If only this headline from The Onion were true: “Terrified Conservatives Lose Ability To Speak English After Exposure To Bad Bunny Performance — ‘Dios Mio!’ Cry Millions of Panicking Republicans.” Conservatives are struggling in their ranks over Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance as they observe President Trump’s criticism of him and his stage act in light of the rapidly dwindling loss of Hispanic voters. Trump termed the all-Spanish language performance an “affront” to the country and “one of the worst of the worst,” also echoed by many in his MAGA entourage. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” read the president’s Truth Social post. Caroline Sunshine, a deputy communications director in Trump’s presidential campaign, also a staffer who later worked in his first term in office, lauded Bad Bunny for featuring an actual wedding ceremony onstage, saying, “Unpopular but interesting take: there was only one Super Bowl halftime show this year that highlighted the institution of marriage. And it wasn’t the Turning Point halftime show.”

The late Charlie Kirk’s conservative group, Turning Point USA, staged an alternative halftime show featuring Kid Rock, that was solidly panned by most, and it was whispered about that Trump was a viewer of the entire Bad Bunny presentation, which gave rise to his irate foaming at the mouth commentary. Harrison Fields, a former Trump staffer provided no mention of Bad Bunny, but felt it noteworthy to mention his Puerto Rico-born grandmother as a full American citizen, who happened to vote for Trump. Republicans are grimacing at Trump’s disgorging of anti-Latino gibberish with his disapproval rating among Latinos hovering at 70 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Republican strategist and Trump critic, Mike Madrid, questions the calculus of fighting over Bad Bunny in front of tens of millions of Americans. “If the Republicans don’t stop hemorrhaging with young, male Latinos thirty years old and younger, they’re cooked,” says Madrid. “This shows that they’re not even aware of the size of the problem they have.”

On the face of it, the Super Bowl show was less political than BB’s acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards, when he denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say: ICE out, we’re not savages. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens.” As might be expected, the veins on the necks of the MAGA faithful stood out as they voiced their condemnation en masse, but conservatives were divided on the Super Bowl presentation. Conservative commentator and sports journalist, Emily Austin was impressed that Bad Bunny, carrying a US flag, led a parade of flag bearers with flags from the Western Hemisphere — which garnered Austin’s disapproval with followers, unsubscribing from her posts. In her defense, she responded, “Not everyone who loves America and loves our President thinks the same way on everything. Different perspectives and shared love of our country is our strength.” Conservative media star Meghan McCain also defended the performance in a post on X, saying, “Everything in life doesn’t have to be ruined by politics. I’m sorry, but I just genuinely question your taste level if you didn’t enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show.”

Most people consider the conclusion of football season coinciding with the Super Bowl victor being decided — except for Donald Trump, who continued the celebration by pardoning five former NFL players for various criminal convictions, including drug trafficking and perjury. White House pardon czar, Alice Marie Johnson, posted on social media, “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation. Grateful to @POTUS for his continued commitment to second chances. Mercy changes lives.” Now the four survivors can look forward to winning again, something the president hopes is in his future. Recently, the White House published an ‘article’ attempting to assure some unnamed people that Donald Trump is winning. It should be obvious — if you’re winning you don’t have to explain why, and there should be no need to dissuade voters from panicking, a lie which is done only when you’re losing. And Trump is losing.

Except that our golden boy did manage to pick up more bling last week, another trophy invented just for the occasion of naming him ‘Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.’ Lobbyists from the pro-coal organization, the Washington Coal Club, were on hand to present the winning trophy as the president signed an order requiring the Department of Defense to buy billions of dollars worth of coal-fired energy. As Lisa Needham of Daily Kos writes, “Nothing like using the full force of government to prop up a dying industry, right? And hey, if it comes with a cool trophy, all the better.” Needham says this seems to be the only thing the Coal group has done lately, having a dead website, and $23,192 in assets according to ProPublica. She discloses that the organization gave out another “doofus-y” award in 2017, a lifetime achievement award to Robert Murray, a coal company CEO and climate change denier whose company declared bankruptcy in 2019.

Needham feels that Trump is a worthy successor to Murray’s Lifetime award, but Washington Coal Club felt the need to create a new one for a very special boy. Trump’s ego hardly needs a boost, nor does he need encouragement to promote coal usage, though it’s apparent that the country doesn’t want it. Throwing open public lands for private companies to bid on for mining was a total bust, and as utility companies decommission their coal burning plants, Trump has tried to force one to stay open, which will result in higher consumer costs. Needham concludes by saying, “It’s fitting that Trump is falling all over himself to accept an award as champion of something that doesn’t really exist, but Trump will always be a champion, and no one can take that fake award away from him.”

After all is said and done, the coal trophy might be of some consequence as we find that the administration has now unravelled most of the climate change regulations — not a voter-driven subject by any stretch of the imagination. However, Democrats are attempting to make a case about Trump’s links to powerful interests, and in particular Big Oil, in light of his campaign ask for a billion dollars from the industry in the lead-up to the 2024 election. About the president’s move to repeal the ‘endangerment finding,’ the notable legal finding that climate change is a threat to the public, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse made the terse comment, “Corrupted.” The finding is/was the underpinning of the country’s climate rules, and in particular those rules governing cars and trucks – wiped out like the oil on a crankcase dipstick. Senator Chuck Schumer describes the dissolution of the rules as a “corrupt giveaway to Big Oil, an industry which has worked tirelessly to undermine rules that protect against emissions, and now that they have their guy in the White House, they are taking their biggest swing yet.”

Gas powered vehicles can now be expected to bolster the consumption of oil-based fuels, with the auto industry relaxing their shift toward EVs to meet required standards. Senator Ed Markey told The Hill that the change is “just another payback by the Trump administration to the oil, gas and coal industry.” Get ready to preview the all-new Trump coal-fired autos coming to a dealer near you! In his announcement, Trump said, “We are officially terminating the so-called ‘endangerment finding,’ a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers,” as he scoffed at environmental and health concerns, calling them “a giant scam.” Representative Sean Casten told The Hill that in spite of Trump and his MAGA backers, the US will still make climate progress in the coming years. “We are decarbonizing in spite of this setback, because markets want cheap stuff, and cheap stuff is clean stuff.” Casten believes the pace is slowed because of subsidization of Trump’s buddies, who will not be able to compete in the market, but the absence of leadership remains depressing.

Feef, a contributor on Quora brings to our attention an advertisement for Brits who might wish to ship baggage ahead in order to travel light to the USA. The ad asks, “Moving to the USA?,” as it provides a link to get a shipping quote. Clicking on the comments section of the company’s website, we find quite a collection of interesting opinions: “Maybe after the lobotomy but for now I’ll pass…thanks!,” “Yes please, can’t wait. I have friends in El Salvador,” “North Korea sounds more appetising at the moment to be honest, thanks though,” “Did you know Canada is lovely and sane?,” “This is brilliant, thank you I need a laugh,” “Yep. Can’t wait to move to Gilead,” “Just packing my black shirt and some books to burn, I’ll be right over,” “Yeah great idea…why did I not think of that before?,” and “The US has plenty of its own baggage; it doesn’t need mine too.” Risky decision? Sure! But as Neil Simon said, “If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine Chapel floor.”

Much of the snark above may have to do with a news story about an Irish citizen with legal permission to work in the US, who has spent nearly five months in a Texas ICE detention facility. Seamus Culleton describes the conditions in the “modern-day concentration camp” in an interview that details widespread illness, and competition for food as the meals are small and everybody’s always hungry and tired. Toilets and showers are described as “completely nasty” since they are very rarely cleaned. Most detainees fear for their safety and their very lives, with security staff being accused of killing people — “you don’t know what’s going to happen here on a day-to-day basis…it’s a nightmare,” Culleton says. Married to an American citizen, he has been in the country for nearly 20 years, and despite holding a valid work permit, and being in the final stages of receiving a green card — with no criminal record — he was detained by ICE as he drove to work. Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs is engaging “at a senior level” with the US about Culleton’s case, and the Irish prime minister has plans to raise it directly with President Trump in a March meeting. As is often heard: “This is Trump’s vision for America, folks. Any questions?”

Canada no longer has any questions about trade with the US. As Thom Hartmann writes on Raw America, “Economist Dean Baker summed it up perfectly: Trump negates trade pacts with Canada and then gets upset when Canada looks elsewhere for partnerships. Kick your allies in the teeth, then complain when they find a better deal.” The president has turned his attention to our northern neighbor again, to make demands that would be laughable if they weren’t coming from our irrational Oval Office occupant. In a Truth Social post , he has threatened to block the opening of the new Gordie Howe Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit unless Canada hands over partial ownership — the $5.7 project being funded by Canada’s taxpayers, who expect to recoup the costs through tolls. Trump also claimed that Xi Jinping would “terminate ALL ice hockey being played in Canada” if Prime Minister Carney completes the trade deal with China. Catherine McKenna, former environment minister, summed it all up with, “It’s all a grift.”

In a guest article on MeidasTouch, California Representative Ami Bera writes that he is torn, as a member of Congress, on his obligation to attend the upcoming State of the Union address by President Trump. Bera has decided to make this year different after watching the president “run roughshod over the Constitution, display utter disregard for Congress, and openly engage in corruption as he and his family use the office to enrich themselves and tarnish this country that I love. I will not give him the dignity of my presence at the State of the Union.” He calls Trump a troll, who will spend his time at the podium trolling Democrats and Republicans alike, making outrageous and inflammatory statements. “I expect him to make outright lies and exaggerations, boastfully talk about his brilliance, and stare down my Republican colleagues until they stand, applaud feverishly, and demonstrate their fealty to this malignant narcissist.” Bera still believes that America is that “shining city on a hill,” believing that “who we are as a nation is reflected in our Pledge of Allegiance,” wishing that only if the president believed these words. “Donald Trump does not define the United States of America. We do.” Inscribe this message on that empty seat!

Follow the bouncing ball if you dare: Trump’s Truth Social post depicting the Obamas as apes went from 1) A ‘Lion King‘ meme, so stop being such sensitive you snowflakes, 2) A young, rogue staffer is to blame, 3) The President posted it without viewing it in its entirety, but no apology is forthcoming because the portion about the 2020 Big Lie Election Conspiracy is true. And there you have it — a despicable presentation by shameless, malignant racists. Roxane Gay on Bluesky punches back with her take: 1) It was not an accident, 2) It was not a staffer, 3) While the president may have dementia, his racism is not due to dementia, 4) He isn’t sorry; he means every racist thought he shares, 5) His base agrees with him, 6) He will do it again, 7) No one in power will hold him accountable.

Anthony Davis also fires back on his Substack post entitled ‘This Is Exactly Who We Are,’ subtitled, ‘Trump’s post depicting the Obamas as apes is not new.’ He writes, “Every time Donald Trump does something overtly racist, a familiar chorus rises up from pundits, politicians, and the professionally aghast: ‘This is not who we are as Americans.’ It’s a comforting phrase. It reassures the speaker that the rot is external, temporary, an infection rather than a condition. And yet, after nearly a decade of Trump’s racial provocations — rewarded, normalized, and repeatedly excused — the line sounds less like a moral claim and more like a lie we tell ourselves to avoid reckoning with reality. Trump’s repost of a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes should have been disqualifying on its face. The imagery is not subtle. It draws on one of the oldest racist tropes in Western history, a dehumanizing comparison used to justify enslavement, segregation, and violence. That the targets were the country’s first Black president and First Lady only sharpened the insult. This was not edgy humor or political satire. It was naked racial contempt.”

Elliot Kirschner prefaces his Through the Fog post on Substack with ‘venality and vanity, hatred and hubris, and farce and fascism.’ He questions whether we are able to take in the scale of this miserable tableau as we seesaw “between the ridiculous and the reprehensible, feeling the urge to both laugh and cry, recoil and bear witness.” His worry is that one of the most enduring failures of the MAGA era has been the inability of everyone to find an aperture wide enough to let in the full extent of Trump’s moral, psychological, constitutional, temperamental unfitness for the office of president. Kirschner concludes that, “He would fail even the lowest bar for any role of significance or power in a fair, decent, and just society. We have never seen in a president such a toxic mixture of petulance, pettiness, puerility, and perversity. Metaphors struggle to keep pace. Whatever bounds of credulity we inherited from past generations are stretched to a breaking point by what is before us now.”

As authoritarianism expert, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, writes in her New York Times essay, “Trump is falling into the same trap that has undone authoritarian-minded leaders throughout history — he believes his own hype, despite declining approval ratings.” Ben-Ghiat, author of ‘Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present’, has followed strongman megalomania and observed the adverse effects it has on leaders and their governments, and in her lectures at New York University, she describes the phenomenon as “autocratic backfire.” Trump has fallen into this trap by cutting himself off from expert advice and objective feedback, then “doubling down and engaging in even riskier behavior.” Ben-Ghiat sees the result in “a disillusioned population that loses faith in the leader and elites who begin to rethink their support,” citing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Russian President Vladimir Putin as historical examples of the pattern she sees emerging around Donald Trump. Drawing parallels between Trump and past dictators, she notes that the president’s pompous self-praise echoes a fascist slogan from Mussolini’s Italy: “Mussolini is always right.”

Garry Kasparov writes on his ‘The Next Move‘ blog that though we are seeing the evisceration of the American news media with its alarming headlines and push notifications amid eroding journalistic standards, his personal antidote to being overwhelmed is in reading history. While this doesn’t guarantee a happy ending for the present situation, it can provide structure to strategies to be drawn from those who experienced similarities in the past. Authoritarians try to cultivate a sense of aimlessness by committing outrage after outrage, normalizing transgressions and numbing the senses — a new Watergate every hour, as Kasparov terms it. Though consequences are in short supply at present, we can only hope that the same fates await Trump and his MAGA crooks that befell Tricky Dick Nixon and his covert operatives.

Trump’s range of destruction and debasement is purposely overwhelming — the chaos serves his quest for power, to stay on the offensive, to move fast and break things such as doors, windows, bones, and skulls with no apologies. Never let the opposition gain a foothold and keep those federal forces on the march into local communities such as Minneapolis, and ignore the voices of dissent. The president did make a concession by replacing the Nazi-like Bovino with Border Czar Homan in the Twin Cities area, who then announced that 700 ICE agents would be sent packing — only 2,000 more to go, points out Jimmy Kimmel! In his monologue, Kimmel said, “Never in my lifetime did I imagine that we’d be celebrating a troop withdrawal from Minnesota, but 700 agents, as we speak, are packing up their 48″ waist, 28″ inch inseam Carhartt pants and their XXL Punisher T-shirts and heading home. Get ready, 700 moms of ICE agents. Your boys are coming back home to the basement.” And we might conclude that if the moms don’t lock the basement doors, her Proud Boy(s) will be using their baseball bats and flag staffs to disrupt the midterm elections.

The Lincoln Project sarcastically commended Trump for “firing the guy who walked like a Nazi, talked like a Nazi, and even dressed like a Nazi after he oversaw his SECOND murder in January. Kudos, fatso. You did the thing everybody else would’ve done a month ago. Second, we’d like to express our (expected) disappointment with Trump’s follow-up hire, Tom Homan. Also known as the only guy in this administration who gives Trump a run for his money as the most corrupt person in Washington. Come on, Tom. $50,000 in a fast food bag? From undercover agents? On video? And your defense is ‘I didn’t do it’? No wonder you’re in this bonehead administration. Seriously, though. Did Trump have to hire another criminal to head this thing up? Did he have to take the most dysfunctional and deadly area of our government and say, ‘Yeah, put the bribery guy in charge’?”

Satirist Andy Borowitz had to get in on this one: “As part of the DHS drawdown from Minneapolis, on Thursday Tom Homan ordered all 700 ICE agents leaving the city to return their signing bonuses to him in a paper bag. In a memo sent to all departing officers, the border czar instructed them to place $50,000 in a paper bag from the restaurant chain Cava, and meet him in the DHS parking lot after sundown. ‘And make sure no one’s freaking filming us,’ he added. While some ICE agents grumbled about transferring their signing bonuses to Homan, he sternly reminded them, ‘Taking away people’s freedom isn’t free.'”

Nick Turse on The Intercept has an unsettling story about the use of the ace of spades playing card — popularly known as a ‘death card‘ — by ICE officers in Eagle County, Colorado. Motor vehicles were discovered on the roadside, engines idling, hazard light flashing, and no occupants or drivers nearby. Family members arrived at the scene to discover that loved ones had been stopped by the notorious ‘fake traffic stops‘ used by ICE agents who then leave behind a customized ace of spades that read ‘ICE Denver Field Office‘ in place of the abducted vehicle occupants. “Leaving behind a racist death card after targeting Latino workers is an act of intimidation. This is not about public safety. It is about fear and control. It’s rooted in a very long history of racial violence,” said president Alex Sánchez of Voces Unitas, an immigrant rights group. “We are disgusted by ICE’s actions in Eagle County.”

During the Vietnam War, US troops were known to embellish corpses with ‘death cards,’ and the US Playing Card Company furnished thousands of these cards free to servicemen who requested them. Alex Sánchez has been given identical cards found by two different families, with the impression that the cards appear to be designed solely for use by the Denver ICE agents. A DHS spokesperson told the local NBC affiliate that the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility will “conduct a thorough investigation and will take appropriate and swift action.” One federal official pointed out that the ace of spades, in Spades, is the trump card and it’s possible the death card is an homage to President Trump — “these guys are not too subtle, to be honest.” Colorado’s Senator John Hickenlooper denounced the ICE calling cards since they have a history of being used by white supremacist groups for intimidation.

“Uh oh. Somebody’s about to get audited,” Sha Val posted on Bluesky after Illinois Representative Jonathan Jackson prayed to God to improve the president’s moral failings, with Trump standing just a few feet away after he had addressed the gathering at the bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast. Jackson prayed that God might open the president’s heart to greater compassion as he stood behind the representative, eyes cast down with pure venom in his closed heart, his eyebrows raising as if had been scolded. Jackson was applauded for his courage to call out the president amid the gathering of religious and political leaders with one observer saying, “This brave man has single-handedly salvaged what little was left of any genuine spirituality at the breakfast.”. “This is speaking truth to power in the best tradition of MLK,” applauded retired librarian morereading.” “Of course, we’ll hear about it in a late night rant,” posted Bluesky user Sure Bongiovi. “When you’re almost 80, old ducks rarely change their ways, especially malignant dementia-addled narcissistic ones.” “Representative Jackson: ‘We pray that you lead this president to greater levels of compassion,'” wrote Illinois State professor Yusuf Sarfati. “God: ‘Sorry, that’s above my pay grade.'”

A writer on Quora posted: “Trump has been vile since birth, and parading it for decades as a well-known public figure, MAGA seeing exactly what we see in Trump — the difference is they love it! So it’s best to face up to certain realities: MAGA worships Trump because of, not in spite of how vile he is; no amount of proof in the vileness area, not even some unlikely smoking gun surfacing from the recent flood of Epstein files, is going to dissuade the worshippers.” It’s pointless to expect MAGA’s regretfulness, since they are the ones most responsible for our current state. If the political pendulum swings one more time, we may yet save our democracy. If it doesn’t, worshipping Trump may soon become what is expected of all of us — only in public, of course.

In his analysis, The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith, says Trump exposed the religious right’s “devil’s pact” in his performance at the National Prayer Breakfast, hurling insults at political enemies, taking swipes at “transgender insanity,” and quoting right-wing evangelist, Baptist Robert Jeffries. Trump hasn’t forgotten that Jeffries praised him, saying, “He may not be as good with the Bible as some of them. He may not have read the Bible as much as some of them. In fact, he may not have ever read the Bible, but he will be a much stronger messenger for us and he will get things done that no other man has the ability to get done.” Trump boasted, “You know, I didn’t want to admit anything, but that was very interesting and I think we’ve gotten more done than anybody could have ever gotten done.” So sayeth the religious right’s chosen instrument to turn the tide against liberal, godless America. Oh, and don’t worry about those shards of the Ten Commandments strewn in the pathway!

Emily Singer of Daily Kos covered the recent press conference in defense of Donald Trump’s “partying” — as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche debased himself — with Jeffrey Epstein and underaged girls that were trafficked. Blanche offered that it wasn’t a crime to “party,” nor is it “a crime to email with Mr. Epstein.” Trump and his wife, once close friends of Epstein, are referenced more than 38,000 times in files released so far according to The New York Times. Despite Blanche’s discounting that Trump’s actions aren’t necessarily a crime, on a basic human level, it looks horrible to have been a close associate of Epstein, traveling to his party island steeped in criminality. Democratic Representative Robert Garcia called Blanche’s comments “gross and sick” and he owes an apology to all the survivors who are seeking justice. Singer says, “Ultimately, the latest dump of Epstein files looks really bad for Trump and the people he surrounds himself with. And Blanche’s tone-deaf defense won’t do anything to change that.”

Andy Borowitz gets the last word on the Epstein affair as seen across the pond: “King Charles III of the United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that he was cancelling his upcoming trip to the United States and would send his disgraced brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, in his place. Charles gave no reason for the abrupt cancellation, saying only that Andrew was a ‘better fit’ for a visit to Donald J. Trump. ‘I’m sure they’ll have plenty to reminisce about,’ Charles said. ‘And if they run out of activities, Trump can always give Andrew a Sharpie and put him to work redacting those bloody files.'”