Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

As you know, MAGA was very, very upset about the Bad Bunny halftime show being performed in Spanish. Trump called it a slap in the face. But did you know they are also very, very upset about the Spanish lyrics they didn’t understand:

In an appearance on the rightwing channel Real America’s Voice on Tuesday, a Republican congressman from Missouri, Mark Alford, said “we are still investigating” the lyrics of a song performed in Spanish by the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny during his Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.

“The lyrics, from what we have seen, from Bad Bunny are very disturbing,” Alford said, apparently referring to outrage stirred by a rightwing media personality, Megan Basham, who posted an English translation of explicit lyrics from the Spanish-language song Safaera without realizing that Bad Bunny had performed a cleaned-up version for the televised broadcast, which was also partially obscured by bleeps.

“If it holds true that, um… you know I don’t speak fluent Spanish, okay?” Alford continued. “I know how to ask where the bathroom is – but, these lyrics, if it is true what was said on national television, we have a lot of questions for the entities that broadcast this and we’ll be talking with Brendan Carr from the FCC about this.”

“This could be much worse than than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, let’s put it that way,” Alford added.“But at least that was a malfunction, I mean this was apparently intentional,” the host Gina Loudon, a former Trump campaign surrogate who once appeared on the reality show Wife Swap, said. “This was intentional, yes” Alford said.

“And they could not have said this were it in English,” Loudon added, apparently also unaware that the explicit lyrics had not been heard on the broadcast, before calling the show “fully not understandable to English-speaking people”.

The host then praised Alford for his work – investigating things that did not happen. “Congressman Mark Alford, always on top of it,” Loudon said. “Thank you so much for being here.”

How dare you sing in Spanish and clean up the lyrics of a song I don’t understand making us look even more ridiculous than we already did? I’m so offended!

He’s killing more people in the states that didn’t vote for him:

The Trump administration plans to rescind $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats because it finds the grants “inconsistent with agency priorities,” according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The programs slated to be cut are in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. They include grants to state and local public health departments as well as to some nongovernmental organizations. A list of the cuts was shared with relevant congressional committees on Monday.

The funds are administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include grants given to states for a variety of purposes, including hiring staffs, modernizing data systems and managing disease outbreaks. Some programs are aimed at the needs of specific communities.

Some of the cuts will be finalized this week and others over the coming weeks, totaling roughly $600 million. The figure was first reported by The New York Post.

Nearly two-thirds of the funding is unspent money allocated to state and local public health departments in California.

“These grants are being terminated because they do not reflect agency priorities,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said. About two dozen of the grants were aimed at curbing H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.

You can lay this one at the feet of RFK Jr, the former Democrat who sold his soul to the devil so he could make people sicker with crackpot snake oil nonsense while telling people to eat healthier food, as if that’s some sort of revolutionary concept. Thanks Bobby. You must be so proud.

Update — more:

The vaccine maker Moderna said on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration had notified the company that the agency would not review its mRNA flu vaccine, the latest sign of federal health policy that has become hostile to vaccine development.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the agency’s top vaccine regulator, rejected the company’s application for approval over a concern that Moderna’s clinical trial had compared its experimental vaccine against a product the agency did not consider the best on the market. People in the comparison group received Fluarix Quadrivalent, a flu vaccine sold by GSK.

Moderna had spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars testing its flu vaccine, enrolling 41,000 people and aimed at a market of adults ages 50 and older. The company concluded that its shot was superior to GSK’s product.

Stephen Hoge, the company’s president, said in an interview on Tuesday that the new flu vaccine was designed to be better tailored for a single nation than the ones that tended to be used by an entire hemisphere.

“This refusal to start a review is all confusing, to say the least,” Mr. Hoge said, adding: “It is surprising, and we’re trying to understand what has changed.”

They just don’t want people to be protected. They want us to die.

Steve Benen at MS Now with Trump’s latest:

In October, Donald Trump halted funding on the Gateway tunnel construction project, one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments: a $16 billion endeavor that would connect New York and New Jersey via a pair of train tubes that would benefit the entire region.

The good news is, the president recently signaled a willingness to release the resources that would allow work to continue and prevent significant layoffs. The bad news is, he had a transaction in mind: Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the money would be restored if Democrats agreed to rename Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.

The president’s pitch was, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats wanted to save a critical infrastructure project and prevent the job losses, they had to indulge Trump’s obsession with self-glorification.

The White House made little effort to deny the accuracy of the reporting, and on Friday night, during a brief Q&A on Air Force One, a reporter asked the Republican, “Can you set the record straight? There were reports circulating that you told Chuck Schumer that in order to restore funding for the Gateway train tunnel in New York, New Jersey, you would want Penn Station and Dulles Airport to be named after you. Is that true?”

The ideal answer would have been, “No, of course not, that would be insane.” Alas, that’s not what Trump said.

Reporter: There are reports that you told Schumer that in order to restore Gateway funding, you would want Dulles Airport and Penn station named after you?

Trump: Schumer suggested it pic.twitter.com/niMglXzb2h

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 7, 2026

“He suggested that to me,” Trump replied. “Chuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name. … It was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested.”

Schumer said it is an “absolute lie,” which is backed up by the fact that Schumer didn’t agree to whatever it was Trump suggested and, needless to say, the evidence we have all around us of the narcissistic freak pasting his name on everything in sight all over the country. He’s demanding that they give him the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing and has completely torn up the nation’s alliances in that pursuit! The man is obsessed and everyone knows it. So of course he suggested it.

As I’ve said before I’m worried that the Democrats will lose their nerve and let this bullshit stand and I think that’s a very bad idea. If we survive his regime — and there’s no guarantee that we will — but if we do, this extreme demonstration of twisted egomania has to be exorcised from all public places or his cult will continue to hang on on some form or another. That’s what he’s counting on and we just can’t allow that.

Funny how MAGA melted down over the Bad Bunny halftime show when this official Trump ad from 2020 was in Spanish and featured both the Mexican and Puerto Rican flags pic.twitter.com/UIr9F82A61

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 10, 2026

Considering Bad Bunny’s message, this from the 2024 campaign is also ironic:

“It’s very important that we all understand that no matter where we’re coming from, we’re already American. Whether you’re African American, Latino American, Asian American, European American, wherever you come from, we are all American,” Jaime Florez, Hispanic communications director for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, told NBC News.

I’m sorry. They were suckers for believing him. Even if they really wanted those cheap eggs, they should have paid closer attention to this:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff)

Live and learn. I hope.

The very right wing Rasmussen poll has some interesting results this week:

Most voters don’t think America is living in the “Golden Age” that President Donald Trump promised in his inaugural address, and nearly half say he’s doing a worse job than his predecessor.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 27% of Likely Voters believe this is “the Golden Age of America,” while 58% say it’s not and 15% are not sure. In January 2025, 52% of voters agreed with Trump’s declaration that “the Golden Age of America” was beginning. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The rest is behind a paywall but this is the kicker:

Ouch. That has to hurt.

If you wondered why Trump seems to be decompensating these last few weeks, becoming more and more unhinged and mentally chaotic, this has to be part of the reason. His people may be keeping him sheltered from the worst of it but he gets information from all over the place and there’s little doubt that he’s seeing his poll numbers, no matter what crazy lies he tells his cult (and himself.)

Who knows what caused this incoherent tantrum but they’re coming more frequently these days:

Cray, cray:

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, denounced the president’s threat in a statement, writing that “whether this proves real or simply threatened to keep uncertainty high — blocking or barricading bridges is a self-defeating move.”

It was not immediately clear how Mr. Trump would block the opening of the bridge. Its construction was paid for by Canada, and a public-private arrangement , under which Canada and Michigan would jointly operate the crossing, gives Michigan part ownership.

One possible avenue would be for Mr. Trump to declare an emergency. Under the law, Customs and Border Protection can temporarily close a port of entry “when necessary to respond to a specific threat to human life or national interests.” Mr. Trump has often invoked emergency statutes for events and circumstances that are largely considered routine to make use of the expanded authority that doing so grants him.

The nearby Ambassador Bridge, one of the busiest border crossings on the continent, has been privately owned for decades by a Detroit trucking industry billionaire and his family, the Morouns. The family had previously called on Mr. Trump to halt the construction of the Gordie Howe bridge — which would, once opened, compete for the more than $300 million in daily cross-border trade over the Ambassador Bridge.

Mr. Trump also suggested in his social media post on Monday that the United States might seek to acquire “at least one half” of the new bridge and to get a cut of the revenue from bridge tolls.

In his first term, Mr. Trump had promoted the project in a joint statement with Canadian officials as a symbol of the countries’ deep economic partnership and as “a vital economic link between our two countries.”

That was before he completely lost his mind.

Bad Bunny one day, Canadian bridges the next. He is mentally incontinent.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he spoke to Donald Trump following the U.S. president’s threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit. Carney says he reminded Trump that Canada paid for the bridge. pic.twitter.com/eetXhJYwnM

— Olivia Stefanovich (@CBCOlivia) February 10, 2026

How does anyone negotiate with a negotiating partner who is only consistent in one thing: consistent bad faith? https://t.co/7d9mZcCcBY

— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 10, 2026

Trump supporters, ICE is coming for you, too

A dear friend used to complain, “I can’t seem to get out of my own way.” It happens to smart people. We overthink everything (or at least most things). While conservatives appeal to people’s lizard brains, say, by blowing up shit or emptying a magazine into 12-packs of beer, the left wonders why those people won’t listen to our five- and ten-point plans.

It’s why I liked John Russell the first time I ran across him and his mullet online. That was before he spoke to the 2024 Democratic Convention where he called Donald Trump’s brand of populism divide-and-conquer by a different name.

Russell popped into my in-box this morning with more of the tell-it-like-it-is that too many of us don’t:

Trump supporters, ICE will come for you, too. Maybe you’re last on the list, but you’re on it. Hear me out.

What if ICE isn’t about crime? What if ICE is a tool for the 1%, being used to get one half of working people to hate the other half, while billionaires (and Epstein people) protect themselves and take total control?

The super-rich and their politicians built ICE, funded ICE, and sent it into communities where it killed people who have the same problems you do.

Then they watch you fight your neighbors about it. And I’m sure they laugh, because you let them into power based on a story they just made up.

If the super-rich were honest about what they want, I don’t think anybody would let them run the country. They want you to work forever, rent everything, and be too desperate to step off the hamster wheel and change anything.

That is by design, and it’s working well: 6 in 10 people in the richest country ever are paycheck to paycheck.

And that prints money for the rich because while everyone is trying to survive, they BOUGHT the stock market. 93% of stock market wealth belongs to the top ten percent. That means you go to work, and they make the BIG money.

But if you focused on that, the rich probably wouldn’t stay in power. So they made up a story for you to believe. They said the problem is: immigrants, trans people, woke, DEI, CRT — anyone but the rich and their greed.

Then they said, “ We’re gonna make ICE and go fight those monsters that we told you about. These liberal pussies are gonna cry about it. And you’re gonna love it.”

But no one is buttering your bread, man. The people ICE is killing and terrorizing are locked out of power, just like you, just like me.

And as it gets harder for you or your kids to “live the American Dream”, you’ll do one of two things. Either shut up and wave the flag as it gets really ugly, or you might hit the streets…

Where you will learn that this standing army, that plays by its own rules, that answers to the president (who answers to billionaires), was actually for you too. The story they made up was bullshit. And you bought it.

Don’t find out the hard way that you’re on the list, too. If any part of you didn’t like what you saw in Minneapolis, really ask yourself if the rich people controlling ICE give a shit about your life. I promise you they don’t.

Note to self: Don’t overthink things.

Behold, your tax dollars at work

I appropriated Bad Bunny’s message from his celebratory Super Bowl performance for a little overpass work on Monday: THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE. The response from commuters was joyful. Except for the guy who flipped two middle fingers from the top of his steering wheel. There’s always at least one.

That suggests that the majority of Americans would find this upsetting:

For the first time, someone who worked inside the Baltimore ICE detention facility at the center of a viral video showing severe overcrowding is speaking out publicly — and exclusively to WUSA9.

The former worker whose identity WUSA9 is disguising at his request because they signed a non-disclosure agreement and could face legal action, provided internal documents and described conditions they say went far beyond what appeared in January’s viral video.

“I worked there for several months and it was probably day one, day two that I saw the abuse,” the worker said. “I saw people laying in feces. People throwing up, people laying in urine.”

The former worker provided WUSA9 with what they claim are internal head count sheets from December showing conditions worse than the viral video: 47, 50 and 56 detainees in the same cell — more than the worker counted in the video itself — and as many as 50 in an even smaller cell.

Non-disclosure agreements. For keeping trade secrets, sure. For concealing crimes or criminal treatment of human beings, no. Why does Donald Trump demand them? Make them a campaign issue.

“Lying in feces, throw up, urine… like animals in a cage at the zoo.”

A whistleblower recounts the horrific ICE detention center conditions in Baltimore — a similar story everywhere.

(H/T @LongTimeHistory) pic.twitter.com/ZToMjHkD2Y

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 9, 2026

Maryland Representative April McClain Delaney (D) visited the Baltimore facility after being delayed for months:

She called conditions “heartbreaking” and “horrendous.”

“This whole detention center is really only meant to hold people for 12 hours and is being used to hold people for 24, 48, 72 hours or longer, depending on if they’ve asked for habeas corpus or if they have medical conditions or the transport planes are full,” the congresswoman said. 

She said detainees sleep on thin mats with foil blankets placed directly on concrete floors, and she reported that some of those being detained in the facility told her they were hungry and thirsty.

McClain Delaney described one room “with probably 50 people, concrete floors, a bench around the perimeter, and a makeshift bathroom in the middle that has minimal privacy.”

The men who flip me off likely celebrate their country treating other people like this. The decent, civilized, compassionate America recoils.

There are more of us than there are of them. And more of us than Megyn Kellys.

Megyn Kelly just shouting “FOOTBALL IS OURS” at Piers Morgan about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show is the perfect example of this moment in time. Put it in a time capsule and send it out into space. pic.twitter.com/oTuiwI9xBR

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) February 9, 2026

What insane xenophobic drivel:

Watters: Latin America is invading this country… and that's what you see. You see all these foreigners speaking a foreign language, with foreign flags marching into the camera like a caravan. This was an open borders moment. pic.twitter.com/pEO92PllvG

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 9, 2026

We know he won’t be caught dead in hellholes like California but maybe he should spend some time in Texas and Florida, two red states, to see just how Latino this country is and always has been. He will be surprised.

Republicans clearly don’t think they need Latino voters so they are calling them criminals and invaders and insulting the culture that’s been part of America since the beginning. I can’t see why any Latino, American or otherwise, would ever support these people again.

CNN took a look at their relationship:

Jeffrey Epstein’s life as a free man was about to end, but first he needed to cancel breakfast plans with a friend: Steve Bannon, the right-wing influencer and former adviser to President Donald Trump.

In the days leading up to Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, the two men exchanged a steady stream of text messages, veering from breezy banter and dark humor to more serious strategizing around Bannon’s efforts to foment a global populist movement.

Writing from Paris, Epstein pressed Bannon to rally US support behind a Slovakian leader seeking a top NATO post. Bannon, meanwhile, wanted Epstein’s help connecting a close ally in Israel with the country’s former prime minister. They also traded barbs about the indictment of a British anti-Muslim activist and made plans to meet the morning of July 7 once Epstein returned from Europe.

The conversation came to a halt on July 6. After messaging with Bannon that day about their upcoming rendezvous, Epstein suddenly wrote, “All canceled.” He sent the message at 7:37 p.m. ET, according to US Department of Justice records. By then, federal authorities had intercepted Epstein at a New Jersey airport and arrested the New York financier on charges he sex trafficked minors.

Bannon and Epstein were plotting Bannon’s creepy global “populist” movement which is incredibly rich considering his relationship to all the world’s oligarchs.

For years, Bannon has served as a leading voice for the American alt-right, and he has sought to spread to other countries the movement that helped propel Trump to the presidency. Until now, his maneuverings abroad, well documented by US and foreign media, have drawn little speculation that Epstein played any role.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein — whose body was found in his jail cell while he was awaiting trial in August 2019, with his death ruled a suicide — have long animated Bannon’s followers, generally directed at the same elites he regularly targets and not Bannon himself. Last summer, Bannon joined other MAGA loyalists in criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of documents related to Epstein’s crimes. He has been far less vocal, however, about his own relationship with Epstein.

Bannon did not return phone calls and text messages from CNN.

Epstein offered Bannon the same things he extended to many powerful confidantes: strategic advice, connections to the highest levels of government and business, and access to his vast wealth. He appeared increasingly invested in Bannon’s success even as he recognized his own history — Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two state prostitution charges, one involving a child — could complicate their cause. “Lets make sure you are keeping your own path on front burner. Strategy etc.,” he wrote Bannon in August 2018, before adding: “at the same time. Take no heat re me. Not worth it for the moment.”

Bannon, for his part, appeared eager to capitalize on the relationship despite Epstein’s criminal past. He regularly shared headlines from his efforts abroad and tapped into Epstein’s extensive network. At one point, he asked Epstein: “Do u know anyone in Europe that wants to control the European Parliament and with it the EU.”

In private exchanges, the two sometimes plotted next steps and workshopped Bannon’s messaging. The night before Bannon was set to appear at a September 2018 forum hosted by The Economist, Epstein suggested framing for how Bannon should discuss Trump’s contentious trade wars. “Brilliant brilliant brilliant,” Bannon responded, “help me develop that argument.”

The way everyone genuflected to that guy is truly amazing.

Bannon is someone who had a close relationship with Epstein right up until the moment he was arrested in 2019. Why hasn’t he gotten more scrutiny?