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Week of February 8, 2026

Women of Minnesota, I love you. (Photo credit: Lela Navidi)

Ginger

2/15/20268 min read

Here goes...

1. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes recently blocked a decision by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Puppy Killer Noem to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, a ruling that cited Noem's use of terms like "killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies" in reference to immigrants.

2. The DOJ removed an 86-page document from the Epstein files titled “Investigation into Potential Jeffrey Epstein Co-Conspirators,” which outlined interviews with alleged victims, investigative subjects, and legal counsel representing Les Wexner. Wexner is a billionaire (who acquired Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lane Bryant) that hired Jeffry Epsteins to manage his money for 20 years. He is also staunchly pro-Israel and has tried to influence US policy for years.

First Wexners name was redacted. But under pressure from Congress his name was unredacted. And now the files have been “temporarily” removed from the published Epstein site altogether.

Look, I don’t know but they seem to be working really hard to protect billionaires involved.

3. President Donald Trump’s legal team submitted false information to the Supreme Court in his ongoing legal battle against author E. Jean Carroll, according to documents reviewed by Mother Jones. Trump has appealed the $5 million judgement against him – you know – the one where the judge clarified that in fact Carroll was raped by Trump.

“Trump, along with some of his supporters, has for years claimed that Carroll’s account of him raping and sexually assaulting her was copied from the 2012 SVU episode.” The episode story was nothing like what Carroll described as happening. But Trump’s lawyers have nevertheless used this as one of their(lame) arguments.

Also, Trump tells the court he’s too busy to have to deal with this ongoing Caroll lawsuit.

4. ICE denied having taken Leonela Liliana Gomez Hernandez (8 month's pregnant btw). That’s right, they pretended they did not have her after she was picked up while waiting for an Uber after a Dr. appointment regarding her pregnancy. She was pressured by ICE to sign deportation papers and then was deported to Nicaragua days later, without counsel. All while attorneys and members of congress actively searched for her.

She is an asylum seeker who has been in the US for 3 years. She had a court appointment in November that she did not show up for. Criticize her all you want for that, but she was afraid of being deported from the court hearing – because that is exactly what ICE has been doing!

5. Also, the bodies of several asylum-seeking women, the US recently deported, have been found decapitated. Seeking asylum ain’t no joke folks.

6. The New York Times just confirmed what we all knew: Trump officials not only lied (immediately – without any investigation at all) about how Renee Good was killed (calling her a domestic terrorist). They blocked federal investigators from finding the truth. They shut down the FBI, pressured prosecutors, and drove career attorneys to resign rather than let an honest investigation take place.

“Kill and Slander” – that has been their MO.

7. Team Miller/Trump/Noem thought they would send ICE To the Olympics in Milan. They would be "strictly supportive - working with the Diplomatic Security Service and Italian authorities to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations". Right. Like anyone believes anything these folks say.

Well, the good people of Milan were not having it.

(It’s important you read this with an Italian accent)

"This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips," Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala told local media last week. "It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt."

8. If you read this blog you know that I regularly include info regarding capitalism – essentially that the rich have turned capitalism into some sort of religion for most Americans – especially Republicans.

The rich have convinced the middle class that poor people are the problem and not the ones at the top, hoarding all of the resourses. When in fact - from 1975 to 2023, $79 trillion in wealth was transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%

The truth is we do not have to live this way. Here is a little snippet from Norwegian Trond Solberg (from Threads):

“Hi 😊 Norwegian here.

People assume we pay huge taxes, but we really don't. Median pay in Norway = 26% tax. That investment buys you:

- Free childbirth

- 1 year paid parental leave

- Affordable daycare ($120 per month)

- Free education through PhD

- 1 year paid sick leave

- Health care costs capped at $330 per year

- Guaranteed livable pension

...and more.

That's a lot of peace of mind for 26%. Follow for more from my life in a social democracy, where dignity is not a privilege. “

9. Oh hey, more than 500 private jets departed the Bay Area immediately after the Super Bowl. Tax the rich ya’ll. Just make them pay the same percentage of their income that I pay! That’s all.

10. In this week’s edition of Why is JD Vance Such an Asshole. Here is his effing motorcade in Milan.

The utter ridiculousness of this. Vance brought dozens of cars (Chevy Suburbans – on ancient Italian streets), armored vehicles, several planes.

10. There is always a grift with this Administration. Two companies run ICE detention centers FOR PROFIT. • GEO Group. Market cap: ~$4 billion. ICE contracts account for 43% of its revenue. •CoreCivic. Market cap: ~$2.2 billion. ICE contracts represent 30% of revenue. Both companies’ revenue is at an all-time high.

12. Welp.

13. DOJ redacted information necessary to identify who sent Epstein the “torture video email.” (I’m not saying any more about that email). But on Monday Reps Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie released his name, DP World (a giant Dubai logistics company) Chairman and Chief Executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. Today he resigned. 1. Why do you suppose they redact it?? I mean other than he is rich and powerful. 2. Apparently, all over the world people are facing consequences for their involvement with Epstein. But not in the US. Nope.

14. By all available evidence ICE is lawless and overfunded, officers are violent, poorly vetted and trained, and seem to be unsupervised and unaccountable for their behavior. There are far too many examples of appalling behavior to say it’s just some “bad apples".

In this case in Oregon, A U.S. citizen suffered a concussion, a torn rotator cuff and bruised ribs after immigration officers stopped her on the street, shattered her car window, yanked her out of the car. They then suddenly just left. Why? Well, HER PASSPORT WAS IN HER DAMN PURSE.

15. Then there is this: Police in Bloomington, Minnesota announced this week that one of the men they arrested in an underage sex trafficking sting was a background checker for ICE agents.

16. Who is actually, by the numbers, better for our economy – immigrants or Republicans (no I’m not kidding)? Thank you to a dear friend and subscriber for video recommendation! You know who you are!

17. Doomscrolling break! (also a subscriber recommendation)

18. I have it on expert authority (yes – a subscriber and dear friend) that that Flip the Vote is doing incredible work around elections.

“Flip The Vote (FTV), an organization that raises money for grass roots organizations in key swing states. These groups have been highly vetted, mostly run by people of color and in districts where many people - sometimes as much as 80% of the citizens - do not vote. The greater the turnout, the more likely democrats will win.

The money we raise goes to educate local citizens who then create relationships within their own communities. They go door-to-door to discuss local issues that affect them, call to remind them of local meetings, answer questions and provide educational materials; they register them to vote and take them to the polls. The relationships are effective and on-going, increasing voter turnout with each election cycle. Since 2018 FTV has raised over twenty million dollars.”

SIGN UP FOR THE VIRTUAL HOUSE PARTY ON FEBRUARY 24TH FROM 5PM TO 6PM. The hour will include a presentation by FTV representatives along with time for Q&A.

What races…

· Do we have a chance of winning

· That aren’t slam dunks

· Are at the national level

· Would have the greatest impact on the political scene

· Would lean Democratic If we could energize the citizens to care, register and to vote regularly?

19. At Glacier National Park, Trump ordered the removal of displays that explained the role of climate change in shrinking glaciers.

20. Oh guess what? The conservative (libertarian) CATO Institute (funded by the Koch brothers) says Biden did not create the border/immigration crisis.

“The main takeaways are:

· Illegal immigration had already increased to a 21-year high before Biden entered office.

· Biden immediately started increasing expulsions from his first day in office.

· Biden tripled interior detention and increased border detention 12-fold.

· Biden increased air removal flights by 55 percent over 2020 levels.

· Biden negotiated broader expulsion deals with foreign countries than Trump.

· Biden got many foreign countries to carry out crackdowns on illegal and legal migration.

· Biden removed or expelled 3.3 million border crossers—three times as many as Trump.

· Biden even managed to remove a similar percentage of crossers as Trump’s four years.

So there.