February 22, 2026
Word
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Polls
NATIONAL POLL: ABC/WP/Ipsos
Pres. Trump
Approve: 39% (-2)
Disapprove: 60% (+1)
Trump's net approval on key issues
Border Security: -3
Economy: -16
Immigration: -18 (new low)
Tariffs: -30
Inflation: -33
2028 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Gavin Newsom: 46.2%
JD Vance: 40.3%
Not sure: 13.5%
—
With leans
Gavin Newsom: 53.2%
JD Vance: 46.8%
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• Big Data
bigdatapoll.com/blog/gavin-new
Progressives in the presidential race
California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to ban teens under the age of 16 from social media.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN’s Dana Bash that his son opposes a presidential run, texting him, “I’m too young. You need to spend more time with us.”
9% of American adults define themselves as other than heterosexual
Newsweek - An estimated 9 percent of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual, according to Gallup’s latest national polling. The figure, based on interviews conducted throughout 2025, is essentially unchanged from the previous year but remains more than double the share recorded when Gallup first began tracking LGBTQ+ identification in 2012.
Tennessee bill would allow women's death penalty for aborrtion
Tennessean - Two Tennessee Republicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women “involved in the homicide of her own unborn child” as defendants charged with homicide.....The bill was referred to the House Population Health Subcommittee and is not yet on the calendar to be considered
Barack Obama Would Be the Perfect Responder to the State of the Union Address
Jim Smith, Talking Turkey - Former President Obama has indicated that he’s willing to be more public about his criticism of President Trump, and his muted but articulate response to Trump’s State of the Union address would be perfect in so many ways. First, it would be an articulate and sophisticated response to Trump’s lies. Second, it would remind America what “presidential” sounds like.
DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed
The Guardian - Department of Justice prosecutors across the US have suffered a string of embarrassing defeats in their aggressive pursuit of criminal cases against people accused of “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers. In recent months, the federal government has relentlessly prosecuted protesters, government critics, immigrants and others arrested during immigration operations, often accusing them of physically attacking officers or interfering with their duties.
But many of those cases have recently been dismissed or ended in not guilty verdicts.
In several high-profile cases, the prosecutions fell apart because they relied on statements by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers that had no supporting evidence or in some instances were proven by video footage to be blatantly false.
Criminal defense lawyers said it was unusual for federal prosecutors to pursue a high volume of charges over minor clashes with law enforcement, and that it was extraordinary to see the DoJ lose case after case across jurisdictions.
Still, the costs for defendants, even if ultimately exonerated, have been enormous, with many having their mugshots blasted by the government and some forced to languish in jail or have criminal charges hang over them for weeks and months.
Meanwhile. . .
AP News - Despite encouraging box office figures for the season’s first half, the financially strapped Metropolitan Opera scaled back its 2026-27 schedule with its fewest productions in at least 60 years. The Met announced Thursday it will present 17 productions, its lowest total in a non-truncated season since the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1966. T
Housing
NPR - Nearly 80,000 people could face eviction under a newly proposed Department of Housing and Urban Development rule, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis. The rule would require local housing authorities to report any tenant not eligible for rental aid to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Undocumented individuals don’t receive aid, but they can currently live with eligible relatives.
For first time DOJ treating protestors as terrorists
MS NOW - For the first time, federal prosecutors are seeking to convict a group of protesters — most of them American citizens — on charges related to domestic terrorism. The case involves a dozen activists who were protesting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas — a demonstration that led to a confrontation with police, writes Brandy Zadrozny. The defense says it was a protest gone wrong. But prosecutors, echoing Trump’s rhetoric, say it was an “antifa attack” on the federal government. The case will test whether Trump’s arguments about antifa can succeed in court. Read more.
Officials to suspend TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs
The Guardian - The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.
The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers.
The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a statement that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences”. She said also that “TSA and [Customs and Border Protection] CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts”.
The suspensions will begin from 6am ET on Sunday, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the development.
TSA’s PreCheck program allows approved passengers through a faster security lane at US airports and is designed to reduce wait times. Global Entry expedites US customs and immigration clearance for pre-approved, low-risk international travelers entering the US.
.....A similar shutdown last year caused losses of $6.1bn across the travel industry and related sectors.
February 21, 2026
Polls
Newsweek - A new InsiderAdvantage survey, conducted February 17–18 among 800 likely voters using a mix-mode text and panel methodology, found Trump with 50 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points, placing the president narrowly above water.
InsiderAdvantage pollster Matt Towery said the result reflects a rebound after a period of weaker approval, arguing Trump has returned to roughly the 50 percent level, close to or exceeding his margin of victory against Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
He pointed to what he described as more orderly and strategic ICE raids, along with signs the economy is turning positive, as factors behind the shift.
Towery also said that while the previous government shutdown appeared to hurt Trump’s ratings, the most recent one has coincided with stronger numbers.
However, polling analysts say the result stands apart from most other recent surveys and should be interpreted carefully.
Andrew to be removed from line of succession
Express, UK - Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor faces being removed from the royal line of succession as the Government considers a major intervention. Just a day after Andrew was arrested on February 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, it has been reported that the government is considering introducing legislation which would remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of royal succession.
The former prince, who had his titles stripped from him last year following scandals surrounding his past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, is currently eighth-in-line to the throne. Andrew has always denied wrongdoing and accusations against him.
Trump DoJ bids to join lawsuit alleging LA schools discriminate against a ‘new minority: white students’
The Guardian - For decades, the Los Angeles Unified School District has classified its schools based on the proportion of enrolled students who aren’t white.
In a city where more than two-thirds of residents identify as Hispanic, Black or Asian, that meant a vast majority were found to have extraordinarily diverse student bodies. And in an effort to combat segregation, the school district has afforded those diverse schools with smaller class sizes and other benefits.
But last month, a conservative group sued the school district, saying the decades-old program has become a mechanism of “overt discrimination against a new minority: white students”.
That group, called the 1776 Project Foundation, hopes to end the program and “vindicate the American ideal of racial equality”.
“These policies are not just unfair – they’re unconstitutional,” Aiden Buzzetti, the president of the 1776 Project Foundation, said in a statement in January. “What began as a temporary measure to address segregation has become a rigid system of racial favoritism that excludes thousands of students from equal opportunity.”
And on Wednesday, the case was bolstered by the Trump administration. The Department of Justice, under attorney general Pam Bondi, said this week it agreed. The agency’s civil rights division filed to intervene in the case, saying students in LA “should never be classified or treated differently because of their race”.
Trump raises tariffs to 15% on imports from all countri
The Guardian - Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.
Infuriated by the high court’s ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have gotten congressional approval for the tariffs, the US president railed against the justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling them a “disgrace to the nation”, and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies.
....The law according to section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the president to impose a levy of up to 15% for 150 days, although it could face legal challenges. During that period, his administration will work on issuing new and “legally permissible” tariffs, Trump said.
ICE
Megan, Rural Organizing - Rural people across the country are organizing to stop the expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities and coming together to protect their neighbors. In fact, taking action to support our immigrant neighbors has been one of the most galvanizing topics for our rural members that we’ve seen in our decade of organizing on a wide range of economic and civil rights issues. In just a week we’ve convened, trained, and facilitated information sharing with hundreds of rural leaders across the country in strategically important and underserved locations. It shouldn’t be surprising — immigrants ARE rural America. Immigrants are our friends, neighbors, and co-workers — in fact international immigration accounted for 87% of nationwide population growth over the past year.
You may not see it on the news, but brave rural Americans in the very strongholds MAGA Republicans take for granted are standing up and taking action against Stephen Miller and the Trump administration’s deportation machine. These massive facilities designed to warehouse people are extremely controversial and invoke many negative connotations. In fact, experts in the subject, like author Andrea Pitzer, refer to them as “concentration camps.”
Artificial Intelligence
Time - One icy morning in February, nearly 200 people gathered in a church in downtown Richmond, Va. Most had awakened before dawn and driven in from across the state. There were Republicans and Democrats from rural farms and D.C. exurbs. They shared one goal: to fight back against AI development in a region with the largest concentration of data centers in the world. “Aren’t you tired of being ignored by both parties, and having your quality of life and your environment absolutely destroyed by corporate greed?” state senator Danica Roem said, to a standing ovation.
The activists—wearing homemade shirts with slogans like Boondoggle: Data Center in Botetourt County—marched to the state capitol and spent the day testifying to lawmakers about their fears over data centers’ impacts on electricity, water, noise pollution, and more. Some lawmakers pledged to help: “You’re getting a sh-t deal,” state delegate John McAuliff told activists.
The phrase captured many people’s feelings toward the AI industry as a whole. Not much unites Americans these days. But a growing cross section of the public—from MAGA loyalists to Democratic socialists, pastors to policymakers, nurses to filmmakers—agree on at least one thing: AI is moving too fast. While most Americans use the tools, the U.S. is one of the most AI-pessimistic countries in the world. A 2025 Pew poll found five times as many Americans are concerned as are excited about the increased use of AI in daily life. The public thinks AI will worsen our ability to think creatively, form meaningful relationships, and make difficult decisions, Pew found. Other surveys show Americans believe AI will spread misinformation, erode our sense of purpose and meaning, and harm our social and emotional intelligence.
The news media chose not to tell you the truth about tariffs
Dan Froomkin, Press Watch - How obviously illegal were Donald Trump’s tariffs?
So obviously illegal that even this radically right-wing, Trump-enabling Supreme Court couldn’t find a way to rule in his favor.
And here’s the thing: It was obvious that they were illegal from the minute Trump imposed them. The Constitution very clearly assigns that sort of power exclusively to Congress. The tariffs were an arbitrary exercise of power well outside the rule of law.
But the mainstream news reporters covering Trump just couldn’t bring themselves to say so.
Similarly, the tariffs were crazy. They were a non-solution to a problem that didn’t exist. They were destabilizing. They were capricious. And, for good measure, Trump didn’t actually seem to understand how tariffs worked.
But reporters just couldn’t bring themselves to say that, either. (Well, one of them did, briefly.)
Instead, the elite Washington press corps did what it always does with Trump. It treated his actions as if they were within the realm of the normal. That’s called normalizing. It selectively quoted and paraphrased him to make him sound like he was saying something in the realm of the rational. That’s called sanewashing.
Our elite journalists were effectively covering up for Trump, and spreading his lies rather than telling the public the truth.
McConnell Stalls Trump’s Election Overhaul Bill as Republicans Fume
New Republic - Senator Mitch McConnell appears to be stalling the voting bill backed by President Trump, and fellow Republicans are not happy.
McConnell, who leads the Senate Rules Committee, is refusing to schedule a vote on the legislation, thus preventing it from moving forward. The bill would create barriers for voting, requiring specific forms of ID in order for Americans to exercise their constitutional right.
In blocking it, the retiring senator and former majority leader has drawn the ire of his colleagues. Representative Tim Burchett posted a video on X Friday saying McConnell’s actions are partially coming from a place of “meanness” because he doesn’t like Trump, and called his mental acuity into question.
Asian students at Harvard jump
Headline USA - Asian enrollment at Harvard University is skyrocketing as white student participation continues to plummet, according to the latest statistics.
Twitter user AF Post recently pointed out the startling statistics, stating: “Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce the Supreme Court ruling against race-based school admissions, Harvard is now discriminating against White applicants instead of Asian ones. The share of White students admitted in the Classes of 2028 and 2029 fell from 47% in 2025 to 31% in 2028 and 2029, while the share of Asian students rose from 26% to 41% in 2028 and 2029. Black and Latino admissions stayed the same.” [Issues about these numbers]
The Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race conscious admissions programs violate constitutional protections, effectively ending decades of affirmative action at colleges. The original lawsuit alleged Harvard discriminated against Asian American applicants by capping their admission numbers and assigning them lower personal ratings compared to other racial groups.
The Supreme Court decision extends beyond tariffs
Robert Reich - A 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court decided yesterday that Trump cannot take core powers that the Constitution gives Congress. Instead, Congress must delegate that power clearly and unambiguously.
This is a big decision. It goes far beyond merely interpreting the 1997 International Emergency Economic Powers Act not to give Trump the power over tariffs that he claims to have. It reaffirms a basic constitutional principle about the division and separation of powers between Congress and the president.
On its face, this decision clarifies that Trump cannot decide on his own not to spend money Congress has authorized and appropriated — such as the funds for U.S.A.I.D. he refused to spend. And he cannot on his own decide to go to war.
“The Court has long expressed ‘reluctan[ce] to read into ambiguous statutory test’ extraordinary delegations of Congress’s powers,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for himself and five other justices in the opinion released yesterday in Learning Resources vs. Trump.
He continued: “In several cases involving ‘major questions,’ the Court has reasoned that ‘both separation of powers principles and a practical understanding of legislative intent’ suggest Congress would not have delegated ‘highly consequential power’ through ambiguous language.”
Exactly. Trump has no authority on his own to impose tariffs because the Constitution gives that authority to Congress.
But by the same Supreme Court logic, Trump has no authority to impound money Congress has appropriated because the Constitution has given Congress the “core congressional power of the purse,” as the Court stated yesterday.
Hence, the $410 to $425 billion billion in funding that Trump has blocked or delayed violates the Impoundment Control Act, which requires Congressional approval for spending pauses. This includes funding withheld for foreign aid, FEMA, Head Start, Harvard and Columbia universities, and public health.
Nor, by this same Supreme Court logic, does Trump have authority to go to war because Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to "declare War … and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water" — and Congress would not have delegated this highly consequential power to a president through ambiguous language.
Presumably this is why Congress enacted the War Powers Act of 1973, which requires a president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops and requires their withdrawal within 60 to 90 days unless Congress declares war or authorizes an extension. Iran, anyone?
The press has reported on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision as if it were only about tariffs. Wrong. It’s far bigger and even more important.
Labor
In These Tmes - Union membership ticked up last year, with an overall gain of more than 400,000 workers, and a slight increase in the percentage of workers who have a union, to ten percent. The percentage of unionized working people in the private sector held steady at 5.9%, according to the new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey. That remains a 100-year low.
The bump in the numbers is welcome news, but union membership statistics tell us only so much about what’s really happening with the U.S. labor movement. There are promising developments rumbling through unions and other worker justice organizations that the BLS union survey doesn’t capture. Here are five that stand out.
Northwest Labor Press - For decades, strikes were unheard of at Kaiser Permanente, the heavily unionized health maintenance organization that invested in a highly touted partnership with its unions. Now, increasingly, strikes are back, and so are dark warnings from union leaders about the decisions coming out of the executive suite.
A case in point: The U.S. Department of Justice announced Jan. 14 that Kaiser Permanente will pay $556 million to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare in California and Colorado to the tune of about $1 billion over a period of 10 years.
How much snow will actually fall near you?
NY Times - There’s a reason the snowfall prediction on your weather map often misses: It represents just a fraction of the possible outcomes contained within official forecasts.
Most weather maps show you only the center of the distribution of snowfall estimates. Search below to see the full range of possibilities for your community over the next few days.
Truckers and bus drivers wiill have to take tests in English only
Headline USA - All truckers and pass drivers will have to take their commercial driver’s license tests in English as the Trump administration expands its aggressive campaign to improve safety in the industry and get unqualified drivers off the road.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the latest effort Friday to ensure that drivers understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers. Florida already started administering its tests in English.
Currently, many states allow drivers to take their license tests in other languages even though they are required to demonstrate English proficiency. California offered tests in 20 other languages. And Duffy said that a number of states have hired other companies to administer commercial driver’s licenses tests, and those companies aren’t enforcing the standards that drivers are supposed to meet.
“And the third party tester is participating in the scam because they are not adequately testing the people who went through a sham school,” Duffy said.
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