Danielle Oster

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.

This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

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...

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

Social media sites subpoenaed for identities behind anti-ICE accounts. "[DHS] is... sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

This response is notably not a “no”: “When asked by The Hill if Gallup had received any feedback from the White House or anyone in the current administration before making the decision, the spokesperson said, ‘this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.’

this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me

photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

Jamie Raskin accuses DoJ of cover-up after viewing unredacted Epstein files Ranking member of House judiciary panel said ‘mysterious redactions’ in files obscured names of abusers

In the least shocking news ever, the DOJ illegally redacted Trump's name from manyEpstein files. [And of course that doesn't count the ones they just didn't release because they are about Trump]

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

The cover for Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut album: an illustration of a cityscape over a beige background, with the bands’ name in red font above.

This one probably gets my vote. #5debutalbums50s6

ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy r...

NEW: Records reviewed by WIRED show DHS’s facial recognition app (Mobile Fortify) isn’t designed to actually "verify" identity—despite DHS claims and its agents relying on its matches to support probable cause in the field.

One year ago, the Trump administration made one of its first official priorities removing perfectly capable trans folk from military service, declaring trans people as being incapable of living the "honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle" that military service provides. Last month, a DC circuit panel upheld that ban, citing *US V. Skrmetti* as precedent. (Image description: A facsimile of the Pentagon-issued memo "Additional Guidance on Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness". The words "gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service." are highlighted.) Despite the current bollocks, there is historical evidence for trans folk serving with valor on behalf of the United States as far back as the Civil War; although, seeing as the two most credible examples in that conflict served for the Union, it makes sense that this crop of fascists would complain about it not counting. Y'know, the Southern Strategy and all that.

The United States is tearing itself apart, and the occupying forces have made it clear that queer folk and minorities have no stake in this new world. Nearly a century and a half ago, a trans man for the Union sent his own response to that sentiment in lead.
Comic by @piperbomb.bsky.social

The Cowardice Of American Medicine On Trans Youth Care After capitulation by hospitals across the country, the ASPS and AMA have both thrown trans kids under the bus on surgical care.

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social l 2026 Feb 6 EITM
Reed eviscerates Amer. Society of Plastic Surgeons for throwing trans kids under the bus noting ASPS donates heavily to Reps, their President is big Rep donor, & they didn't even go for age 18 but 19-- which just coincidentally is in Trump Exec. Order. 1/2

Seth Harp @sethharpesq X.com Ross Douthat @DouthatNYT challenged me to a debate on foreign policy. We recorded a 90-minute segment for his show, Interesting Times, on 1/15/26. But I defeated him so decisively that he refuses to air the footage. What an absolute coward. Today 11:41 AM Hi Is the NYT still planning to publish the interview I did with Ross three weeks ago? Today 1:01 PM Hey Seth, we've been working through the edit and it's looking like we aren't going to be able to make it work. We were kind of pummeled by the news cycle in the last 6 weeks and are going to pivot away from this story. Thanks for the time you put into it and for your expertise. Unbelievable cowardice on Ross's part and a giant waste of my time. I'm going to make it known what actually happened: Ross challenged me to a debate on foreign policy, got crushed, and doesn't have the intellectual or journalistic integrity to air the footage. Delivered

Seth Harp @sethharpesq. •6h Five days after we recorded, an editor of mine asked me how it went. I told her that @DouthatNYT was surprisingly unprepared to defend his point of view, and I suspected even then that they would spike it. From To seth.harp@protonmail.com * T Jan 20 凹 了 介 → It seemed to go just fine from my perspective although it did get a little heated towards the end when we debated foreign policy. I was somewhat surprised that Ross wasn't better prepared defend his point of view. They may still decide to spike it, we'll see. SH Sent with Proton Mail secure email. ••• On Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 11:41 AM, wrote: That's great —how did the interview go? {7 54 • 1.3K ill 38K

Seth Harp @sethharpesq. 5h I also told an editor at Harper's, on 1/30/26, that I suspected the NYT would spike the interview rather than publish video of me dog-walking @DouthatNYT and making a mockery of his defense of US regime-change wars ... Friday 12:35 PM It's been more than 2 weeks since I was interviewed for Ross Douthat's show. I murdered him in our debate over foreign policy and was genuinely surprised that he wasn't better prepared to defend his point of view. Now I'm concerned that he will spike the episode. Do you have a sense of how far ahead they usually record? Also I really hope I get to hear this My sense was that it was about a week Suspicious 4 17 44 • 1K thl 32K 贝 企 Seth Harp @sethharpesq. •5h Ross @DouthatNYT was unprepared to take on a subject matter expert, floundered around, and became irritable and sarcastic towards the end. But spiking the episode is ten times worse for his journalistic credibility than simply losing a debate, which happens to us all.

Seth Harp @sethharpesq. 5h ... Ross @DouthatNYT's producer blames their decision to spike our foreign policy debate on the crazy news cycle. But the last three episodes they've aired have been on Roe v. Wade, Covid-19, and young men's church attendance. OPINION Interesting Latest Feb. 5, 2026 Interesting Times with Ross Douthat The first draft of our future. Mapping the new world order through interviews and conversations. Every Thursday, from New York Times Opinion. Q Search Why Ending Roe Wasn't Enough for the Pro-Life Movement Activists won the legal battle. Are they losing the culture war? By ROSS DOUTHAT Jan. 29.2026 A Plan to Restore Trust in Science From a 'Fringe Epidemiologist' Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, says authorities broke the public's trust in the Covid era. Now it's up to outsiders to restore it. By ROSS DOUTHAT and SOPHIA ALVAREZ BOYD Jan. 22,2026 No, Young Men Are Not Returning to Church All the religious trends you're wrong about. By ROSS DOUTHAT and ANDREA BETANZOS 18 17 75 1.5K ill 38K Seth Harp @sethharpesq. 1h I'm hearing that prominent guests are cancelling scheduled appearances on @DouthatNYT's show due to his lack of journalistic integrity. Why would you spend hours, days, or weeks prepping for an interview when you know the show is rigged to ensure that you don't show up the host? 3 223 ill 4.4K 贝

👀 Apparently, Ross Douthat invited Seth Harp to debate him on Douthat's "Interesting Times" NYT podcast. Harp says that the episode was recorded, Douthat got crushed, and RD/NYT decided not to publish it.

What? x.com/sethharpesq/...

Reporting on the Olympics & anticipated IOC rules changes re: gender have been dogshit. Stories tend to mention “controversy” around 2 women boxers in 2024 but not that neither are trans, withhold the context that the only trans woman Olympian, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, placed last in her group.

Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a Klansman in 1963.

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"

Abolish ICE.

There’s no reforming it.

There’s no compromise.

There’s only one way to rein in ICE’s terror campaign. Abolish it.

She was obsessed with monitoring her reputation online. In addition to reportedly having her staff create burner accounts to defend her, Mace allegedly instructed a staffer to go on Reddit forums about the “hottest women in Congress” to boost her standing in the rankings and comment where needed. Mace was “very adamant” about getting the staffer to upvote any posts about the congresswoman and her attractiveness, according to a second former staffer.

lol nymag.com/intelligence...

Highspire, Trillion, Winter, and The Stargazer Lilies (in addition to many already mentioned here)

Elon Musk is claiming he’s risked everything to protect kids from sexual abuse mere weeks out from laughing while his AI chatbot was generating nearly 8,000 sexual abuse images per hour that overwhelmingly targeted girls and young women

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

This article is a very good example of why "more training" and "more vetting" isn't the answer. Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez joined Border Patrol in 2018 and 2014 respectively. These aren't new agents. www.propublica.org/article/alex...

It’s been 8 days and we still don’t know the names of the men who murdered Alex Pretti.

DHS must be abolished. No ICE. No palantir surveillance police state.

There’s no “fixing” a sociopathic agency designed to trample on our freedoms.

A screenshot of a ProPublica story: “On my first day out reporting, I came upon an incident that had been unfolding for over an hour. Late in the afternoon on Thursday, Jan. 22, three construction workers clung to a roof, bracing themselves against the slanted plywood of an unfinished two-story house on the far south side of Minneapolis. Federal agents had massed in the house and in cars on the street, conducting a raid on the construction site. The agents called for the workers to come down. They refused. They stayed on the roof, exposed to the elements in negative 4 degree weather.”

I pointed this out in my newsletter but this tactic of ICE agents surrounding construction workers while they are roofing seems too common to be an accident. It happened again in Minnesota, per ProPublica

I know too much about what we do to incarcerated children in the U.S. I started and ran an organization focused on this for almost 15 years. Immigrant children are being treated terribly.

A photo of a child wearing a hat

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Judge orders US to release father and 5-year-old taken into custody during Minnesota immigration crackdown.

So what I’m gathering is a pedophilic billionaire successfully worked to destigmatize race science among the academic, political, and business elite partly by sex trafficking girls. Is that the shape of it so far?

Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care Health care providers in Minnesota said pregnant patients are having more complications linked to stress. But fear of immigration agents is keeping them from prenatal care.

Citing fear of ICE, pregnant immigrants in Minnesota are

-skipping prenatal care
-requesting home births, even when not medically advised
-going w/o adequate food

Many are experiencing complications providers say can be stress-onset: diabetes, high blood pressure, and even water breaking early

Council of Europe votes to ban conversion therapy The Council of Europe has voted to pass a resolution banning so-called 'conversion therapy' for all, including trans people.

I’m really pleased the Council of Europe has voted to pass @kateosbornemp.bsky.social's resolution for a trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy.

Now it’s time for our government to follow suit.

Shot and chaser from new Epstein batch

ICE just kidnapped people out of a Bravo supermarket in Orange, NJ.

Get trained in rapid response. You’re going to need it no matter where you are.

Uhhhh this file magically disappeared from the dump after being up for a while apparently