Category: Uncategorized

Don Lemon Has Hired A Top Notch Defense Lawyer — But He Won’t Need Him.

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Joseph Thompson — who, as of last month, became a criminal defense lawyer — is the former US Attorney for Minneapolis. He was previously a prosecutor in Chicago — and had clerked for Judge Pallmeyer here… all of which reflects very well on his abilities.

The Boys from Main Justice will lose for certain now.

Don Lemon doesn’t need such high-powered help — given that his First Amendment / news gathering defense is iron clad — but I think he just wants to “run up the score”, against the MAGA idiots.

Flawless.

In Which “ICE Barbie” Thinks She Can DICTATE What Congress May And May Not Do, As “Oversight” Of Her [To This Point, Largely Unaccountable] Militia…

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Welp. She is “an inferior officer” — in both the Constitutional sense — and plain English parlance. She is plainly… inferior, in every sense of the word.

She has no authority to countermand, disobey or revoke a federal court TRO. But she thinks her Black Sharpie has that power. Not so. [Now we need the Democrats in Congress to hold the line — and let the GOP shutdown the government, until the same are ready to zero out ICE Barbie’s budget — and start over. Killings via a vastly slush-funded, largely unaccountable private militia [ICE / DHS] are not what the founders had in mind.]

In any event, here is her patent-lunacy in full — pulled from an exhibit (in the federal litigation that has preliminarily enjoined her attempts at bossing the Congress around, in DC), and filed in open court:

…On January 8, 2026, I issued a new policy directing that requests by Members of Congress to visit an ICE facility be submitted at least seven days in advance of the visit.

On February 2, 2026, in Neguse v. ICE, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily enjoined DHS from enforcing that policy or otherwise requiring any plaintiff to provide advance notice before conducting oversight visits for a period of 14 days….

The court concluded that DHS’s policy remains inconsistent with Section 527(b) of the Department’s appropriation [funding]. It is odd that the court issued this decision given the appropriation containing Section 527(b) lapsed on January 31, 2026. [Note that Noem has no standing to call a USDC court’s order “odd”. She may appeal it, but she cannot just sign a new memo (ignoring it). That is the stuff of… Putin.]

As a result of the [funding] lapse, Section 527 is not currently in effect. Therefore, as of this date, I am issuing this new policy that is identical in substance to the January 8 access policy. The General Counsel will provide further guidance regarding the effective date of this policy in light of the court’s order….

What an idiotic faux cowgirl she is. Sit your leather-tanned face self down, ICE Barbie.

Now Likely Friday Morning — Weather At The Cape — Delays Crew 12 Launch, Off Of Thursday…

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As is often the case — Florida weather can be… dynamic, this time of year. So we push a day (or a few days, even).

We will keep you informed, but here is the latest — from NASA:

…NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 5:15 a.m. EST, Friday, Feb. 13, for launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Mission teams completed a weather review Tuesday morning and have waived off the Thursday, Feb. 12, launch opportunity due to forecast weather conditions along Crew-12’s flight path.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev remain in quarantine at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida until the next launch opportunity.

Crew-12 will lift off aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40, and would then dock to the space station’s Harmony module at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14. The commercial crew quartet will stay in space for a nine-month microgravity research mission….

Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

Update: She Then Raced For… Poland — In The NEXT Summer Games, In Paris… She May Run the 4X100, For The ’26 Summer Games — Representing Poland.

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My morning masthead has put me in mind of this event, from the Tokyo Summer Games, of 2021.

Here’s a CNN updating piece — from 2023:

…Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, the Belarusian sprinter who defected at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, has been cleared by World Athletics to compete for Poland after it waived the normal three-year waiting period for nationality changes.

Tsimanouskaya refused to board a flight back home from Tokyo when she was removed from the Olympics against her will after publicly complaining about national team coaches’ decision to enter her in the 4×400 meters relay, which was not her customary distance.

She defected to Poland, saying she feared for her safety if she returned to Belarus. Poland granted her citizenship last year (2022)….

“There is a chance that I will go to the world championships in Budapest,” she added, referring to the competition starting on August 19.

Tsimanouskaya told Reuters last year she wanted another chance to compete at the Olympics. She hoped to race in the 200m at next year’s Paris Games, the event she had been set to run in Tokyo the day after Belarus removed her from the team.

Belarusians and Russians are currently barred from competing at international athletics meets because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for which Belarus is a staging area of what Moscow calls a “special military operation”….

In some sense, we are all… immigrants — we are all… asylum seekers. Onward.

नमस्ते

And So, Unsurprisingly, The Wash. Times Mis-Represented What Wetherell’s “Settlement” Actually Holds…

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We wrote over the weekend about this Washington Times piece of agit-prop — masquerading as journalism.

Nowhere does the Times give a cite to the actual case or decision, in Florida’s northern district federal courthouse.

We now know why — and it wasn’t to preserve any “scoop” value.

The “settlement” not only means nothing — it means less than nothing. It is a political manifesto, exclusively. Written by a bunch of MAGA-nuts.

You see — it is as clear as day that both future administrations, and USDC Judges not a party to this litigation (i.e., all of the judges in the nation, except Wetherell) CANNOT be stopped from GRANTING parole or even asylum, based on individual factors.

For example, if someone detained… has no prior criminal record in the US of any kind… any official may order parole. Even an ICE agent on the ground may use discretion, and not arrest — at all.

That is what 8 USC § 1182(d)(5) plainly mandates — and the “settlement” acknowledges, thus:

…The consent decree provides that the PWC memorandum be vacated pursuant to 5 USC § 706. It is the position of the Department of Justice that the APA does not authorize a court to vacate an agency rule, and that if vacatur is an available remedy, then like all equitable remedies, such relief must be subject to traditional equitable limitations, including the principle of party-specific relief.

The Department acknowledges, however, that there is substantial authority opposing this position in some circuits, including the Eleventh Circuit, though the Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue. In jointly requesting with Plaintiff that the Court enter the parties’ proposed consent decree, the Department agrees not to pursue this position in this case….

So this is all just some faux-red meat — for the morons — purely a show pony, for old DeSantis… and a vast waste of taxpayer money — for political posturing.

Idiotic — at best.

Out.

So… Trump’s Dr. Oz Thinks He Might Boil The Oceans — With A Zippo Lighter?!

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We have been barking about this ever since Tangerine 2.0 was inaugurated. You know that rings true. Damn.

And perhaps some out there in my audiences might think I should applaud the fact that finally Oz is coming around — to endorse bio-science, here — after over 900 children are infected in the Carolinas with a dread disease for which there is a perfectly serviceable vaccine… a viral vector we had all but eliminated over three decades ago… but I am just too damn angry to do so, tonight. US kids are getting sick — and at least some may die — due to Trumpian lunacy.

Here is the latest:

…Dr. Oz’s statements come as the country struggles to contain the highly contagious virus, which infected thousands of people in 2025 and appears to be following a similar trajectory this year. The United States is now at risk of losing its elimination status, a designation given to countries that have not had continuous spread of measles for more than a year. Measles has been eliminated in the United States since 2000.

Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, likened Dr. Oz’s comments to taking a garden hose to a forest fire.

“When you cast those kinds of doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness, one interview on one news show is not going to move the needle,” he said.

Dr. Osterholm argued that Mr. Kennedy began sowing distrust in the vaccine soon after he was confirmed last February. As measles spread through West Texas, he appeared on national television, encouraging vaccination and then, almost in the same breath, raising questions about its safety….

Quite so. Dammit.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker’s Banality: “Epstein Was A ‘Naked Emperor’ — And [Get THIS!] Trump ‘Exposed’ Him!”

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These (as puns) work… on many levels. But John made none of them.

John thinks his are deeply insightful, and meaningful… metaphors. They are the worst sort of self-important lying — to cover for a serial sexual predator. And I mean… the Donald, here — not solely Jeffrey Epstein.

Hinderaker — in all [apparent] seriousness — claims it was Trump who first and best revealed… that Epstein wasn’t very… smart.

Uh-huh.

What a great bit of projection. [And it wholly ignores the ~5,000 mentions of Trump in Epstein’s files.] Not a dog that didn’t bark — this is “where there’s smoke — there’s fire“, Johnnie.

And (perhaps, relatedly) earlier today, John bleated some more about the Minneapolis Resistance’s “Operation Dildo“ — so I’ll run that as the top graphic again, here — since all of the above deserves exactly that much [un-]serious attention.

What a crappy liar Hinderaker is.

Out.

[U] More Loony Trumpian Judges — Trying To Prevent The Immigrants’ “Parole Discretion” Congress Expressly Enacted… YAWN. It Will Be Overruled In 2027-28.

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In immigration matters, the Congress has expressly provided that Administrations retain discretion, both for operational efficiency, and / or lack of detention capacity, to “parole” non-dangerous people, until their hearing dates arrive. That discretion has existed for decades. But in a collusive State of Florida suit, the federal government now purports (with DeSantis) to PREVENT all immigration authorities in the future — from ever exercising the discretion the Congress wisely bestowed on the FUTURE executive branch heads.

It matters not that the “settlement decree” is limited to 15 years, or 2041. Parties to a private lawsuit cannot take away the Congressional mandate — by colluding together, solely to tie the hands of any future Democratic occupant of 1600 Penn. It simply cannot be done (where did this “judge” get his law degree?!).

Just as in political maps / gerrymandering, the Supremes will invalidate this overreach, probably even before the 2028 election outcomes are known. Update: it turns out that this order says nothing of the sort. It is simply a political manifesto by MAGA-nuts. See my new post, of Tuesday, February 10, 2026 — on it all. End update.

Here’s a right-wing rag’s write up on this chicanery — it is self refuting:

…“[All future US governmental] Defendants agree not to issue any memorandum or otherwise adopt any policy that uses the Secretary of Homeland Security’s parole authority under Section 1182(d)(5) to create a categorical processing pathway for aliens at the border primarily to alleviate concerns over detention capacity or improve the Department of Homeland Security’s operational efficiency, including any memorandum or policy shifting the initiation of removal proceedings from the border to the interior or otherwise postponing the initiation of removal proceedings….”

So no, son — your googly eyes will not allow you to rewrite a congressional mandate — and apply it nationwide, just because one state Governor (DeSantis) is willing to try to thwart federal law — and checks and balances.

Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

In About Two Days… She Will Dock At The ISS — And “project εpsilon”, An EU Blog — Will Get Underway, To Daily-Document All Nine Months…

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This is good space science fun: Sophie Adenot, the ESA astronaut riding along with/on Crew 12, will have her own perspective / blog / pod-casts made available at the “εpsilon” web site (hosted by the ESA):

. . .ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot will launch to the International Space Station no earlier than 12 February 2026 for a mission called εpsilon.

The mission name embodies the essence of small, yet impactful, contributions.

In mathematics, ε denotes a small quantity, much like an astronaut’s role in the vastness of spaceflight.

In astronomy, it represents the fifth-brightest star in a constellation.

Sophie will fly to space with her Crew-12 crewmates on a SpaceX Dragon launching from Florida, USA. The crew of four includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev….

Indeed! We will keep you apprised… fly safely, Sophie — smile.

नमस्ते