse gases, setting up a legal fight The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating a Clean Air Act finding from 2009 that is the basis for much of the federal government's actions to rein in climate change.

The EPA is eliminating a Clean Air Act finding from 2009 that is the basis for much of the federal government's actions to rein in climate change.

Line graph showing both revenues and spending falling behind old projections.

The most important thing to understand about the debt:

Yes, spending is rising – due to demographics & health care cost growth

But taxes used to be on pace to match that rising spending

Then we cut taxes and now it isn't

Spending is rising slower than expected, so tax cuts bear 100% of the blame

I think maybe the remarkable part is that the US Attorney tried to indict six Democratic elected officials (and veterans) who made a video saying that everyone should follow the law.

Guardian headline 10th feb 2026 ICE List: the small European website exposing US immigration agents Netherlands-based site uses public information and tips to reveal identities of agents involved in crackdowns across US

Dutch site IDs ICE agents via public data

“ICE aren’t actually fearful of their safety…What they’re fearful of is not being invited to baseball games or not being invited to the pub with their friends. Community exclusion – that’s what they’re fearful of”

wiki.icelist.is/index.php/Category:Agents

This is the second time an ICE employee has been arrested in in a Bloomington, MN underage sex trafficking sting www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

“If Megyn Kelly and other MAGA folks gave up their rage and fear, what would they have left?”

The official GOP platform

SSW view from Alpena Lighthouse with left entrance to Thunder Bay River in foreground and Lake Huron in the distance. // Image captured at: 2026-02-11 00:20:01 UTC (about 23 min. prior to this post) // Image sourced from: glerl.noaa.gov/metdata/apn/ // Current Temp in Alpena: 32.14 F | .08 C // Precip: overcast clouds // Wind: NNW at 11.006 mph | 17.71 kph // Humidity: 89%

Current* conditions near Alpena, MI:

Here is my conclusion after sitting through Maxwell's deposition with her refusing to answer a single question about the men who raped underage girls, saying she would only do so for clemency.

She must immediately be sent back to the maximum security prison where she belongs.

When a sitting representative refers to the Super Bowl halftime show as “pornography,” people should use that to reflect on how they and other representatives are simultaneously working to ban, censor, and restrict “pornography” and what that actually means

Hundreds of millions spent on human misery

"It's OK to Be White" has been a slogan for literal Nazis for some time now, if you want to know where the Republican Party is at the moment

Measles on the rise.
Masked agents in the street.
The President seizing ballots.

This is America under Donald Trump. We deserve better.

It really pays to remind ourselves frequently that this whole immigration "crisis" is made up out of whole cloth. There was no emergency,danger or problem, only a demagogue stirring up racist grievances for political advantage.

Marabou Stork

DOCTOR: Your test results are back and it turns out you’re a fucked up mangy bald bird with a big weird nutsack neck. It’s a pretty bad situation. You should check out the great clown, Pagliacci.

ME (The Great Clown Pagliacci):

Just a little whoopsie-doopsie

The number of people currently in ICE custody is now over 73,000, the most in history.

Your reminder that ICE is a for-profit industry and the companies profiting are huge donors to the politicians who voted to continue funding ICE.