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Author: digby

It’s Airborne

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

It’s become a global symbol: “a militia that kills” (Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala’s quote), “not welcome” (Lombardy Governor), with protests involving stones, flares, and water cannons right outside the Olympic Village.

In Italy, ICE is seen as the export of the worst of American policy – racism, excessive force, warrantless deportations. The protests started back in January, ramped up before the opening, and now form the backdrop to the entire Games: anti-Americanism + climate + housing + gentrification.

Good.

San Francisco Isn’t A Shithole?

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

Imagine that

I just love this. All these right wingers have been fed a bunch of propaganda and they are stunned when they find out that liberals aren’t actually living in Mad Max Thunderdome:

To right-wing influencers and conservative media outlets, San Francisco is a wasteland where the once-glimmering downtown mall is dead, the sidewalks are filled with homeless encampments and drug users are shooting up in the streets. To San Franciscans and civic leaders, however, that caricature has never been accurate. And certainly not after a recent A.I. boom downtown and the redoubling of efforts to improve the quality of life.

San Francisco still has its share of down-and-out areas. And the city has not fully recovered its pre-Covid workweek energy. But local champions have insisted that much of the place remains vibrant, and that a sun-splashed walk along the Embarcadero and a Mission-style burrito can make anyone feel better about the city.

The arrival of the Super Bowl this week in the Bay Area has given San Francisco its biggest opportunity since the pandemic to change hearts and minds. And, in a polarized nation in which many Americans seem incapable of moving off deep-seated beliefs, some visitors said they had been wrong about San Francisco after actually seeing it in person.

“What we thought we were walking into here was, uh, a dump,” Pat McAfee, the ESPN host who caters to a young, male audience, said during the first national broadcast of The Pat McAfee Show from San Francisco. “It’s not at all. It was a beautiful walk this morning.”

On social media, posts about the city’s parks and sandwich shops from journalists covering the Super Bowl have often outpaced commentary about the game itself. A stretch of February sun and 70-degree weather has helped the cause, especially as the rest of the country was recovering from snowstorms.

Among the first-time visitors this week to San Francisco was Brayden Landis, 21, a sports management student at York College in Pennsylvania, who was in the Bay Area as part of a class trip. The city had been an immediate shock to the senses, Mr. Landis said. On his first day in town, he passed out from heat exhaustion. He was struck by the city’s contrasts.

Toward the ocean, the lush expanse of Golden Gate Park greets visitors with scents of eucalyptus and morning dew. Elsewhere in the city, there are alleys where pedestrians have to avoid needles and feces. “To me, the city was known for homelessness, fog and hippies,” he said. “But the stereotypes melted away. You see the city for what it really is, good and bad, pretty quickly. I think it’s my favorite city I’ve ever been to.”

Could it possibly be that the right wing media is lying?

Who Hates America?

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

This is what Hess actually said:

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. there’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren’t. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”

Interesting that Trump knew he wasn’t talking about the “immigrant invasion” or the protesters against ICE, which is how you could interpret that comment if you wanted to. He knows that most people oppose him and hate his policies. It’s obvious.

By the way, here are some other quotes from Donald Trump himself, the most America hating president the country has ever had the misfortune to put into office:

“The sinister forces trying to kill America have done everything they can to stop me, to silence you, and to turn this nation into a socialist dumping ground for criminals, junkies, Marxists, thugs, radicals, and dangerous refugees that no other country wants.”

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country
 Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION!”

“The idea of American Greatness, of our country as the leader of the free and unfree world, has vanished 
 I couldn’t stand to see what was happening to our great country. This mess calls for leadership in the worst way.”

“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.”

“Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in third-world condition.”

“The world is laughing at us!”

That’s just a very small set of examples of the grotesque insults Trump commonly applies to the country he leads. It’s intrinsic to his central message Make America Great Again which clearly says that it isn’t great now.

No one hates America more than Donald Trump.

Update— Oh shut up:

The Year In Racism

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

Sen. Tim Scott said that the post of the Obamas as apes is the e most racist thing the White House has done raising the question of what were the other most racist things they’ve done? The Bulwark helpfully compiled a top ten list:

10. Vice President JD Vance saying it’s “totally reasonable and acceptable” for Americans to not want to live next to people who speak a different language or come from “a totally different culture.”

If you’ve ever looked at the deed to homes built before the civil rights revolution you will see that it used to be common for there to be  discriminatory restrictive covenants that created all-white neighborhoods for the delicate Americans who “reasonably” didn’t want to live around people of color. That’s what he was endorsing.

9. Greg Bovino, then-commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, saying his agents choose the people to arrest based partly on “how they look.”

8. Rallying around a DOGE staffer fired for racist posts.

There’s been a pattern in this administration: White man makes racist comments → loses his job → Trump finds out and rehires him. In this case, it was Marko Elez, a then-25-year-old DOGE employee who said in social media posts “you could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” that he would like to “normalize Indian hate,” that he “was racist before it was cool,” and that he “just want[s] a eugenic immigration policy.” Elezesigned after the bigotry came to light in February 2025. But Trump, Vance, and DOGEmeister Elon Musk jumped to Elez’s defense and hired him back.

7. Vance dismissing outrage at a Young Republicans group chat in which participants called black people monkeys and “watermelon people.”

Vance called the outcry “BS” and “pearl clutching.”

6. Trump cutting admissions for refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but making an exception for white Afrikaners from South Africa.

Speaks for itself.

5. Trump nominating Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel.

Follow these steps and see if you can spot the racism:

  1. Trump chose Ingrassia, who had been working as a White House staffer, to head a key watchdog agency despite lacking relevant experience.
  2. Politico published texts from Ingrassia saying Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak.”
  3. Senators spoke out against Ingrassia and said his nomination wouldn’t pass.
  4. Trump pulled the nomination—but rather than toss Ingrassia aside, Trump made him the deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration, a job that does not require Senate confirmation. (As of this writing, he has been bumped up to the role of acting general counsel.)

4. Trump sharing a video of Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero while an AI-generated Chuck Schumer talks about illegal immigrants voting.

3. Trump disparaging Ilhan Omar and Somali Americans.

2. Trump blaming Reagan National Airport plane crash on DEI hiring standards.

It’s worth noting that when asked how he could conclude, even before an investigation took place, that DEI hiring practices caused the crash, Trump said: “Because I have common sense.” (Talk about baseless claims.)

1. Trump sharing a video depicting the Obamas as apes.

The post was eventually taken down, but Trump did not apologize, and insists he has no reason to do so: “No,” he told reporters on Air Force One, “I didn’t make a mistake.”

He doesn’t believe he made a mistake. It’s called common sense.

It’s interesting that some of the most racist statements in this term have come from JD Vance rather than Trump. He thinks because he’s married to a woman of Indian background that he can say anything and no one will be able to point out his racism. It’s the old, “some of my best friends are…” dodge but it only makes you feel sorry for the people of color to whom they’re related.

Vance is going to have a rude awakening about this. There is a strong strain of anti-Indian sentiment on the MAGA right as Vivek Ramaswamy is finding out in Ohio. And it will catch up to Vance as well. All the crude bigoted sentiments in the world won’t make up for Usha.

I’m a little bit surprised that none of Stephen Miller’s bleats made the list. But I suppose that since everything he says is racist it would have been impossible to decide.

Bad Bunny’s America

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

A statistic that may surprise you:

The United States is considered the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, trailing only Mexico. With over 60 million people speaking Spanish (including native, second-language, and bilingual speakers), the U.S. has surpassed countries like Colombia and Spain. Projections suggest the U.S. could become the largest by 2060.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin and before English.

The provincial MAGA weirdos are barking up the wrong tree. The Spanish language is as American as apple pie and breakfast burritos.

It Will Never Be Enough

Published by digby on February 8, 2026

It gets worse:

Trump administration officials have suggested that the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery create a section in the museum to display multiple images of the president in addition to his official portrait.

The concept initially came up during a Dec. 19 tour of the museum that included Abby Jones, the acting chief of protocol at the State Department, and the White House photographer, Daniel Torok, according to three people familiar with the discussions. They said the administration officials noted that the White House often received artworks of Mr. Trump created by Americans that could make for a display in a corner of the museum.

I have a sickening feeling that if we are to survive this, the Democrats will chicken out of purging the country of all this Trump hagiography including the ballroom, the naming of institutions, the ugly gilt all of it. They won’t want to agitate the cult and that will make them more angry than anything else we could do.

But the country will have to purge itself of all this at some point. Maybe they could keep one exhibit at the Smithsonian about the dark time when America inexplicably fell under the spell of a tyrannical nutcase and almost destroyed itself.

What’s Tulsi Up To?

Published by digby on February 7, 2026

This is not normal. (What is?)

Last spring, the National Security Agency (NSA) detected evidence of an unusual phone call between an individual associated with foreign intelligence and a person close to Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower’s attorney briefed on the existence of the call.

The highly sensitive communique, which has roiled Washington over the past week, was brought to the attention of the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard – but rather than allowing NSA officials to distribute the information further, she took a paper copy of the intelligence directly to the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the attorney, Andrew Bakaj, said.

One day after meeting Wiles, Gabbard told the NSA not to publish the intelligence report. Instead, she instructed NSA officials to transmit the highly classified details directly to her office.

Details of this exchange between Gabbard and the NSA were shared directly with the Guardian and have not been previously reported. Nor has Wiles receipt of the intelligence report.

[…]

Two attorneys and two former intelligence professionals who reviewed details of the incident and ensuing complaint shared with the Guardian have identified what they believe are a series of procedural anomalies that raise questions about Gabbard’s handling of national intelligence and the whistleblower disclosure, which was reported to the inspector general as a matter of “urgent concern”.

Members of the “gang of eight”, a group of Senate and House leaders privy to classified information from the executive branch, received a heavily redacted version for review on Tuesday night. They have disagreed about the legality of Gabbard’s conduct, as well as the credibility of the whistleblower complaint.

I’m sure it’s entirely on the up and up. it’s not as if there’s ever been even a whisper about Gabbard’s loyalty to the U.S. Or Trump’s for that matter. I’m sure there’s nothing to this.

“The law is clear: when a whistleblower makes a complaint and wants to get it before Congress the agency has 21 days to relay it,” said the senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, in a Thursday press conference. “This whistleblower complaint was issued in May. We didn’t receive it until February.” Warner said that the months-long delay reflected an effort to “bury the complaint”.skip past newsletter promotion

The contents of the whistleblower complaint are still largely unknown. Bakaj, the whistleblower’s attorney, said that Gabbard’s office had redacted much of the complaint that was released to intelligence committee members on Tuesday, citing executive privilege.

“I don’t know the contents of the complaint, but by exercising executive privilege they are flagging that it involves presidential action,” he said.

It’s someone “close to Trump” so… yeah.

Congress needs to mind its own business. Do they think they’re there to oversee the executive branch or something?

They Lie Every Time

Published by digby on February 7, 2026

This one always seemed bogus to me but because there were no observers with cameras, we really didn’t know:

Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.

In the weeks since, key parts of the federal government’s narrative have fallen apart.

The events took place on the afternoon of 8 January, one day after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

According to a DHS press release and social media posts issued the following day, border patrol agents were conducting a “targeted” stop of a vehicle in Portland occupied by two members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang. Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, a woman in the passenger seat, had been “involved” in a Portland shooting last year, the agency wrote.

During the border patrol stop, the driver, Luis Niño-Moncada, “weaponized their vehicle against” officers, DHS said, prompting an agent “to defend himself and others” by shooting the occupants. Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest, Niño-Moncada was hit in the arm and both were hospitalized, then taken into federal custody, DHS noted. The agents were uninjured.

But court records obtained by the Guardian reveal a Department of Justice prosecutor later directly contradicted DHS’s Tren de Aragua statements in court, telling a judge: “We’re not suggesting 
 [Niño-Moncada] is a gang member.” An FBI affidavit issued following the incident also suggests that in the previous shooting cited by DHS, Zambrano-Contreras was not a suspect, but rather a reported victim of a sexual assault and robbery. Neither Niño-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras have prior criminal convictions, their lawyers have said.

Immigration and criminal justice experts who reviewed the case records characterized the federal government’s communications as a “smear campaign” against the two Venezuelan immigrants, with mischaracterizations of their pasts and unsubstantiated allegations of criminality.

Niño-Moncada, the 33-year-old driver, who is undocumented, remains detained, facing charges of aggravated assault of an officer based on claims he tried to “intentionally” hit agents with his car. Zambrano-Contreras, 32, was not criminally charged, but has pleaded guilty to improper entry to the US, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors have said the two were dating.

[…]

“The federal government cannot be trusted. Our default position should be skepticism and understanding they lie very regularly,” said Sameer Kanal, a Portland city councilor. “There’s a playbook of demonizing people 
 and claiming vehicles were used as ‘weapons’. We see a pattern of victim-blaming, and it’s important we push back, because it’s propaganda.”

They shot at a car that was driving away. This is what they do. If you dare to defy them, they will kill you. It has nothing to do with self defense.

The New York Times reports:

Hours after an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good inside her S.U.V. on a Minneapolis street last month, a senior federal prosecutor in Minnesota sought a warrant to search the vehicle for evidence in what he expected would be a standard civil rights investigation into the agent’s use of force.

The prosecutor, Joseph H. Thompson, wrote in an email to colleagues that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that specializes in investigating police shootings, would team up with the F.B.I. to determine whether the shooting had been justified and lawful or had violated Ms. Good’s civil rights.

But later that week, as F.B.I. agents equipped with a signed warrant prepared to document blood spatter and bullet holes in Ms. Good’s S.U.V., they received orders to stop, according to several people with knowledge of the events who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The orders, they said, came from senior officials, including Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, several of whom worried that pursuing a civil rights investigation — by using a warrant obtained on that basis — would contradict President Trump’s claim that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer” who fired at her as she drove her vehicle.

This piece by Reuters looks at 6 different incidents in which it’s pretty clear that the DHS came out of the gate with a dishonest narrative. It includes Pretti and Good and four others. You literaly can’t believe anything they say.

The Cult Speaks

Published by digby on February 7, 2026

That’s not a joke. That crap is all over the internet right now. Overwhelming Trump worship and loathing of the left. This one’s going viral.

We are living in separate dimensions.

A Fatuous, Reflexive Liar

Published by digby on February 7, 2026

Daniel Dale writes, “you can see in the transcript of Trump’s National Prayer Breakfast speech how he went from a factual staff-written line giving Christians credit for Mariam Ibrahim’s release (red) to an ad-libbed lie giving himself credit (green).”

He just says whatever self-aggrandizing lie that passes through his head these days:

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Donald Trump spoke from prepared remarks as he discussed the persecution of Mariam Ibrahim. Ibrahim was unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to death in Sudan in 2014, in a case centered on her Christian faith, until she was released that same year following a global outcry.

Trump correctly said: “Believers all over the planet rallied to Mariam’s cause, prayed for her protection, and successfully pressured for her release.” But then the president appeared to ad-lib – and claimed that he was the one who got Ibrahim freed.

“I did that. I did that. I did that with one phone call, actually,” he said. “And she had such support, it was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be: ‘Yes, sir, we will do it right away.’ I just wish I knew earlier. But it’s a big world with a lot of people.”

For years, Trump has told fictional stories that feature unnamed people referring to him as “sir.” This was another one.

Ibrahim was released in 2014, during the Obama administration. Trump did not become president until January 2017. He was not even a presidential candidate until June 2015. There has never been the slightest indication that a private citizen in the US, a businessman and celebrity at the time, was the person who convinced Sudanese authorities to let her out of prison.

A former Obama administration official who served on the National Security Council in 2014 told CNN on Friday: “I neither had at the time nor have now any knowledge of Trump’s involvement whatsoever. It’d be very surprising if he were.”

Jack Jenkins, a reporter for Religion News Service, first raised skepticism about Trump’s story on Thursday. Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor who is a prominent conservative legal scholar, said in a Friday email: “As Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2014, I advocated for Mariam Ibrahim. I do not recall Donald Trump being involved in the case or assisting our Commission’s efforts. Of course, he was not President at the time. Whether he was working privately outside our view, I cannot say. It is certainly possible.”

It is possible in theory. But even if Trump did contribute in some way to the international pressure campaign to achieve Ibrahim’s release – some way Trump’s White House team and congressional allies could not identify when invited to do so by CNN on Friday – that wouldn’t make it true that he personally got Ibrahim released with a phone call.

The White House did not respond to CNN’s Friday request to describe any Trump involvement in Ibrahim’s release. A Friday search of the LexisNexis database of news articles brought up hundreds of articles about the case but none that mentioned any Trump involvement.

Of course it is another ridiculous lie. In 2014, Trump was blathering about his birther conspiracy and running around bragging about grabbing women by the pussy. The last thing on earth that he would have been involved in was a persecuted Christian in Sudan. He couldn’t find Sudan on a fucking map.

There is no question what happened here. We know that this psycho just took credit for something he knew nothing about and had nothing to do with because he does this ALL THE TIME. He takes credit for others’ successes and blames others for his failures He is a narcissistic, pathological liar. And now that he’s completely unhinged and operating with no constraint he just does it reflexively. Look for this to get more and more absurd as time goes on.