Jeri Costa

The Sunday Morning Wrap-Up Here’s the highlight reel of the past week’s posts and events.

In case you missed anything, here are all of the past week’s columns from Civil Discourse, collected in one place.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

“.. A woman who claims she was abused as a minor by both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump has given the FBI vivid accounts that include aspects of her life corroborated by the The Post and Courier through public records.”

@postandcourier.bsky.social
www.postandcourier.com/news/epstein...

Attempted suicides, fights, pain: 911 calls reveal misery at ICE’s largest detention facility The calls to 911 poured in from staff at Camp East Montana, the nation's largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, in its first months of operation in El Paso, Texas.

"At one point he said he overheard a security guard talking about bets made among the staff over which detainee would be next to die by suicide. The guard said he had paid $500 into a pool, with the total pot riding on the outcome."

Trump looks increasingly desperate to restrict voting rights He is now threatening not to sign any other bills until Congress passes the SAVE America Act.

Trump's looks increasingly desperate to restrict Americans' voting rights. Here's his latest threat targeting the November midterms:

The Oligarchical Corridor A Source of War

If we examine the origins of the war on Iran, we get an inkling of a closed domain of international oligarchs, exploiting the state’s power and patriotic sentiment, while creating a world order in which the American state is much weaker. An oligarchical corridor.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-oligar...

New footage yet again contradicts DHS claims about its killing of a US citizen Body camera video obtained by CBS News in the Ruben Ray Martinez case is another example of the administration misrepresenting lethal action from immigration agents.

Body camera footage newly obtained by CBS News shows the moments leading up to and after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot US citizen Ruben Ray Martinez in March 2025 and contradicts the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the killing.

Trump told us who he was in 2012. Will we finally believe him today? Trump has always been an election denier. He has always vilified voting. He has always started with lies, escalated to the courts, and ultimately embraced violent rhetoric.

Everyone knows Donald Trump has been an election denier since 2020. Some know that about 2016. But few know that it started in 2012.

After Obama won, Trump posted: “Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice!”

Read and share.
www.democracydocket.com/opinion/trum...

This is the man Senators who present themselves as serious human beings are going to rubber stamp into the office of Director of Homeland Security. Show some self-respect and some love of country and vote no.

Regardless of the wisdom of war in Iran, Chicago archbishop reminds us of the harm to our own humanity when we revel in the suffering of others.

DHS wants to build a system to surveil Americans’ travel records Previously unreported documents show the agency has asked companies for input. Last year, a similar program was shuttered over public outcry.

SCOOP: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Secret Service want to build a tool for tracking US travelers’ flights and other personal information, according to previously unreported documents reviewed by Mother Jones.

This week at Democracy Docket: To pass SAVE, Trump targets trans people — while Texas Republicans try a voter suppression test run President Donald Trump and his allies are doing everything they can — and we mean everything — to somehow get their monster voter suppression bill through Congress. And no one is covering this epic fi...

President Donald Trump and his allies are doing everything they can — and we mean everything — to somehow get their monster voter suppression bill through Congress. And no one is covering this epic fight as closely as Democracy Docket. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Inside the latest, and scariest, iteration of America’s endless abortion wars After Trump’s mass pardons of anti-abortion activists, threats and harassment at clinics have surged.

“I have a bomb, I have a bomb. Don’t let anyone in or out of the clinic, or I’ll set it off.”

After Trump’s mass pardons of anti-abortion activists, threats and harassment at clinics have surged.

Iran’s people were facing a horrible shortage of water before the war began. If we are destroying desalination plants and setting fire to Teheran we are committing unfathomable crimes.

DOJ Removed Record of Multiple FBI Interviews with Underage Trump Accuser, Epstein Data Shows The FBI spoke at least four times with a woman who credibly accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor, Epstein files show. That document is no longer accessible on the DOJ website.

NEWS: The FBI interviewed an Epstein victim who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was underage not once — but at least FOUR times. But the document that shows those additional interviews appears to have been deleted from the DOJ website. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Ted Lieu: “Donald Trump is in the Epstein files thousands and thousands of times. In those files, there are highly disturbing allegations of Donald Trump raping children … of Donald Trump threatening to kill children. So I encourage the press to go look at these allegations.”

Dan Koh: In the last year, this leader tried to take sovereign land unilaterally, use the justice system to jail enemies, & actively shut down independent media voices

That was Vladimir Putin—the fact that so many ppl thought I was describing Trump right now shows how much our democracy is at risk

FBI will not provide the BCA access to evidence gathered from Pretti shooting, BCA says Minnesota criminal investigators have again been denied access to evidence and other materials collected by federal authorities after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, state officials said Monday.

FBI refusing to share Alex Pretti shooting evidence with state investigators. "BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said Monday that the FBI formally notified the state on Friday that it won’t grant the access." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Tens of thousands of new mothers have been flagged to police over unreliable drug tests The Marshall Project found more than 70,000 cases referred to law enforcement over allegations of substance use during pregnancy—and that’s a significant undercount.

During her third pregnancy, Ayanna Harris-Rashid had used legal CBD gummies and a hemp-based ointment to ease her pain and nausea. At the hospital, she and the baby tested positive for marijuana, prompting providers to file a report with social services.

She was charged with felony child neglect.

There must be trials. Not as an emotive aspiration, rhetorical meme, or empty threat. A concrete plan. A dedicated special court for it. Structural legislation and prosecutors and funding and all the rest of it. Everything necessary for it can be done constitutionally. All it takes is the will.

Dozens of Minnesota GOP lawmakers propose bill to criminalize residential protesting If passed, the bill would allow for misdemeanor charges in demonstrations outside a person's home.

Dozens of Minnesota GOP lawmakers propose bill to criminalize residential protesting
#MN #ICEOUT #1A #FDT #WalterHudson
www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Sounds to me like lil’ Ron is in some deep sh*t. 💩

NEW: ICE Confiscates Children's Letters at Dilley Concentration Camp. I've filed a FOIA Request to Get Them ProPublica recently published heart-wrenching letters from children at Dilley. ICE then raided the dormitories to confiscate and destroy those letters. I've filed a Freedom of Information Act Request.

NEW: ICE has raided dormitories at the Dilley concentration camp to confiscate letters from children per @pabloreports.bsky.social. I have filed a FOIA request for them. @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social: the second we get anything, we will send it to you. 1/ www.muellershewrote.com/p/new-ice-co...

Just disgusting. Blame the GOP but Red voters just don’t get that the bottom 95 percent is carrying the top 5 percent.

Tony

Please join me and @acslaw.bsky.social for an online conversation on Feb 24 at noon about restoring the rule of law. You can register here.
getinvolved.acslaw.org/component/ev...

Systems and Power: Lessons From Those Who Came Before Us · Indivisible Celebrate Black history and leadership by examining how past organizers built resilient movements. Explore systemic power structures and inequities, and translate historical lessons into contemporary ...

I'm attending Indivisible's event, “Systems and Power: Lessons From Those Who Came Before Us” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. The decisions amount to a huge legal rebuke, but the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely.

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.

JFC, cut that shit in half and you’ve eradicated hunger, provided healthcare for all and made education free for all Americans. What the fuck are we doing?

Sen. Bill Hagerty says Republicans are looking at weakening the filibuster to ram the SAVE America Act through the Senate (Trump, who has called for "nationalizing" elections, has been pushing hard for the bill ahead of the midterms)

👀 👀

ABC: Do you still have confidence in Pam Bondi as AG?

MASSIE: I don't think Pam Bondi has confidence in Pam Bondi. She wasn't confident enough to engage in anything but name calling in a hearing. So no, I don't. She was responsible for the document production.