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| Via Just saying |
February 8, 2026
Least religious states
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| States with 25% or more of their population "unaffiliated" with religion - Vintage Maps |
Word
It looks as if our national sport is not playing at all but watching. We have become not a nation of athletes but spectators. The result is visible in the physical condition of our people. Mind & body must develop in harmonious proportion to produce a creative intelligence. - JFK
Polls
Newsweek - The latest ActiVote poll, released February 1 and based on a sample of 490 registered voters surveyed between January 1 and January 31 with a margin of error of 4.4 percent, shows Trump at 56 percent approval and 44 percent disapproval among Hispanic respondents.
Just two months earlier, ActiVote found almost the opposite sentiment. Its November poll, conducted between October 1 and October 31 among 574 registered voters with a margin of error of 4.1 percent, measured Trump at 47 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval.
Study Finds Half of Americans are struggling to pay monthly bills on time, with an equal number finding it difficult to afford basic necessities like groceries
Tax refunds have become survival money rather than bonus money, with 73% saying they need their refund more than ever and only 14% planning to spend it on anything fun
38% of Americans have been forced to move due to costs, with younger generations hit hardest; half of Gen Z relocated because they couldn’t afford where they lived
Most Americans have given up on their ideal location, with 64% of Gen Z believing they’ll never be able to afford living where they want to live
Weather
NJ.Com - A rare extreme cold warning has been issued for New Jersey with up to 60 mph gusts dropping wind chills tonight to as low as 20 degrees below zero.
“The combination of very cold air temperatures and strong winds will lead to very dangerous wind chills,” the National Weather Service said early Saturday. “An extreme cold warning is in effect for the entire area until noon Sunday.”
“The combination of very cold air temperatures and strong winds will lead to very dangerous wind chills,” the National Weather Service said early Saturday. “An extreme cold warning is in effect for the entire area until noon Sunday.”
Immigration
The Guardian - Attorneys for the Trump administration are aiming to deport Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy whose photograph in a bunny hat in snowy Minneapolis circulated globally after his detention last month by federal officials during the aggressive anti-immigration crackdown there.
The child, Liam, returned home to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody alongside his father last month and transferred to a notorious family detention facility in Texas.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday it is seeking a deportation order for the Ecuadorian boy.
MS NOW -- A recent independent analysis found that the number of children detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has skyrocketed, from an average of 25 per day at the end of Joe Biden’s term to about 170 per day in Trump’s second term — and as many as 400 on some days, write Kay Guerrero and Jacob Soboroff. At the end of January, one of those children was 2-year-old Chloe Tipan Villacis, who was swept up during a raid in Minneapolis, spent 27 hours in federal custody and was flown to Texas with her father until ICE released her after a federal judge’s order. Read more.
Headline USA - The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has sided with two immigrants who were held in detention for extended periods without being given the opportunity to appear before a judge to request their release on bond. The Monday decision involved Adolph Michelin and Adewumi Abioye, who both challenged their detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as unconstitutional.
Abioye, a Nigerian citizen, came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2018. After completing a prison sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, ICE detained him in May 2022. He remained locked up for more than 16 months without a hearing to determine whether he could be released on bond. In October 2023, Abioye filed a legal petition arguing that holding him for so long without a hearing violated his constitutional right to due process under the Fifth Amendment.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania agreed with Abioye and ordered that he receive a bond hearing. Following that hearing, he was released in December 2023 after posting a $5,000 bond. Abioye then requested that the government pay his legal bills under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), a law that allows people to recover attorneys’ fees when the government’s position in a case was not reasonably justified. The District Court granted his request, awarding him $18,224.58.
.... Michelin’s case followed a similar path. The Jamaican citizen was taken into ICE custody in January 2022 and spent more than a year detained without a bond hearing. He filed his own legal challenge in early 2023, and the District Court ordered his release on a $10,000 bond. Like Abioye, Michelin sought payment of his legal expenses under the EAJA and was awarded $15,841.60.
The New Republic - We're now learning that this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to retrofit around two dozen vast new facilities. In keeping with Trump-Miller's visions, ICE vows to detain an additional 80,000 people in them. Some will reportedly hold up to 10,000 detainees apiece. In other words, the Trump-Miller threat to create a system of new detention camps is just getting underway in earnest.
To put a ghoulish twist on the oft-discussed ideal of bureaucratic "capacity," this will allow Trump and Miller to imprison and then deport vastly more people a whole lot faster. Right now, more than 70,000 migrants are languishing in detention-a record-but the administration is running out of space. Add another 80,000 beds, and it would supercharge expulsion capacity.
Yet these detention dreams are hitting stiff opposition. ICE wants to buy a warehouse in Virginia's Hanover County, which went for Trump by 26 points in 2024 and combines rural territory with Richmond's northern suburbs. Residents recently turned out in force and angrily condemned the proposed sale, with local reports suggesting only a "handful" backed it. The GOP-heavy Board of Supervisors opposed the transaction. The warehouse owner canceled the sale.
....The pushback has come together surprisingly quickly. What explains this? A bizarrely overlooked finding in a recent Pew Research poll sheds some light: It finds that a huge majority of Americans oppose mass immigrant detention. The wording is critical here:
Do you favor or oppose keeping large numbers of immigrants in detention centers while their cases are decided?
Favor: 35 percent
Oppose: 64 percent
Deleting black history
Axios - America's 250th anniversary is colliding with a renewed battle over Black history, as the White House moves to smooth over and narrow how race and equity are discussed, Axios' Delano Massey writes.
- Federal agencies and cultural institutions have deleted or revised Black history content in response to President Trump's anti-DEI mandate, which the administration says restores neutrality.
The National Park Service recently removed or revised dozens of signs and displays related to the mistreatment of Native Americans and slavery — including a Philadelphia exhibit on the enslaved people George Washington held at the President's House.
- One report found that more than 6,700 federal datasets involving minority groups have been deleted, on topics including maternal mortality, sickle cell disease and environmental exposure in historically redlined neighborhoods.
Drugs
NPR - Federal law distinguishes hemp from marijuana based on THC levels, even though the plants are more similar than not. Now, a new federal law aims to sharply limit the amount of THC in final products rather than focusing on the plants these products come from. The new rules, scheduled to go into effect in November, would close a 2018 Farm Bill loophole that allowed for some hemp-derived THC products. Critics warn that the restrictions could devastate CBD businesses and THC-beverage makers.
Many TrumpRx drugs are cheaper elsewhere
Axios - More than half of the drugs listed on the new TrumpRx website have cheaper generic versions available elsewhere, Axios' Maya Goldman reports.
- Pristiq, a Pfizer antidepressant, costs about $200 with a TrumpRx coupon for a 30-day supply.
- But a comparable generic goes for less than $30 on GoodRx and for just $16.65 on Mark Cuban's CostPlusDrugs.
26 of the 43 drugs listed on TrumpRx at launch have generic alternatives, per Anna Kaltenboeck, a drug pricing expert.
A White House spokesperson tells Axios cheaper alternatives may exist for some products, but the site's value lies in providing the lowest-cost option for branded products.
George Mitchell & the Epstein scandal
WMTW - Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, of Maine, has resigned from the scholarship institute that bears his name. Mitchell, 92, has said one of his proudest accomplishments in life was the creation of the Mitchell Institute on Washington Avenue in Portland.
This past weekend, the U.S.-Ireland Alliance voted to remove Mitchell's name from its scholarship. In addition, Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, decided to remove a bust of Mitchell from its campus.
For several decades, the Mitchell Institute has given at least one student from every public high school in Maine a $10,000 scholarship.
The Mitchell Institute Executive Committee said Thursday that Mitchell tendered his resignation from his role as honorary chair of the organization.
"We also agree that this is an appropriate time to initiate a thoughtful, responsible process to consider a potential name change," the committee said in a statement.
Mitchell served as a United States senator from 1980 to 1995 and is well known for his diplomacy. He is credited with successfully brokering a peace deal in Northern Ireland in 1998, effectively ending decades of conflict.
This past weekend, the U.S.-Ireland Alliance voted to remove Mitchell's name from its scholarship. In addition, Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, decided to remove a bust of Mitchell from its campus.
These actions were taken after Mitchell's name appeared more than 300 times in the latest release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
One document in particular details an encounter Mitchell allegedly had with a girl. According to the documents, the girl expressed being scared and reported having to leave for school.
An FBI document dated December 2020 focused on that girl, whose name is redacted. The female described having sex multiple times with Mitchell after Epstein arranged for her to travel to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., according to the documents.
The girl claimed, Mitchell asked for oral sex and sex, so she complied. According to the documents, the girl, "did what she was told."
Mitchell's spokesperson responded to the allegations with a written statement that read: "Senator Mitchell reiterates unequivocally that he never met, spoke with, or had any contact ... with any underage women."
"Senator Mitchell profoundly regrets ever having known Jeffrey Epstein and condemns, without reservation, the horrific harm Epstein inflicted on so many women," Mitchell's spokesperson went on to say in the statement.
Donald Trump
MS NOW - It is standard fare for autocratic leaders to erase boundaries between themselves and the state. Turkmenistan’s late strongman leader Saparmurat Niyazov made his birthday a national holiday, which involved over-the-top celebrations of him, including military parades and a declaration by his ministers that he was a prophet from God. In North Korea’s totalitarian state, cultish praise and ubiquitous imagery of the country’s leaders are an essential part of the government’s social structures designed to induce the public to submit before its authoritarian leader. The effect of these social rituals is to make a leader appear invincible, untouchable.
As The Boston Globe pointed out in December in its analysis of Trump’s renaming obsession, strongmen across history often compelled their subjects or allies to participate in the spectacle of renaming:
Allies of Rome’s Julius Caesar, Germany’s Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, India’s Narendra Modi, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan named sports stadiums, cities, roads, schools, and other public buildings after them.
February 7, 2026
The Obama video is nothing new for Trump
Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian - He has called Somali immigrants “garbage”, talked about “shithole countries”, and described Covid-19 as the “kung flu”. He launched his 2016 presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals and rapists. He repeatedly questioned Obama’s birth certificate.
Private Prison Companies and Executives Have Donated Millions to Members of Congress
In These Times - Leading for-profit prison companies donated about half a million dollars to Republican members of Congress currently in office, and $57,000 to Democratic congressmembers, from 2021 through 2025, according to an investigation by The Appeal. Executives at these firms have also donated millions of dollars to candidates, political parties, and political action committees (PACs).
Trump and the media
The Guardian - Jeff Bezos’s continued decimation of the Washington Post this week was just the latest example of billionaire media ownership endangering America’s free press – at the moment our country needs it most.
Mere days after Amazon premiered its $75m Melania Trump documentary, its CEO – worth around $250bn – laid off 300 Post reporters, including the journalist tasked with scrutinizing Amazon itself.
Of course, it’s not just the Post. CBS. Fox News. ABC. The LA Times. All owned or controlled by billionaires who have cozied up to this president.
And don’t forget the tech CEOs whose black-box algorithms control which news stories tens of millions of Americans even see. Apple, Facebook, TikTok, Google – all run or owned by ultra-rich men who have kissed Trump’s ring.
Climate
Inside Climate News- Enforcement against polluters in the United States plunged in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, a far bigger drop than in the same period of his first term, according to a new report from a watchdog group.
By analyzing a range of federal court and administrative data, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found that civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in cases referred by the Environmental Protection Agency dropped to just 16 in the first 12 months after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. That is 76 percent less than in the first year of the Biden administration.
Trump’s first administration filed 86 such cases in its first year, which was in turn a drop from the Obama administration’s 127 four years earlier.
Polls
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| Republicans against Trump |
Colleges See Major Racial Shifts in Student Enrollment
NY Times - An analysis finds that flagship state universities, as well as less selective colleges, had major increases in Black and Hispanic students following a ban on race-conscious admissions.
The Supreme Court ruling in 2023 banning race-conscious college admissions led to declines in Black and Latino admissions at highly selective universities. At many other schools, the opposite occurred, according to a new analysis.
Overall, freshman enrollment of underrepresented minority groups increased by 8 percent at public flagship universities. The analysis, by a nonprofit organization, Class Action, concludes that those schools were among institutions that benefited as a result of higher rejection rates for Black and Hispanic students at the nation’s 50 most selective schools.
At those top 50 schools, Black freshman enrollment was down by 27 percent and Latino enrollment down by 10 percent.
The data from Class Action, which works to promote equity in education, was based on 2024 federal enrollment figures released in January covering more than 3,000 colleges and universities.
Data released publicly by a smaller number of schools have hinted that highly selective schools admitted fewer Black and Latino students following the Supreme Court decision, but the report was one of the first efforts to analyze the impact of the decision on enrollment demographics across a broad swath of the nation’s colleges.
February 6, 2026
Harvard Proposes Capping A Grades
NY Times - Harvard undergraduates would compete for a limited number of A grades in their courses under a faculty committee proposal released Friday meant to tame grade inflation at the Ivy League school.
During the last school year, about two-thirds of all undergraduate letter grades were A’s. Under the new proposal, grades of A would be limited to 20 percent of grades in a course, with an allowance of four additional A’s.
So, for example, a professor teaching a class of 100 students would be able to award up to 24 grades of A under the proposal, which could come to a vote by faculty this spring. There would be no limits on A-minus and lower grades.
Grades of A at Harvard are supposed to be reserved for work of “extraordinary distinction,” but they have exploded to become the majority of grades awarded.
In developing the proposal, the committee decided to propose returning the A to a lofty designation, as it had originally been intended, said Alisha Holland, a professor in the Department of Government at Harvard and a member of the committee that issued the proposal.
Hilary Clinton's testimony will be kept secret says committee chair
New Republic - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deposition in the Epstein probe will remain outside of the public eye, thanks to the machinations of House Oversight Chair James Comer.
Comer refused to grant Clinton a public hearing Thursday, claiming that open committee meetings are “more for entertainment than substance.”
“She has moved the goalposts millions of times throughout the entire process, then fires out an email attacking me today, accusing me of moving the goalposts, and she’s the one trying to move the goalposts again,” the Kentucky Republican told Fox News.
Jeffrey Epstein files
The Hill - The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it will begin allowing lawmakers to review the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files starting Monday in the wake of criticism that the administration has improperly shielded the identities of various people. “I am writing to confirm that the department is making unredacted versions of the more than 3 million pages of publicly released documents available for review by both houses of Congress starting Monday,” Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote in a letter to all 535 members that was obtained by The Hill.
Lawmakers will be able to review the files in a reading room at the Department of Justice. While they are not permitted to bring electronic devices, they may take notes.
The alert came after several members of Congress said they had questions about whether the DOJ had fully complied with a law requiring public release of the files.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche held a press conference to announce the release of a final tranche of documents, with the DOJ ultimately posting 3 million pages.
Attacking Trump is not enough
Sam Smith - One of the problems with our current politics is that the Democrats are doing a good job exposing and correcting Trump but are not offering a clear alternative in programs. Even this website has not come through with a clear picture of what a post-Trump era would be like due to the lack of clearly presented new goals. Most of the alternatives offered are the names of politicians and not new policies.
To give you an idea of how this differs from the past, here are some measures taken since 1960 by progresisves:
- Civil Rights Act (1964) & Voting Rights Act (1965)
- Fair Housing Act (1968)
- Women's Rights & Equality: Supported the Equal Pay Act (1963)
- Medicare and Medicaid (1965)
- Affordable Care Act (2010)
- Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)
- Environmental Protection: Established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and passed the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
- Education: Increased federal student loans and funding for education.
- Consumer Protection: Created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Gen Z financial impacts
Yahoo - One and a half million more young adults live with their parents today than a decade ago. Theyre losers … economically.
Since the pandemic, fair market rents have increased as much as 40% in Chicago, the cost of owning a car is up more than 40%, and car insurance and health care prices have spiked. Student loan debt has quadrupled since 2000, and entry-level wages havent kept pace with inflation.
For young people without financial or family support, it's an affordability crisis that feels insurmountable.
Jeff Bezos
Financial Times - The most puzzling aspect of Jeff Bezos’s evisceration of the Washington Post is why he won’t sell it to someone else. According to Semafor, the title has plenty of prospective buyers. But America’s fourth-richest man is uninterested.
Instead, this week he closed down many of the paper’s foreign bureaus and whole sections of the paper — sports and metro reporting included. Feeding half of the newspaper into the shredder is not an obvious way to revive the loyalty of a subscriber base that has been shrinking rapidly since late 2024.
But reviving the Post is evidently not Bezos’s objective. His goal seems to be to convert what Donald Trump used to call the “Amazon Washington Post” into a harmless shell of its former self as a display of knee-bending. Selling it to a viable new owner would not help Trump. Having done seminal investigative reporting on Trump during his first term, the paper is now at least partially disabled from sustaining that vital public service in his second. The title proudly adopted the motto “democracy dies in darkness” after Trump was first elected. Now the paper is an exhibit of his attempts to smother democracy in broad daylight.
Word
“May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.” — Millard Fillmore, letter to Henry Clay, 1844.
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