🐧 🏔️

the most important state election of early 2026 is right around the corner… though you’d never know it by the attention it’s receiving.

here’s hoping this bolts article helps jumpstart a little more chat!

Looks like Democrats are out-voting Republicans in both the TX and NC Senate primaries

BREAKING: Credible whistleblower discloses that FBI forensic experts were ordered to stand down from processing the scene where Renee Good was killed, because Kash Patel did not want Good referenced as a “victim” in the warrant.

things every single republican president of your lifetime has done

- started a war in the middle east
- completely destroyed the economy

New meta-analysis of 26 published studies concludes that AVs will lead people to use cars a lot more — which would thicken congestion and worsen pollution (even if AVs are electric).

"AV deployment is anticipated to lead to an overall increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled."

doi.org/10.1016/j.tb...

Sam Alito has an oil money problem 30 percent of Alito’s individual stock portfolio is directly tied to fossil fuels.

The Supreme Court has decided to hear a major climate case against fossil fuel companies

Alito has not recused himself, despite owning nearly $200,000 in fossil fuel stocks—including in Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips, which are being sued in cases that would be directly affected by a SCOTUS ruling

Kash Patel’s use of jet delayed FBI team’s mass shooting response, whistleblower tells top senator Sen. Richard Durbin says FBI director’s “misplaced priorities” led to the delayed response to the Brown University shooting in December.

Breaking MS NOW:

Agents with the FBI's elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown U. in December because there was no FBI plane available.

Kash Patel was in south Florida at the time with one of the FBI's two available jets.

Jeanine Pirro's office shelves pursuit of Democrats over social video, sources say A federal grand jury in D.C. unanimously rejected the attempt to indict six lawmakers who told military and intelligence community members on social media not to obey unlawful orders.

Breaking NBC:

Jeanine Pirro's office has decided to stop pursuing the case against six Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military and intelligence communities in a social media video not to comply with unlawful orders, three people familiar with the matter told NBC News.

An ICE agent shot and killed Ruben Ray Martinez, a US citizen and San Antonio resident, in March 2025. Then ICE and the Texas Department of Public Safety covered it up. He was 23 years old. I am calling for a full investigation into this shooting, including why there was an 8-month cover up.

BOOM from SCOTUS:

"IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs."

It appears to be a 6-3 decision authored by Roberts.
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

This is catching on. There’s nothing Trump hates more than being ignored.

Any candidates you’re excited about? I haven’t been following, but also haven’t heard about anyone who wants to tax the rich / corporations

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.

You Know What? Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid She’s only 36, and there’s a good argument that she should run for Senate and bide her time. But she also could be a formidable White House candidate.

"From joining Sanders on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to endorsing Mamdani to her comments in Munich, Ocasio-Cortez keeps showing prescience and depth. Perhaps the right woman is staring right in front of us, and we should embrace her leadership." newrepublic.com/article/2065...

I’d love to hear Emily make the case for public ownership of fossil fuels, and for you to just ask whatever follow up questions come to mind for you

Salesforce Workers Circulate Open Letter Urging CEO Marc Benioff to Denounce ICE The letter comes after Benioff joked at a company event on Monday that ICE was monitoring international employees in attendance, sparking immediate backlash.

The letter comes after Benioff joked at a company event on Monday that ICE was monitoring international employees in attendance, sparking immediate backlash.

The backlash against Trump is showing up in hard data, not just polls New data on protest activity shows organized anti-Trump actions are 4x the size they were in the president's first term. Your weekly political data roundup for February 15, 2026.

Weekly data roundup for Feb. 15: New hard data show same pattern of intense anti-Trump backlash that polls do. Protests against Trump are happening at 4x the rate as 2017-18, and special election swings offer more data on the same point www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-back...

Even without an on-campus voting site, NCAT students still marched to the polls. 💙💛 Students at North Carolina A&T showed that barriers won’t stop their voices. When access isn’t easy, they organize. ... TikTok video by HBCU Student Action Alliance

North Carolina lawmakers have voted to remove all college campus voting sites. Specifically at the largest HBCU in the US NC A&T. They now have to walk 30 minutes to their nearest polling place. Students are protesting this - pls share and support.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZThx29BJ9/

Trump Using A ‘Softer Touch’ With ICE In Minnesota? Residents Say Don’t Be Fooled. Two weeks after Alex Pretti’s killing, federal agents have shown no signs of backing down. The resistance definitely hasn't.

MN terror continues: “We had 2 abductions in my area on Monday and 2 more today. They drew guns on observers in South yesterday and were jumping out of cars today about a mile and a half from us.”

At least eight observers were detained in Minneapolis by ICE on Friday.

No executions though

This is incredibly cool — A source familiar with Bad Bunny’s performance tonight tells me that the couple in the halftime show got married for real. They invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and in turn he invited them to get married during his performance.

‼️

RESULT: Democrat Chasity Martinez wins a special election for a legislative seat in Louisiana, 62% to 38%.

This was a district that Trump carried by 13% last year, so a big overperformance by Dems, but the seat was already Dem-held.

The Growing Debacle for Will Lewis and the Washington Post The crisis at the newspaper suggests the publisher has no idea about how the media operates.

From June:
"[Now fmr WaPo publisher Will] Lewis is named in a complex and unfolding civil lawsuit in Britain that claims he played a role in destroying evidence in the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed British newspapers more than a decade ago"
Bezos didn't care ..
www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Trump’s family is embroiled in a $500m UAE scandal. We’ve hardly noticed | Mohamad Bazzi A crypto startup founded by Trump’s family signed a huge deal with the UAE president’s brother. Where’s the political fallout?

The Guardian:
“Under any other president, a UAE royal secretly paying $500M to the Trump family’s crypto business would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be an investigation by Congress, televised hearings, and months of damage control”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I hope Dems begin to see that moderate or progressive, AIPAC is not our friend.

They endorse January 6th insurrectionists. Yet if you so much as suggest the US uphold its own Leahy laws, no matter your record, they will work against you.

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/...

New Mexico Senate approves bill to ban ICE detention centers The New Mexico Legislature approved the Immigration Safety Act. House bill 9 bars the state from allowing ICE detention centers.

New Mexico's legislature just passed a bill that bans local governments from joining ICE's 287(g) program *and* from hosting detention centers. On to the governor.

www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...

If Dem senators vote to extend the DHS CR again, they are instantly going to lose a tremendous amount of support from their base who have been in wait-and-see mode on this. I can only assume Dem senators considering this have completely lost touch with their voters. Don’t do it.

happening this morning in Minneapolis -- ICE agents drawing guns on observers. I reiterate again that it is only a matter of time before DHS kills more innocent people in Minnesota. Congress needs to shut this shit down right now.

W.H.A.T. A. B.U.R.N.!

The city of Minneapolis and its residents were formally nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

The fact that both are quite experienced—8 years and 12 years with CBP—is yet more evidence that CBP should be abolished and all of its agents fired. There's no way to "reform" or "retrain" that, it's just a violent gang with badges.