Smart Dissent

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislatu…

Colbert posted the interview online. I do wonder if CBS and the FCC are aware of the Streisand effect? The interview has been up for 8 hours and has just over half a million views.

South Jersey guy becomes the face of ICE resistance | Will Bunch Newsletter Last Friday, Joseph Zobel, “an average Joe who grew up in Haddon Heights” saw a video that shocked him. First interview with the ICE protester whose viral video reaction has been seen 3 million times.

SCOOP: I have the first interview with the 36-year-old South Jersey man whose tearful protest against an ICE raid at a school bus stop has been watched more than 3 million times

How a non-political Eagles fan Everyman became the face of ICE resistance

My new column www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...

Here is what Democracy Docket is tracking for you today:

Active Voting Rights Cases: 166
Active Redistricting Cases: 49
Active Anti-Voting Cases: 89
Active Pro-Voting Cases: 73
Active DOJ Lawsuits: 24

Stay informed. Subscribe today. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

Major media have decided that openly racist members of Congress are normal now, not worth writing about.

If Trump's seizure of Venezuela's oil is simply "diplomacy," so were Bonnie and Clyde's visits to banks.

Federal government may seek removal of individual Alaskans from state voter rolls | Alaska Beacon A memo signed by the head of the Division of Elections in December, says the state must clean its voter roll of people identified by the DOJ.

Some red states have agreed to hand over their voter rolls to Pam Bondi's DOJ *and* let the DOJ identify specific individuals that should be removed from the voter rolls, the Alaska Beacon reports as this is the case in Alaska: alaskabeacon.com/2026/02/13/a...

Susan Collins says she's in favor of the SAVE Act, which is the Trump push to overhaul how elections are administered. wgme.com/news/local/c...

The bill would impose voter ID requirements... which Mainers literally just rejected in a referendum in November. boltsmag.org/five-ways-20...

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to leave Trump administration The move comes as public opinion has turned on the administration’s hardline immigration policies.

Breaking Politico:

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's spokesperson and a known spreader of disinformation, is expected to inform colleagues Tuesday that she's leaving DHS.
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings Internal agency emails show a surge in reports of ICE officers using more force going back nearly a year, but DHS leadership did not see it as a concern to be addressed.

According to internal emails obtained as part of a FOIA request, top ICE officials knew as early as March 2025 that officers were using dramatically more force against civilians and the targets of enforcement operations — months before federal officers shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month.

Coverage of Andy Barr, a sitting Congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate, running an ad declaring, "It's not a sin to be white" -- a variation of a notorious white nationalist slogan

AP: Zero
NYT: Zero
WashPost: Zero
Reuters: Zero
Politico: Zero
Axios: Zero

The Feds Targeted Charlotte. Now a Local Democrat Who Helped ICE Faces Voters. - Bolts North Carolina lawmaker Carla Cunningham voted to mandate compliance with ICE, and derided immigrants on the House floor. The Democrat faces an intense March primary.

NEW: When North Carolina's GOP wanted to pass a bill last year to require that local governments comply with ICE, they were one vote down.

A Democratic lawmaker gave that decisive vote—as she has on other GOP bills.

Now, she faces a primary challenge from a progressive activist... in 14 days.

This is interesting. In other words, Minneapolis is producing an overall strengthening of the social contract, including towards the undocumented. That's a stark rebuttal to MAGA theory, which holds that the silent majority agrees that foreign invaders threaten national social cohesion

America has lost a titan in the struggle for civil rights and racial justice. From his days at the side of Dr. King, to his moral leadership in this century, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. spent his life pushing our nation closer to its own ideal.

Yes, exactly this. There's a major opening here: All the attention to ICE brutality has awakened people to their social, economic, and communal ties to immigrants in their midst, which should allow Dems to restate the case for making it easier for them to get right with the law:

Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month.

8. Popular Information contacted all 67 corporate PAC donors to Barr’s Senate campaign for comment, including Ally Bank, Goldman Sachs, Toyota, TD Bank, Comcast, AllState, Delta, Capital One, and American Express.

All either declined to comment or did not respond.

7. Barr’s Senate campaign has raised nearly $1.4 million from PACs, including dozens of PACs representing corporations and trade associations.

A Popular Information review of Barr’s filings with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) revealed contributions from at least 67 major corporations.

Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month.

6. Barr’s campaign announced it would spend $1 million to promote the ad across Kentucky on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms. Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is Black, is Barr’s top Republican primary opponent.

5. Barr decries “woke liberals,” the ad features a still image of a Black man in a Martin Luther King Jr. t-shirt, holding a sign that reads “Stay Woke America.”

4. The purpose of the 2017 campaign was to “trigger“ liberals and journalists with a purportedly innocuous phrase.

The Barr campaign appears to have similar goals.

Barr concludes the ad by stating, “I’m Andy Barr, and I approve this message to give woke liberals something else to cry about.”

3. “It’s OK to be white,” sometimes abbreviated as IOTBW, was popularized on the notoriously racist message board 4chan in 2017.

It was then adopted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Former KKK grand wizard David Duke, a prominent white supremacist, promoted the campaign.

2. In the ad, Barr speaks directly to the camera and declares, “It’s not a sin to be white.”

The language used by Barr is a variation of the phrase “It’s OK to be white,” which has been adopted by white supremacists.

It has been designated as a “hate slogan“ by the Anti-Defamation League.

Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month.

1. Major corporations — including General Motors, State Farm, JPMorgan Chase, Delta, and Microsoft — are bankrolling a political ad from Senate candidate Andy Barr featuring a white nationalist slogan.

Colbert Doesn’t Give an FCC About Calling Out CBS

Stephen Colbert says he was told by CBS lawyers "in no uncertain terms" that he could not have Texas State Rep. James Talarico on his program.

"Because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this."

Jesse Jackson, longtime civil rights leader and presidential candidate, has died The civil rights leader died "peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has died. He was 84.

A bipartisan warning on Fulton: Don’t relitigate 2020 election Two former Georgia leaders — Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes and Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss — warn that elections raid in Fulton County could backfire.

As Republicans weigh whether to move toward a state takeover of Fulton County’s elections, two former Georgia powerbrokers from opposite parties issued a joint warning: Don’t relitigate 2020 — and don’t bend the law to do it.
www.ajc.com/politics/202...

How the Kakistocracy Became a Quackistocracy Corruption is a germ’s best friend

To understand the catastrophic turn in U.S. health policy, follow the money paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-the-ka...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson has died. He was 84.

A photo of Linda Davis, surrounded by a reef

Linda Davis, a K-8 teacher in Savannah, Georgia, was killed in a car crash by a man fleeing ICE

Local authorities said they were unaware of any ICE operations in the area. "We have a no chase policy," a county chairman said

www.wtoc.com/2026/02/16/s...

Good grief. Everyone knows they were just friends.