February 12, 2026

Jordain Carney of Politico: “Lawmakers are heading for the exits following a failed Senate vote Thursday, all but guaranteeing the Department of Homeland Security shuts down early Saturday morning. The funding lapse, which will hit parts of DHS harder than others, comes as the White House and congressional Democrats have failed to move closer to a deal after trading proposals to rein in immigration enforcement practices in the wake of two high-profile shootings in Minneapolis. Democrats called the latest offer from the White House insufficient Thursday and are expected to send a counteroffer.”

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather. Led by a president who refers to climate change as a 'hoax,' the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be. It’s a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties, including Richard Nixon, whose top adviser warned of the dangers of climate change and the first President George Bush, who signed an international climate treaty.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Everything about MAGA is a lie. They pretend the "traditional Christian family" is their ideal, and that every person who doesn't fulfill his or her role in that "typical" family structure is some kind of kooky liberal pervert who doesn't share their perfect values. Well, you cannot pretend to idealize some Nazi vision of "family" when you condemn your own children to live on a planet that you are making more and more uninhabitable. 

Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand. -- Judge James Boasberg, Order, Sanchez v. Trump (the link to the order is is not firewalled) ~~~

~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to help bring back any of the nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants who want to return to the United States from the international limbo they have been living in since March, when officials deported them to El Salvador. The ruling by the judge, James E. Boasberg, was one of the most robust steps taken so far to force the administration to give due process to the Venezuelan immigrants deported under the authority of an 18th century wartime law.... Judge Boasberg’s ruling on Thursday ... came after a more substantive decision he issued in December. That ruling found that the immigrants had been denied due process when they were flown on March 15 ... to El Salvador, where they spent months in a notorious prison built for terrorists. The goal of bringing the men back to U.S. soil, Judge Boasberg wrote, was to provide them with what they were denied when the White House expelled them: hearings at which they could challenge the legal viability of Mr. Trump’s proclamation and contest accusations that they belonged to Tren de Aragua, which the administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.” ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. 

This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees. -- Judge Richard Leon ~~~ 

~~~ Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “A federal judge ordered the Defense Department to halt pending disciplinary proceedings against Sen. Mark Kelly, saying in a ruling Thursday that the retired Navy captain’s right to free speech was under attack by the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon barred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from enforcing a censure against Kelly over comments that the Arizona Democrat made in a social media video reminding service members that they can refuse illegal orders. The judge also ordered a halt to disciplinary proceedings that Hegseth had ordered, which could have reduced Kelly’s rank and cut his military retirement benefits.”

⭐Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, declared an end to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota following widespread protests against immigration raids that led to the fatal shootings by officers of two American citizens. 'Operation Metro Surge is ending,Homan said Thursday at a news conference.... Homan said city and state jails have agreed to increase their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he conceded that they would not hold immigrants who had been ordered released by a judge after they were arrested for an alleged crime, even though that was one of ICE’s top goals. Instead, he said, they would communicate a release date so that federal officers could detain them for deportation.” At 10:30 am ET, this is a developing story. Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Congratulations to every brave person who has stood up to Trump and his fascist regime. You are the heroes. ~~~

     ~~~ Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times on what Minnesotans are learning about one another. 

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “An immigration judge has terminated the deportation case against an undocumented father of three U.S. Marines who was detained by federal agents last year while landscaping in Southern California, paving the way for him to seek legal permanent residency in the United States. Last June, Narciso Barranco was clearing weeds outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana, Calif., when immigration agents approached him from behind, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. Mr. Barranco, a 49-year-old Mexican national who has lived in the United States for three decades, was then transferred to a detention center and placed in deportation proceedings. He was released on a $3,000 bond in mid-July and fitted with an ankle monitor. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security ... accus[ed] him of having raised his weed trimmer at them.... In her order terminating the deportation case, signed on Jan. 28, Judge Kristin S. Piepmeier said that Mr. Barranco had provided evidence that he was the father of three American sons in the military, rendering him eligible to obtain lawful status.”

Maria Kramer of the New York Times: “A New Jersey woman who was detained by federal immigration agents nearly a year ago suffered a seizure after she fell and hit her head in a Texas detention center.... The woman, Leqaa Kordia, who has been held at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, since March 2025, was brought to a hospital last Friday and remained there for 72 hours before being taken back to the detention center.... Ms. Kordia, 33, arrived in the United States from the West Bank in 2016, moving in with her mother in Paterson, N.J. She was arrested in April 2024, when scores of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at Columbia University to protest the war in Gaza. She was issued a summons, the case was dismissed and her arrest report was sealed. [MB: Biden era.] But federal officials began investigating Ms. Kordia about a year later. [MB: Trump era.] On March 13, 2025, Ms. Kordia went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Newark, N.J., after she learned that federal investigators wanted to speak with her. She was then detained for overstaying her visa and put on a plane to Texas, where she has been held ever since, even though a judge has twice ruled that she is not a threat to the United States and could be released on a $20,000 bond.”

Revenge of the Nutjobs. Shawn McCreesh, et al., of the New York Times: “One of the more extraordinary aspects of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term is this: Some of the most far-out election conspiracists who helped him spread lies about the 2020 election and then tried to overturn it are now inside the government, using the power of the state to keep Mr. Trump’s denialism alive. This dynamic came into focus on Tuesday when an unsealed F.B.I. search warrant affidavit revealed that the recent criminal investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Ga., had been instigated by Kurt Olsen, a rather prominent character in Mr. Trump’s election denialism movement. Mr. Olsen, who is a lawyer, was considered by people in the first Trump administration to be a fringe menace. In the second Trump administration, he is the director of 'election security and integrity,' with the power to refer criminal investigations — criminal investigations into things that have been thoroughly debunked. No matter how many times the results of the 2020 election have been rehashed, Mr. Trump’s fixations have not abated. Mr. Olsen’s position is proof of that. But he is not the only one. The president has installed proponents of his fraud claims all across his administration.”

Yo, Zohran! The Rent Is Still Too Damned High. Sally Goldenberg & Mihir Zaveri of the New York Times: “Expanding a New York City program to help struggling tenants pay rent seemed like an obvious campaign promise for Zohran Mamdani, who staked his insurgent candidacy last year on making life more affordable in the five boroughs. Now, confronting a grim fiscal picture in his second month as mayor, Mr. Mamdani no longer intends to back the growth of the $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, despite a plan passed by the City Council and upheld in court. The reversal marks the clearest example yet of the clash between the ideology of his democratic socialist campaign and the tough realities of managing a sprawling, costly bureaucracy.”

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Marie: When I was a child, we used to celebrate February 12 as Abraham Lincoln's birthday. But never once were we impressionable children told that across the pond, on the day of Lincoln's birth, a Shropshire lad soon to be named Charles Robert Darwin also emerged from his mother's womb. My teachers would not have said, of course, for I grew up in the South, where the matter central to the Scopes trial remained very much up for debate. ~~~

~~~ "Four Score and Seven Year Ago...." Heather Cox Richardson on why Lincoln dated the founding of the nation from the Declaration of Independence instead of the Constitution. 

An old White supremacist, a Black guy and a gay Jew walked into .... Oops, no. The white supremacist wouldn't let the Black man & the gay Jewish man in. ~~~ 

~~~ TACO! Chris Cameron & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma told Democratic governors on Wednesday that ... [Donald] Trump had reversed course and would now invite them to an annual gathering of the nation’s governors at the White House, after the president had previously moved to exclude Democrats from the meeting. Hours later, Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked Mr. Stitt, the chairman of the National Governors Association, as a 'RINO,' Republican in name only, apparently blaming the governor for the episode after The New York Times reported last week that the president had spurned Democrats from what had traditionally been a bipartisan working meeting.... Mr. Stitt confirmed the reporting in a letter to governors on Friday and withdrew the N.G.A. as the official organizer of the event.... In a social media post, Mr. Trump denied that he had ever tried to exclude Democrats from the meeting — though by Tuesday night, only Republican governors had received invitations for the meeting scheduled for Friday. He did, however, confirm that he had personally blocked two Democrats, Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, from a separate black-tie dinner that would take place after the meeting because he felt they were 'not worthy of being there.'... It is unclear how many Democratic governors, if any, would accept the late invitation to the Friday meeting.”

     ~~~ Marie: I know it isn't hard to figure out what happened here, but why don't the reporters just spell out for the reader that Trump lied when he "denied that he had ever tried to exclude Democrats"? I mean, a teensy prepositional phrase would do it: "In yet another falsehood, Mr. Trump denied...."

Trump & Drunk Pete Turn Tail & Sneak Outta Town. Tara Copp & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has withdrawn all federalized National Guard troops from U.S. cities, after its repeated attempts to surge forces into Democratic-run states encountered judicial roadblocks. The pullout was completed last month with no public acknowledgment from the White House or the Pentagon other than a social media post weeks earlier in which ... Donald Trump announced the troops’ removal. It was a remarkable turnabout after Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had insisted the mobilizations were necessary to combat what they claimed was unchecked violence and to support enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.”

Leighton Woodhouse, in a New York Times op-ed: “By brazenly jacking Venezuela for its oil and threatening to acquire Greenland against its will, the U.S. is acting as the ancient Greeks, the ancient Persians and the Germanic tribes conducted themselves: brutishly, without shame or apology. And the abdication of Christian values is already shaping the conduct of our government toward its citizens, as in Minneapolis, where immigration agents have killed two protesters. The Trump administration appears unconstrained not only by the limits imposed by the Constitution but by the standards of an average American’s conscience.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Federal judges in upstate New York appointed a new U.S. attorney on Wednesday only to see him abruptly fired by the White House, in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary. Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was appointed as U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony on Wednesday. But just hours later, Mr. Kinsella said, he received an email from a White House official telling him that he was being removed from the post. Reached by phone on Wednesday evening, Mr. Kinsella said that he did not yet know whether the White House email carried the force of law. He said he would discuss the matter with the district judges in the morning and go from there.... It is unclear whether the Northern District judges will have any recourse.”

Michael Kosnar & Kyla Guilfoil of NBC News: “A federal judge Tuesday shut down the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain personal voter information from elections officials in Michigan, the third time a court has tossed a lawsuit by the Trump administration in its efforts to obtain voter registration lists from the states.... In a 23-page order,  [District Judge Hala] Jarbou said federal voting laws cited by the Justice Department do not require the state to turn over the voter information. The Justice Department cited the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Civil Rights Act in its lawsuit. Jarbou, a Trump appointee, wrote: '... the Court concludes that (1) HAVA does not require the disclosure of any records, (2) the NVRA does not require the disclosure of voter registration lists..., and (3) the CRA does not require the disclosure of voter registration lists....'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Total Boxwine Fail. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "None of the D.C. grand jurors who heard the Trump administration’s pitch on why they should indict Democratic lawmakers over a video urging members of the military and intelligence communities to uphold their oaths believed the Justice Department had met the low threshold of probable cause, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.... In 2016, the Justice Department investigated more than 151,000 suspects, but grand juries returned just six “no bills,” per DOJ statistics. The vast majority of assistant U.S. attorneys will go their entire careers without being rejected by a grand jury like this. As NBC News previously reported, the lawyers who attempted to bring the case are political appointees, not career prosecutors." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: Let me just point out that the grand jury's no-true-bills in these cases were not instances of "jury nullification." In a jury nullification verdict, the jury may find that a defendant has broken a law but returns a "not guilty" verdict anyway. Maybe they just like the perp; maybe they think the law is stupid. Whatever. But here the grand jury seemed to be aware of the validity of a Constitutional right to free speech and the jurors decided the six defendants had not violated the Constitution or broken any laws flowing out of or dependent upon First Amendment protections.    

~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette takes a victory lap over Judge Boxwine's loss in the grand jury, AND he schools New York Times reporters on what is "remarkable." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jacob Wendler of Politico: “Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) on Wednesday demanded U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro preserve all evidence related to her unsuccessful effort to bring charges against him and five other Democratic lawmakers.... In a letter sent Wednesday to Pirro’s office, Abbe Lowell, Crow’s attorney, called the effort to indict Crow and the other Democrats involved in the video 'a breathtaking and unprecedented level of prosecutorial overreach and misuse of power.' Lowell, who has represented a wide swath of ... Donald Trump’s enemies in the last year, also put Pirro and other federal prosecutors 'on notice' of the possible legal ramifications for failing to preserve evidence in the case or taking further action to pursue the case.” MB: I believe Sen. Elissa Slotkin, another of the six defendants, said on teevee yesterday that she too was demanding the DOJ preserve evidence.

Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Internal Revenue Service improperly shared confidential tax information of thousands of individuals with immigration enforcement officials, according to three people familiar with the situation, appearing to breach a legal fire wall intended to protect taxpayer data.... Federal law mandates strict protections of the identities of taxpayers, including the sharing of data within the federal government. Undocumented immigrants have for years paid taxes with assurances from the federal government that doing so would not result in them being targeted by immigration enforcement. But ... Treasury, which oversees the IRS, in April agreed to provide DHS with the names and addresses of individuals the Trump administration believed to be in the country illegally....

“Federal courts have since blocked the data-sharing arrangement, holding that it violates taxpayers’ rights, though the government appealed those rulings. Before the agreement was struck down, DHS requested the addresses of 1.2 million individuals from the IRS. The tax agency responded with data on 47,000 individuals, according to court records. When the IRS shared the addresses with DHS, it also inadvertently disclosed private information for thousands of taxpayers erroneously, a mistake only recently discovered....”

From the AP's live updates: “The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday morning, just hours after it announced a 10-day closure that would have grounded all flights to and from the airport. The FAA said in a social media post that it has lifted the temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, saying there was no threat to commercial aviation and that all flights will resume. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department 'acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.' He said normal flights are resuming.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Uh, looks as if Patrick (see Wednesday's Comments) was right. That "cartel drone incursion" appears to be pretty much a convenient cover story is complete CYA bull. ~~~ 

Dangerous children's party
balloon shot down near El Paso!

~~~ Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "The unexpected but brief airspace closure in the Texas border city of El Paso stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests, multiple sources ... told CBS News. The Pentagon had undertaken extensive planning on the use of military technology near Fort Bliss, a military base that abuts the El Paso International Airport, to practice taking down drones.... FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford on Tuesday night decided to close the airspace — without alerting White House, Pentagon or Homeland Security officials.... Bedford told officials the airspace restrictions would be in place to ensure safety until issues with the War Department could be resolved.... Earlier this week, the anti-drone technology was launched near the southern border to shoot down what appeared to be foreign drones. The flying material turned out to be a party balloon, sources said. One balloon was shot down, several sources said. The Mexican cartels have been running drones on the border lately, the sources said, but it was unclear how many were hit by the military ... this week. One official said at least one cartel drone was successfully disabled. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

From the Fort Bliss
forensic files.

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, I see Barry Weiss's "News" department is calling the Defense Department the "War Department." ~~~

~~~ Wait, Wait. It Gets Worse. Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the New York Times: “The abrupt closure of El Paso’s airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft, according to multiple people briefed on the situation. The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly declare that the nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House. Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social media post that 'the threat has been neutralized.' But that assertion was undercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the F.A.A.’s extreme move came after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti-drone laser shared by the Pentagon without coordination with the F.A.A.” ~~~

     ~~~ Where is Greg Bovino? Has he been "neutralized?" Does Kristi Noem still have her job and her airplanes and her posh, rent-free, waterfront house? 

Paul Krugman: "... despite his intelligence deficit, [Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick] sits at the intersection of not one but at least two ugly conspiracies. Before joining Trump’s cabinet, Lutnick ran the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald — presenting a huge potential conflict of interest that he claims to have ended by turning the business over to … his sons. Cantor Fitzgerald, in turn, is intimately linked to Tether, a cryptocurrency that is highly profitable because it has become a favorite channel for money-laundering by international criminals.... Lutnick has in the past vehemently denied having any association with Jeffrey Epstein, insisting that he severed all contact with the pedophile ringleader in 2005. But even the highly limited, extremely redacted release of the Epstein files — everything we’ve seen reeks of a major coverup — shows that he was flat-out lying. Not only did he stay in close contact with Epstein, the two men appear to have gone into business together.... The more we learn, the more pedophilia and criminal use of cryptocurrency look related, even like different aspects of a single conspiracy. Epstein, it turns out, was a major early investor in the crypto industry. In the backrooms of MAGA-land, passing around under-age girls is a lot like passing around insider crypto deals."

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Four states led by Democrats sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, aiming to halt deep cuts in federal public health funds that had already been allocated. Some of the grants were intended to help specific populations, often communities of color or gay and bisexual men. The Trump administration has made it a priority to root out federal funding for work that it believes is 'woke' — focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services informed Congress that it was planning to pull back roughly $600 million in funding to the four states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. The lawsuit claims the move was illegal and would 'irreparably harm the states and are based on political animus.' The attorneys general of the four states filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the cuts from taking effect.”

Theodoric Meyer & Riley Beggin of the Washington Post: “Large swaths of the Department of Homeland Security are set to shut down Saturday unless lawmakers strike a last-minute deal to fund the agency, with Democrats threatening to oppose any legislation that does not include new restrictions on federal immigration agents. Democrats demanded a long list of changes to DHS after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti last month in Minneapolis, including tighter rules on warrants and a ban on agents wearing face masks. The White House is open to some of them, but the two sides have not reached an agreement days before the department is set to run out of money.”

House Passes Significant Voter Suppression Bill. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “The House on Wednesday passed a strict voter identification measure that would require proof of American citizenship to vote and allow the Department of Homeland Security to seize voter rolls in any state, as Republicans muscled through a measure that is doomed in the Senate but that amplifies ... [Donald] Trump’s groundless charges of rigged elections. The bill, fast-tracked through the House just days after Mr. Trump called to nationalize voting to combat what he claimed was rampant voter fraud, passed along party lines on a vote of 218 to 213, with just one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voting with Republicans in favor of it. It had no chance of passage in the Senate, where one Republican has already expressed major concerns about it and the majority leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, has said he will not lower the 60-vote filibuster threshold to try to ram it through that chamber on a simple majority vote over Democratic opposition.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Ari Berman of Mother Jones: “The House passage of the new bill, now called the SAVE America Act, comes roughly a week after ... [Donald] Trump called on Republicans to 'nationalize the voting' and 'take over the voting in at least 15 places.' While the latest iteration of the SAVE Act does not usurp state and local election administration in precisely that way, it would still massively federalize new restrictions on voting that Trump and his allies have pushed for years. The centerpiece of the bill remains a requirement that voters show proof of US citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. Nine percent of American citizens, roughly 21 million people, don’t have ready access to citizenship documents, according to a study by the Brennan Center and other voting rights groups. That likely understates the number of Americans who could be burdened by the bill, since most people do not carry around citizenship documents with them.”

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “The House voted on Wednesday to rescind tariffs that ... [Donald] Trump imposed on Canada last year, delivering a largely symbolic but politically consequential rebuke that Republicans had fought for a year to prevent. In a 219-to-211 vote, six Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in backing the resolution sponsored by Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.... The Senate has moved to cancel the president’s tariffs in recent months.... The [House] measure is unlikely to have any practical effect given that Mr. Trump would almost certainly veto it. 'There is not a national emergency,' Mr. Meeks declared from the House floor while urging his colleagues to support the resolution. He and other Democrats argued that Mr. Trump’s signature economic policy was 'not a strategy' but an 'impulse.'” Politico's story is here.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to apologize to survivors of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who were seated in the House Judiciary Committee room on Wednesday — and instead demanded that Democrats apologize to ... [Donald] Trump. Ms. Bondi, imitating Mr. Trump’s tactic of going on the attack when facing tough questions, offered few detailed answers, no admissions of fault but many expressions of fealty and admiration for a president who has exercised direct control over the Justice Department’s actions. The bitter back-and-forth, during a four-hour hearing before lawmakers, demonstrated the extent to which the Epstein files, once relegated to the conspiratorial outskirts of American politics, have become a defining issue for Ms. Bondi. The topic at times overshadowed her role in subordinating her department into an extension of Mr. Trump’s will and retribution agenda.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here are some excerpts, by Thrush, from yesterday's New York Times liveblog covering the House hearing: ~~~

“Bondi has accused the Democrats of 'theatrics.' But the attorney general has been, by far, the loudest voice in the hearing room. She has insulted several Democrats and has been repeatedly, if gently, blocked by Jim Jordan, a Republican and the chairman of the judiciary committee, from shouting over her questioners.” 

“... Pam Bondi refused to apologize to survivors of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who were seated in the House Judiciary Committee room on Wednesday — and instead demanded that Democrats apologize to ... [Donald] Trump. Ms. Bondi, imitating Mr. Trump’s tactic of going on the attack when facing tough questions, offered few answers, no admissions of fault and many expressions of fealty and admiration for a president who has exercised direct control over her department’s actions. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the panel, delivered a salvo of disgust in his opening statement: ... 'You’re siding with the perpetrators, and you’re ignoring the victims,' he said. 'That will be your legacy, unless you act quickly to change course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.'

“An uncomfortable and dramatic moment came when Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, made an emotional appeal for Ms. Bondi to say she was sorry for the slapdash and sluggish release of the Epstein-related documents, which inadvertently included the disclosure of victims’ names that were supposed to be redacted. Ms. Bondi appeared momentarily at a loss for words. Then something clicked and she began an attack at higher volume than any other voice in the room, accusing Ms. Jayapal of dragging the hearing into 'into the gutter.'” ~~~

~~~ Sam Levine of the Guardian has more on Bondi's bad behavior. ~~~ 

~~~ Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “A photographer at Wednesday’s blockbuster House Judiciary hearing captured an image of Attorney General Pam Bondi with a document appearing to show Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-WA) searches on the Epstein Files — which she and other members of Congress were given access to two days earlier. Getty photographer Roberto Schmidt snapped a picture of the AG with a document titled 'Jayapal Pramila Search History' —— along with numerous file names and document descriptions.... Speaking with MS NOW’s Ali Vitali, Jayapal blasted Bondi after learning about the photo. 'It’s totally inappropriate,' Jayapal told Vitali. 'Is this is whole reason they opened [the files] up to us two days early? So they could essentially surveil members to see what we were gonna ask her about?'” ~~~

     ~~~ Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) — the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary committee — accused Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice of 'Orwellian' surveillance on House Democrats’ searches of the Epstein files. In a video posted late Wednesday by the progressive outlet MeidasTouch, Raskin — speaking with reporters on the steps of the Capitol — reacted to the photo which showed Bondi, testifying before the House Judiciary committee, in possession of a document seeming to show the Epstein files search history of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). 'It is a violation of the separation of powers for them to essentially be monitoring our computer searches on the Epstein files,' Raskin said. 'I think it’s outrageous that they would do that! It’s Orwellian! And we’re going to have some more to say about it soon....'” ~~~

~~~ Where Bondi's "Binder Full of Insults" Spectacularly Let Her Down. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “A tense confrontation erupted Wednesday during a marathon House Judiciary Committee hearing when Attorney General Pam Bondi went after Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) for allegedly not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism. The exchange began when Bondi questioned Balint’s previous oversight activities regarding Jeffrey Epstein in the past.... Bondi then attacked Balint’s voting record, saying: 'And also, I want the record to reflect that, you know, with this anti-Semitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution condemning.' 'Oh, oh, do you want to go there attorney general, do you want to go there? Are you serious?!' shot back a furious Balint 'Talking about anti-Semitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust! Really? Really? Balint added as she walked out of the hearing.” ~~~ 

~~~ digby has some lowlights here. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Jen Psaki does a nice job here of summarizing Bondi's performance. Includes excerpts: 

~~~~ Here's an example of Bondi just screaming at everybody: ~~~ 

~~~ And here's a good mash-up. ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: If you have not been following politics for long, don't think Bondi's appearances before Congressional committees are normal. Generally -- at least in the pre-Trumpian era -- witnesses were respectful. If anything, it was grandstanding members of Congress who behaved badly, and witnesses answered politely even when members posed aggressive, rude and leading questions. 

Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: “Gallup will no longer track presidential approval ratings after more than eight decades doing so, the public opinion polling agency confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. The company said starting this year it would stop publishing approval and favorability ratings of individual political figures, saying in a statement it 'reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.'... [Donald] Trump has seen his rating by the agency slip in recent months, peaking at 47 percent last February and dipping to less than 37 percent in its last poll taken in December.... When asked by The Hill if Gallup had received any feedback from the White House or anyone in the current administration before making the decision, the spokesperson said, 'this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ "I totally believe Gallup," she declared whilst nursing the wounds she suffered from her fall off the turnip truck. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by  Ruth Igielnik, is here: “Gallup’s decision comes as ... [Donald] Trump has escalated his threats against the press, and sued at least one respected pollster, J. Ann Selzer.”  

Rick Maese & Les Carpenter of the Washington Post: “A Ukrainian skeleton athlete was barred from competing at the Winter Olympics just hours before his race Thursday after refusing to remove a helmet honoring compatriots killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.... Vladyslav Heraskevych was removed from the starting list for the men’s skeleton event after the jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation ruled that the helmet he intended to wear violated the Olympic Charter and the International Olympic Committee’s guidelines on athlete expression.... The men’s skeleton event began Thursday morning in Cortina d’Ampezzo without Heraskevych.... According to the IOC, officials met repeatedly with Heraskevych and Ukrainian team representatives over several days in an effort to find a solution that would comply with Olympic rules.” A Mediaite report is here.

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Canada. Leyland Cecco of the Guardian: “Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after an assailant opened fire at a school in western Canada, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history. The suspect was later found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. Police found six people dead inside the high school in the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, with a further two bodies found at a residence believed to be connected to the incident. Another person initially believed to have died on the way to hospital was later said to have survived, but remained in critical condition. The suspected shooter was found dead at the school, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or an ongoing threat to the public.... More than two dozen people have been hospitalised – two with life-threatening injuries.... A police active-shooter alert sent to people in the area described the suspect as 'female in a dress with brown hair. Police Supt Ken Floyd later confirmed at a news conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school.” MB: I read elsewhere that the shooter was 18 years old and had “mental health issues.”