February 1, 2026

Trump Bombs at Alfalfa Club. Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “Over the past week..., Donald Trump’s government has presided over the arrest of a prominent journalist, invoked false claims of fraud to seize ballots in Georgia and defended the shooting death of another protester in Minneapolis by federal agents. He’s also ... attended a lavish screening of his wife Melania’s documentary film, fixated on construction projects including a White House ballroom and griped repeatedly that he has not received adequate credit for his accomplishments. In a frenetic presidency that has been marked by jarring contrasts, he added another Saturday night: suiting up in black-tie regalia and telling jokes about invading Greenland and bombing Iran.... Trump’s appearance put him inside ... the annual dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an exclusive organization of CEOs, politicians and other Washington luminaries. But it was done in characteristic Trumpian fashion, at once unapologetic and awkward, with barbs aimed at political adversaries, grievances over perceived slights and punch lines that at times fell flat.... ” ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe Stephen Miller wrote the “jokes.” To be serious for a moment about humor, Trump has no idea what it is. The only thing he thinks is funny is other people getting hurt.

Out of the Mouths of Babes. Rose Judson of Balloon Juice: Artist Wilfredo Torres posted a picture of Spiderman (that looks just like the Spiderman of the comic books) on Bluesky and sent a personal note to Liam Ramos. "Liam’s classmates have written letters to the ICE agents, according to this video piece in the New York Times (archive link: note that the video didn’t work for me the second time I loaded the page). 'I think you should make friends with the world,' one of the children writes.” Thanks very much of RAS for the link. ~~~

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Miriam Jordan & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has gone to great lengths to arrest and detain as many people as possible during its immigration crackdown. But in recent weeks, a deluge of court cases has led federal judges to release hundreds of immigrant detainees back into the country, and threatens to overwhelm the court system. In case after case, federal judges have found that the Trump administration has been ignoring longstanding legal interpretations that mandate the release of many people who are taken into immigration custody if they post a bond. The surge in such cases has dominated the court dockets in some districts, overwhelming government lawyers who have to defend the detentions.... Lawyers representing detainees have been filing rafts of what are known as habeas corpus petitions — court filings that compel the government to justify holding someone in custody. In the vast majority of cases, judges are siding with the detainees and ordering their immediate release, or ordering immigration judges to hold bond hearings”

Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: “A federal judge has rejected a bid by state and local officials in Minnesota to end Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s massive deployment of thousands of federal agents to aggressively enforce immigration laws.... 'There is evidence that ICE and CBP agents have engaged in racial profiling, excessive use of force, and other harmful actions,' Judge [Katherine] Menendez said, adding that the operation has disrupted daily life for Minnesotans — harming school attendance, forcing police overtime work and straining emergency services. She also said there were signs the Trump administration was using the surge to force the state to change its immigration policies — pointing to a list of policy demands by Attorney General Pam Bondi and similar comments by White House immigration czar Tom Homan. But the Biden-appointed judge said state officials’ arguments that the state was being punished or unfairly treated by the federal government were insufficient to justify blocking the surge altogether. And in a 30-page opinion, the judge said she was 'particularly reluctant to take a side in the debate about the purpose behind Operation Metro Surge.'” The New York Times story is here.

Mattathias Schwartz & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of a 5-year-old boy and his father from immigration custody, condemning their removal from their suburban Minneapolis neighborhood as unconstitutional.... In a blistering opinion ordering [the] ... release [of Liam Conejo Ramos], Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas condemned 'the perfidious lust for unbridled power' and 'the imposition of cruelty.' The boy’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, was also arrested and the pair were taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio. A lawyer for the family previously said in court filings that Mr. Conejo Arias, who is from Ecuador, had legally entered the country under American guidelines for asylum. The Department of Homeland Security had charged that Mr. Conejo Arias had entered the country illegally in December 2024.... The brief but fiery ruling from Judge Biery chastised the government’s 'ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence' and called for 'a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.' He also singled out the use of administrative warrants in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown as violating the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause requirement.” ~~~

     ~~~ Mother Jones has a story here. A CNN story, republished by Yahoo! News, is here. Judge Biery's order, via CNN, is here. ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico (Jan. 30): “For a year, federal judges grappling with ... Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda have looked askance at his administration, warning of potential or, in rarer cases, outright violations of their orders. But in recent weeks, that drumbeat of subtle alarm has metastasized into a full-blown clarion call by judges across the country, who are now openly castigating what they say are systematic legal and constitutional abuses by the administration.... The object of judges’ frustration has routinely been Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the vanguard of Trump’s push to round up and expel millions of noncitizens as quickly as possible. The agency’s unprecedented strategy to mass detain people while their deportation proceedings are pending has flooded the courts with tens of thousands of emergency lawsuits and resulted in a breathtaking rejection by hundreds of judges.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't merely a matter of ICE behaving badly. Regular refusal to ignore court orders describes a federal policy of lawlessness. This is a despot saying, L'état, c'est moi. Trump ignores the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights. He doesn't obey the courts, and he doesn't obey laws passed by Congress if they don't suit him: (like, for instance, the Epstein files release law and the TikTok divestiture law). 

Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: ;“A judicial misconduct complaint against Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C. has been dismissed because the Justice Department failed to show that he exhibited bias against the Trump administration. The allegations against Boasberg, a former prosecutor nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, were widely recirculated by conservative media. But when a federal appeals court requested evidence to back them up, administration officials failed to provide it, Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said in a decision dismissing the misconduct complaint. The decision, dated Dec. 19, was made public Saturday. The misconduct complaint was filed last year by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s then-chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, in an unusual move that showed how ... Donald Trump and his allies have ramped up attacks against federal judges across the country.... 

“Boasberg, who has played a prominent role as the most powerful trial court judge in the nation’s capital, has been a frequent target of criticism. He has repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration in a high-profile case brought by dozens of Venezuelan migrants who were hastily deported to a prison in El Salvador last year.... [The DOJ complaint asserts that at a breakfast in March 2025,] Boasberg brought up concerns from his judicial colleagues that the Trump administration would defy court orders and touch off a constitutional crisis.” But, as Rizzo writes, "Predictions that the Trump administration would flout court orders have been repeatedly borne out in the months since Mizelle called them 'baseless.'” Read on. The link is a gift link.

Jasmine Golden of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is weighing whether to overturn a lower court order in Maryland that bars immigration officials from arresting certain people during green card interviews with their U.S. citizen spouse, a tactic being employed by the Trump administration elsewhere in the country.... Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland say that the administration’s effort amounts to a 'bait and switch,' in that, under its current policy, people with final orders of removal are invited with their U.S. citizen spouse to show up for a green card interview to begin a first step toward gaining legal permanent status. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers then arrested some while they were in the offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the interview.” The suit was first brought during the Biden administration. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't really a "bait and switch" technique. Bait and switch is a marketing tactic where a seller advertise an item at a bargain price, then tells customers it is sold out and offers them an inferior product at a higher price. The tactic the feds are using is more like the original, gruesome version of the French fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood," where the wolf lures Riding Hood to grandma's house, then pops into bed pretending to be Riding Hood's kindly grandma (whom he has already swallowed whole), only to eat the innocent child alive.

⭐This Is What It's Like to Simply Bear Witness in Minneapolis. Austin Campbell of the Intercept: “Less than 40 minutes after federal immigration agents shot and killed ... Alex Pretti on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis, Clayton Kelly was thrown face-first onto the sidewalk, tasting snow and street grime as a federal agent’s knee drove into his back. The incident, a video of which The Intercept reviewed and corroborated with an independent eyewitness, occurred not long after Kelly and his wife arrived in the area where Pretti was killed. With protesters amassing and agents from Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooding the area, the couple told The Intercept, they just wanted to observe the scene. 'All of a sudden,' Kelly said, a federal agent 'started running toward me, pointing and yelling, “That’s him. Get him.’” ;

“Ten days earlier, Kelly had watched as an immigration agent shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg during a federal enforcement action in north Minneapolis. As Kelly told the local outlet Sahan Journal, an SUV with police lights chased another vehicle, and then, 'They went into a house. … I heard two shots before the area was just being swarmed by ICE immediately.' Sosa-Celis was injured — and Kelly’s account contradicted the official narrative released by the Department of Homeland Security.... [Kelly's] detailed account of his beating and detention [on Nicollet Avenue] offers a clear example of how the agents, ostensibly deployed to carry out immigration enforcement, have instead shifted their purpose to encompass a crackdown on dissent. In Kelly’s case, it raises the question of whether he was facing retaliation for acting as a witness.” Read on. The brutality of the agents is horrifying. Agents beat up even a witness to the attack on Kelly; the agents fractured the witness's shoulder. ~~~

~~~ Even More Horrifying. Jack Brook, et al., of the AP: “Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and 'purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,' according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release. But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.... The explanation from ICE is an example of recent run-ins between immigration officers and health care workers.... Workers at the Hennepin County facility say ICE officers have restrained patients in defiance of hospital rules and stayed at their sides for days. The agents have also lingered around the campus and pressed people for proof of citizenship.” Read on. ~~~

~~~ None of this is about "justice" or immigration enforcement. No matter the situation, Trump thugs, stooges and goons go for maximum harm. Here's attorney Abbe Lowell talking about the arrest of his client Don Lemon: ~~~ 

That Nazi Coat? Not Just a Costume. Ernesto Londoño & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “A day before six career federal prosecutors resigned in protest over the Justice Department’s handling of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, lawyers in the office had a conversation with Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader, that left them deeply unsettled. According to several people with knowledge of the telephone conversation, which took place on Jan. 12, Mr. Bovino made derisive remarks about the faith of the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen. Mr. Rosen is an Orthodox Jew and observes Shabbat, a period of rest between Friday and Saturday nights that often includes refraining from using electronic devices. Mr. Bovino, who has been the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, used the term 'chosen people' in a mocking way, according to the people with knowledge of the call. He also asked, sarcastically, whether Mr. Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals don’t take weekends off, the people said.” The Guardian has a derivative report here.

Tom Homan holds a training session with ICE officers in Minneapolis: ~~~

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago ordered city police on Saturday to begin formally documenting instances of aggressive and potentially illegal federal immigration enforcement actions, looking to build cases for prosecution against the most egregious actions.... The order, signed Saturday, instructs the Chicago Police Department to ensure that body cameras worn by officers record any use of force, injuries or other actions, as well as the name and badge number of the supervisory federal officer present at an immigration operation. Officers that are called to a scene involving federal immigration agents are also now required to report any apparent violations of state or local law — and refer cases to the state’s attorney’s office — and create a public record of how many times police have reported or responded to allegations of illegal force. It also requires Chicago police to provide immediate medical care if needed to anyone present.”

Christina Morales of the New York Times: “Crowds rallied in dozens of cities across the nation on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, hoping to build on momentum from demonstrations on Friday against federal operations targeting Minneapolis and other liberal-leaning cities. In Minneapolis — where federal agents have clashed repeatedly with demonstrators in recent months — a rally was punctured with moments of tension, as sheriffs’ deputies made several arrests that some protesters deemed to be violent, knocking over some people as they chased others. Hundreds of people rallied in the afternoon outside Los Angeles City Hall, where Isaac G. Bryan, a Democratic state legislator, spoke to the crowd, encouraging them to keep up their protests and pointing to Minneapolis as a model.... An afternoon rally in Portland, Ore., swelled to become one of the largest protests the city had seen in months, joined by demonstrators from other events held earlier in the day.” ~~~

~~~ BUT, according to Stephen Miller, we all have the wrong idea: ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: “In 1858, Senator James Henry Hammond (D-SC), a wealthy enslaver, rose to explain to his northern colleagues why their objection to human enslavement was so badly misguided. 'In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life,' he said.” This is precisely the theory of Stephen Miller, who has called for a “'labor class' excluded from citizenship and a voice in government....”  

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: A phone call from Donald Trump to Chuck Schumer “touched off a rapid series of events that culminated in a rare compromise between a president who hates to give in and Democrats in Congress who have struggled to use what little leverage they have to counter his agenda.... The agreement to freeze homeland security spending and negotiate over new restrictions on immigration enforcement reflected a swift political shift on Mr. Trump’s signature issue — one that has long been a vulnerability for Democrats — and demonstrated how a public backlash can turn those dynamics upside down.... Earlier on Wednesday, in what appeared to be a bid to make an end run around [Mr. Schumer], White House legislative affairs aides had reached out to some of the Democrats who had broken from Mr. Schumer last fall....They all declined [to meet with administration staff].” More on the shutdown linked below.

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: “In the years since [Jeffrey] Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death by suicide in a Manhattan jail, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people have hastened to distance themselves from the disgraced man with whom they once did business, dined in lavish settings or flew on private jets. But a slow drip of document releases and other revelations over the last several months — culminating in Friday’s release of nearly three million pages of Epstein-related records — has underscored the depth, intensity and persistence of his connections to the global elite, contradicting or undermining years of careful denials....  Together, the documents show how Mr. Epstein’s connections with people in Hollywood, Wall Street, Washington and fashion thrived even after he became a convicted sex offender in 2008.... 

“Elon Musk ... once not only denied visiting Mr. Epstein’s island, but framed his decision as an act of principle.... But the documents released on Friday suggested that Mr. Musk was at one point eager to visit.... On a podcast last year, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, described being so revolted by a mid-2000s visit to Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion that he decided to 'never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.' Mr. Lutnick’s disgust appeared to prove temporary.... The New York real estate mogul Andrew Farkas ... said that his relationship with the sex offender was purely a business one. But documents released recently suggested a more personal connection....

“Testimony and documents released over the years have shown that Mr. Epstein’s cultivation of powerful people was integral to his abuse of women.... He bragged to them about who he knew — and about what might happen to his victims if they turned against him.... Mr. Epstein also appeared to serve as a connector between wealthy men [-- like Steve Tisch, the co-owner of the New York Giants football team --] and young women.... Leon Black, the private equity billionaire who was Mr. Epstein’s main financial benefactor in the 2010s...,  made payments to women in Mr. Epstein’s orbit ... [that] totaled more than $600,000.” Here's a related AP story.

Marie: It's beginning to look like, "... and in a related story ..." will apply to every report involving Trump & his cohort -- because they're all Friends of Jeffrey. Like ferinstance: ~~~  

~~~ Hafiz Rashid of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, appeared in the government’s Friday release of additional Jeffrey Epstein files. Warsh’s name appears to be on an emailed list of guests to 'St. Barth’s Christmas 2010,' among others such as Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and disgraced director Brett Ratner. [MB: but as RAS, late-nite comedians and film critics have noted, not too disgraced to direct 'Melania'] Warsh also appears on a list of people attending a dinner hosted by British aristocrat William Astor.... The news comes the same day that Trump picked Warsh for the Fed.... [Warsh's]  inclusion in the Epstein files is actually not surprising, considering that his wife is billionaire heiress Jane Lauder, granddaughter of Estée Lauder and daughter of Republican donor Ronald Lauder. That puts him in the same wealthy circles that Epstein himself operated in.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Michael Sisak, et al., of the AP: “Newly disclosed U.S. government files on Jeffrey Epstein have prompted the resignation of a top official in Slovakia and revived calls in Britain for a former prince to share what he knows with authorities about Epstein’s links to powerful individuals around the world.... The prime minister of Slovakia accepted the resignation on Saturday of an official, Miroslav Lajcak, who once had a yearlong term as president of the U.N. General Assembly. Lajcak wasn’t accused of wrongdoing but left his position after photos and emails revealed he had met with Epstein in the years after Epstein was released from jail.... British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday suggested [Andrew] Mountbatten-Windsor [-- formerly styled Prince Andrew --] should tell American investigators whatever he knows about Epstein’s activities. The former prince has so far ignored a request from members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee for a 'transcribed interview' about his 'long-standing friendship' with Epstein....

“Making his first public comments about the release, Trump cast the documents as a vindication of his actions. 'I didn’t see it myself but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping, you know, the radical left,' he told reporters Saturday night as he flew to Florida.” MB: Looks as if his staff are lying to him. An FBI complaint summary details accusations by women that Trump forced them to perform oral sex on him when they were very young teenagers.”

Hmm. This Is Suspicious. Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian: “Less than two weeks before Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail, his lawyers and Manhattan federal prosecutors met and discussed his potential cooperation, several documents within a cache of newly released investigative files state. 'On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation,' an FBI document ... stated. Another document..., which was not attributed to a specific agency, closely resembled this FBI memo, and provided several more details.” MB: So he's going to cooperate -- which no doubt would mean naming names -- and he suddenly commits suicide under Trump's watch.

Matthew Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump says he’s reopening 'all commercial airspace over Venezuela,' two months after he warned carriers away amid a U.S. military buildup against the South American nation. U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. Trump said Thursday he had directed the military, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and 'everybody else concerned' to allow the return of air travel to Venezuela. 'American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela. And they’ll be safe there,' Trump told his Cabinet. 'It’s under very strong control.' He said the large Venezuelan diaspora would also be able to return home, to visit or stay.... The State Department maintains a 'Do Not Travel' advisory for the country, its strongest warning, 'due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.'”

Evan Hurst of Wonkette on Trump's promise to keep housing unaffordable for ordinary Americans:  “'Existing housing, people that own their homes, we’re gonna keep them wealthy,' he said in a room full of people and also cameras. 'We’re gonna keep those prices up. We’re not gonna destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home.' Oh? People haven’t worked hard enough? Really? Because 52 percent of Millennials and Gen Zers have a full-time job and at least one 'side-hustle.'... 'We're going to get interest rates down, but I want to protect the people that for the first time in their lives feel good about themselves,' he added. 'That they're wealthy people.' Yes, because what’s really important is the self-esteem of rich people, whose only reason to feel good about themselves is the current price of their house.” 

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times trashes Melania and the movie. ~~~

~~~ BUT Sadly. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: “Amazon’s gold-plated rollout for Melania Trump’s documentary is likely to result in opening-weekend ticket sales of roughly $8.1 million in the United States and Canada, box office analysts projected on Saturday. That would give 'Melania' the best start for a documentary (excluding concert films) in 14 years. It would be a face-saving result for the first lady — just a few days ago, ticket sales were pacing at about $5 million — but not for Amazon, which spent an exorbitant $75 million to buy distribution rights to 'Melania' and market its release. Theater owners keep roughly 50 percent of ticket sales, meaning that Amazon would end the weekend with about $4 million to show for its investment.”

Erik Wemple of the New York Times: “In a court filing late Friday, the Pentagon defended the restrictions it imposed on media organizations in October, calling them a reasonable initiative to balance national security with media access. The filing came in response to a lawsuit filed in December by The New York Times.... In its complaint, The Times argued that the Pentagon policy violated the First Amendment rights of journalists, curbing their ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.'... In a post on X in October, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman..., defended the changes[:] 'Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media.'... The Times, in its suit, argued that Mr. Parnell’s comments reflected an effort to discriminate against some journalists on the basis of their viewpoint, in violation of the First Amendment.”

Meredith Hill & Nicholas Wu of Politico: “The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife. House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people..., the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.... [GOP leaders'] previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote. But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line.” ~~~

~~~ The person who has been the most upset by this funding bill is Sen. Lindsey Graham, because the bill now passed by both Houses, repeals a provision of an earlier funding bill that would have given Lindsey a $1million windfall for having his phone records subpoenaed in connection with the January 6 insurrection. So this happened Friday. ~~~

~~~ Jack Hobbs of the Irish Star, republished by MSN: "South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was accused of being drunk during an appearance on Fox News after he was spotted not looking at the camera and had his tongue sticking out of his mouth. In the clip, Graham, who appeared on the conservative news channel to discuss the Republicans' latest push to end sanctuary cities, seemed to stumble over his words and never looked at Sean Hannity, who was anchoring." Includes clip. ~~~

Invite him to dinner, and you don’t know if he’ll sit down for an intelligent conversation or get drunk and vomit in the fish tank. But that’s why I like him. -- Sen. John Kennedy, writing about Sen. Lindsey Graham   

Shane Goldmacher & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “The Democratic National Committee is entering the 2026 midterm election year at a staggering financial disadvantage, trailing the Republican National Committee by nearly $100 million, according to new federal financial disclosures. The Democratic National Committee entered 2026 in debt. It reported $14 million in the bank, with $17.5 million in debt — putting the party in the red by roughly $3.5 million. In contrast, the Republican National Committee had $95.1 million and no debt. Without a president to headline events, the party that does not hold the White House often struggles to raise money in its main national committee.... [Donald] Trump’s reputation as a transactional politician has only further encouraged donors with business before the government to give generously, both to the party and Mr. Trump’s super PAC. Still, the depth of the Democratic Party’s financial hole is noteworthy.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Donald Trump doesn't have a "reputation" as a transactional politician; he is a transactional politician. And shamelessly corrupt.  

Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “A powerful Democratic committee that will determine which states hold the party’s first nominating contests in the 2028 presidential race voted Saturday to advance 12 states that had applied to be in the early group.... After steep losses in the 2024 general election, party leaders have said they are ready to completely rethink the early-state lineup. On Saturday, Democrats advanced the 12 states that applied to hold the first nominating contests: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Over the course of this year, the members of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will winnow that list to four states — one from each geographic region. The committee is also expected to choose one additional state to hold its contest in the early window.”

Oh, all across this curs-ed land deep sadness fills the air,
The band is silent elsewhere, and elsewhere hearts despair;
And here the men are weeping, and there the children frown,
But there is great joy in my heart – David Brooks is leaving town. 

                                                                ~~ Apologies to Ernest Thayer

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Texas Congressional Race. Liz Crampton of Politico: “Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, a Democrat, won a special runoff election on Saturday to serve the remainder of former Texas Rep. Sylvester [Turner]’s term, who died last year. The Associated Press projected that Menefee beat Amanda Edwards, an attorney and former member of the Houston City council, after a protracted process to fill the central Houston seat after Turner’s death in March 2025. The process was drawn out by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to quickly schedule a special election following Turner’s death and a crowded field that triggered a runoff following the first round of voting in November. But the contest between the pair will continue: Both Menefee, 37, and Edwards, 44, are participating in the March primary for a newly refashioned 18th Congressional District, going up against Rep. Al Green, 78.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Assuming -- perhaps too optimistically -- that Bible Mike will swear in Menefee, this further reduces Republicans' teeny majority. ~~~

     ~~~ Brianna Tucker of the Washington Post: “When Menefee is sworn in, Democrats will have 214 House seats. Republicans currently hold 218, giving House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) a razor-thin margin for error in key votes.” MB: In the House, a tie vote means the measure fails. So, assuming everyone is present (not likely), Bible Mike can afford to have only one Republican vote with all Democrats. (If two Republicans switch sides, the vote would be 216 to 216, and the measure would fail.) 

Texas State Senate Race. David Goodman of the New York Times: “In an upset that rattled Republicans in Texas and beyond, a Democrat decisively won a state legislative special election on Saturday in a district around Fort Worth that ... [Donald] Trump carried by more than 17 percentage points just over a year ago. The Democrat, Taylor Rehmet, a local union leader and first-time candidate, defeated the Republican, Leigh Wambsganss, by double digits — 57 to 43 — in the historically conservative district. The contest to fill a State Senate seat had been closely followed by national leaders from both parties as a barometer of potential Republican struggles in this year’s midterm elections.” An AP story is here.