Monday, February 09, 2026

THREE MEN AND A BABY


 




 


Why Everyone Needs a Digital Twin

                                             PER DIGITAL HOWARD: 

                     WWW.HOWARDTULLMAN.COM 


WHY EVERY EXECUTIVE SHOULD HAVE A DIGITAL TWIN...


First, a digital twin lets him scale himself without cloning his calendar. Every question he answers 50 times a year – strategy, career advice, “how would you handle X?” – can be handled 24/7 by a version of him that speaks in his voice and uses his own material. He spends his time on the 5% of conversations that really require “live Mike.”

Second, it turns his experience and IP into an asset instead of a leaky bucket. Years of talks, memos, emails, and frameworks can be organized and made searchable through the twin, so teams, founders, or students can actually use what he knows instead of asking him to repeat himself or, worse, guessing.

Third, it protects and amplifies his brand. Right now, the internet will happily make up what “XXX thinks” about anything. A digital twin, trained on his real work and views, becomes the authoritative source. That’s a moat: people come to “XXX, at scale” instead of some generic chatbot or random LinkedIn guru.

Fourth, it’s a force multiplier for any platform he runs – a firm, a school, a fund, a community. New people can be onboarded, coached, and guided by the twin on the basics before they ever get in a room with him, which means the time they do get is deeper, more interesting, and higher value.

Fifth, it’s succession and legacy insurance. If he got hit by a bus tomorrow, most of what makes him valuable to others disappears with him. A good digital twin, kept current, means his way of thinking and operating can keep helping people long after he’s out of the day‑to‑day.

If you're serious about leveraging your brand, and legacy, a digital twin isn’t a toy – it’s infrastructure.

The Trump Bubble Is Impregnable for Now—but Boy, Is It Going to Burst

 

The Trump Bubble Is Impregnable for Now—but Boy, Is It Going to Burst

The president is on a collision course with an accountability moment. Either he or our democracy will prevail.

 

The new year is no longer so new, and we’re 10 months away from the midterm elections. Let’s take stock of where things stand in this country by acknowledging five central points that combine to tell us that we are at an unprecedented and chilling place in our history: We have a corrupt and incompetent president whom we are, for the time being, powerless to rein in; and on top of that, we have every reason to fear that, when the time comes to rein him in (this November), he will do everything he can to nullify the electoral process and reverse the voters’ will.

Last year was a democratic nightmare. This year is going to be worse. But he can’t do this forever. My five points below describe his temporary strength. But they also suggest that his hold on absolute power is fragile, and the reckoning day is coming.

Point one: On a personal level, Donald Trump is becoming more and more unhinged. He rambles, he stumbles, he fumbles. We don’t know whether he actually pooped himself in that one much-discussed episode in the Oval Office. But the fact that it has been discussed as something that might have happened is bad enough. And even if he retains full control of those evacuations, it’s the ones coming out of his brain and mouth that remain more concerning. Politico reported recently that the prime minister of Slovakia—a Trump ally—met with Trump at the White House on January 28 and later told other world leaders that he was concerned about Trump’s “psychological state.”

That repost of the Obamas as apes has been widely interpreted as one more Trumpian effort to troll the libs. Sure, I guess it was that. But what if it was something else? It may also have been the act of a man who is losing some marbles. It was beyond anything even he has ever done along those lines. He’s losing it. The mainstream media is afraid to touch the topic. The right-wing media screams that everything’s fine, it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome. That’s an apt phrase, all right, but it means the opposite of what the Foxies think it means. The bottom line for now is that the rest of us, the majority that finds him repulsive, just has to sit here and watch.

Point two: Politically, the bubble in which he lives is becoming further and further removed from reality. His penchant for self-aggrandization, always prodigious, has lately reached the point of insane self-parody.

Case in point: Last Thursday, it was reported that there were 108,000 layoffs in January—the worst number since the Great Recession. But the stock market also hit 50,000 on Friday. Of course, any president would brag about the latter and play down the former, but Trump went much further, congratulating himself repeatedly on achieving this milestone in one year.

First of all, “he” didn’t achieve it. And second, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 44,000 the day he took office, meaning it’s gone up around 6,000 points in the last year and change. That’s really no different from the change in the last year of Biden’s presidency, when it went from just under 38,000 up to 44,000. That’s normal stock market growth.

People aren’t buying his economic palaver; they see it as self-serving and out of touch. But that isn’t even the worst part of the Trump bubble. He has come to believe that the American people actually want what Immigration and Customs Enforcement is doing where it’s been unleashed. They do not. He has created for himself a world in which he never hears a negative word about himself. This is not a plea for him and his people to wake up—they won’t, and I’m well past hoping they will. It is rather an observation that this too is one more Trumpian assault on democracy. He thinks himself answerable only to those who adore him and think he can do no wrong—in other words, to people who require of him no answers at all. The rest of the country—that is, the majority of the country—doesn’t exist.

Point three: The corruption becomes more blatant and open by the week. That Wall Street Journal story about the UAE sheikh who bought a huge stake in Trump’s cryptocurrency venture and then got AI chip contracts was just insane. But we now live in an era when the president can do a Teapot Dome or worse on a weekly basis and there’s no one who can hold him to account.

Well, check that: Someone can. As Andrew McCarthy noted in the National Review, House Oversight Chairman James Comer thundered ad nauseam about Joe Biden’s alleged corruption, even opening an impeachment inquiry, alleging that Trump’s predecessor had racked up $27 million in ill-gotten gains. Today? McCarthy: “Of course, Trump can’t be faulted for obstructing congressional investigations. There haven’t been any. Comer is busy tangling with the Clintons, the better to take the Epstein heat off a president whose poll numbers have declined as this year’s midterm elections beckon. Now that self-dealing has achieved heights so astronomical that $27 million would barely be a rounding error, Republicans have lost interest.”

Point four: Speaking of Jeffrey Epstein, we know that that story is far from over, either in general or with respect to Trump. I won’t relate the rumors about Trump that surfaced recently as they’re not corroborated. But you’ve probably read them. I have no idea what the chances are that one fine morning this year, we are greeted by an explosive headline about Trump in this context that will blow our collective mind and change everything.

Trump will deny any wrongdoing. The Republicans will rally behind him or be quiet. The right-wing media will defend him and say Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton. And while some Democrats will smell blood, too many others will say no, we can only talk about health care.

Finally, point five: He is of course preparing to steal the midterms. Pundits and talking heads on cable news should dispense with even wondering whether he will. Of course he will try. And if he can’t pull it off, he and the GOP will challenge every result they possibly can in ways that you and I can’t even imagine.

So here we are. Mentally deteriorating, unpopular, incompetent, corrupt, out of touch; and yet, in—for now—unshakably firm control of power, completely beyond any democratic accountability. And when that accountability moment comes in November, he will blatantly do whatever he can to erase and reverse it. So this year is going to be far worse than last, at least for a while.

But he can’t shut out reality forever. No one can. And the longer he manages to do so, the more thunderous and unequivocal will be the comeuppance. The Trump bubble will burst, and it’ll be like the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments, crashing down on Pharoah’s head. Until then—patience. And rage.

Michael Tomasky

Michael Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic and the author of five books, including his latest and critically acclaimed The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to Shared Prosperity. With extensive experience as an editor, columnist, progressive commentator, and special correspondent for renowned publications such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Daily Beast, and many others, Tomasky has been a trusted voice in political journalism for more than three decades.

WHINY BITCH

 










Seduced by the Louis XIV Treatment

 

Seduced by the Louis XIV Treatment

What JD Vance and his entourage in Milan teach us about Epstein’s magnetism


JD Vance ridiculed for 40-car motorcade taking him down tiny Italian street : r/europe

Charts and numbers are my comfort zone, and even my political writing is usually analytical in style. But today I’ll take a break and write something looser and more self-indulgent: Some meditations inspired by JD Vance’s visit to the Olympics in Milan.

There are many stories floating around about Vance’s visit, some of which I can’t confirm from credible sources. But the Daily Mail reports that he and his entourage arrived “on multiple aircraft carrying staff, security personnel, food supplies and vehicles” and that “His ground convoy, made up of dozens of Chevy Suburbans, struggled through Milan’s narrow streets.” Like many others who’ve been there, my first reaction was “He brought food to Milan?” (No grazie, dammi il risotto allo zafferano.)

My second reaction was to ask why he would bring such a massive presence to a city like Milan, snarling traffic on its ancient streets. His enormous fleet of SUVs caused so much congestion that US figure skater Alysa Liu almost missed her first event.

The answer is that JD Vance is being swaddled in a golden blanket of privilege and luxury. After all, perks like these are standard fare for Trump cabinet members. For example, in 2025 the DHS purchased two private jets for use by Kristi Noem, as she lives rent free in a waterfront home that is normally reserved for the Coast Guard Admiral. Kash Patel flew on an official FBI jet to see his girlfriend perform. And Trump received a little gift from the Qataris – a private jet that he intends to have retrofitted at government expense and then keep once he leaves office. Oh, and he’s larded the White House with gold and is trying to build a ballroom that rivals Versailles in scale, though not taste.

I’m not a stranger to the seductions of privilege. True story: I was once a keynote speaker at a fancy-schmancy conference in São Paulo, Brazil. (The Swedish thingie opens some doors.) My flight from New York was very badly delayed, and the conference organizers were worried about the city’s notorious traffic. So I was met at the airport and given a ride in a helicopter that landed on the hotel’s roof.

When the conference was over, I was provided with a car and driver to take me back to the airport. And just for a moment, I found myself thinking, “What? I have to take a car?”

So I know that it’s extremely easy to become addicted to privilege and luxury. And Trump has surrounded himself with privilege addicts, knowing well that such people will be unwilling to sacrifice their perks for things as paltry as principles and basic decency.

Which brings me to the Epstein scandal.

Obviously the most important aspect of that scandal is the lurid elite corruption revealed by what we already know (and what is still being covered up?). The backlash against Me Too and cancel culture takes on new meaning now that we know that some leading figures in that backlash were having sex with underage girls.

But the corruption we’re learning about wasn’t just deep. It was also broad: A remarkable number of people were involved with Epstein years after his 2008 conviction as a sex abuser, including, I regret to say, quite a few academics. I believe (and hope) that only a small minority of the hundreds and hundreds in Epstein’s extended circle received sexual favors. A larger number of people were probably receiving financial favors, but most weren’t. And as someone who has been on the speaking circuit and knows academics in the consulting game, I can tell you that the sums of money we’re hearing about are small potatoes.

So what was the secret of Epstein’s influence? I’m speculating here, but I believe that a lot of his reach came from his skill at seducing people by providing them with a sense of exclusivity and privilege. To be associated with Epstein meant receiving invitations to participate in fancy dinners or to stay at one of his many luxurious residences in all the best places, including his private island. If you were chums with Jeffrey Epstein, you felt that you were a member of a glittering set of insiders. And that was enough to make you look away when the young woman pouring your drink looked just a little bit too much like your teenage daughter.

So what does all this say about politics and policy? It says to beware — beware in particular of a president whose lifestyle is saturated in dictator chic and who invites his officials to share. Because just as those in Epstein’s circle looked away when the “help” looked a little too young and nubile, Trump’s cabinet members look away when ICE is gunning down and terrorizing people in the streets.

And with that, it’s time to jet off to a super-fancy event reheat some leftovers for dinner.

Four Laws To End The Fascist Madness.

 

Fifth Circuit panel authorizes mass incarcerations

 

Fifth Circuit panel authorizes mass incarcerations

February 9, 2026

A decision by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed Trump’s dystopian contention that any immigrant subject to deportation must be held without bond until final disposition of their case. The decision was a surprise outcome that flies in the face of hundreds of contrary holdings over three decades. Although the precise number of US immigrants subject to detention under the ruling is difficult to quantify, it almost certainly numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Depending on how the Trump administration chooses to implement the ruling, it puts millions of US immigrants at risk of immediate and permanent detention (as explained below).

In short, the decision changes Trump’s mass deportation policy from the “worst of the worst” to “everyone.”

Trump’s mass deportation policy is historically unpopular. Sixty-three (63%) of Americans already disapprove of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws, while only 34% approve—a drop of about 10% over the last six months. See Quinnipiac University (2/4/26).

The decision by the Fifth Circuit panel will supercharge ICE detentions and deny release bonds to everyone who entered the country illegally.

At the moment, the ruling applies only in states included in the Fifth Circuit, i.e., Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. That fact will increase the likelihood that the administration will immediately transfer detainees to detention facilities in those states. If the Trump administration adopts that strategy, an immigrant who entered the US illegally would be transferred to Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, and held in permanent detention.

The decision is at odds with hundreds of rulings by other federal judges over the last two decades. See this excellent analysis by Chris Geidner in Law Dork, Two judges on the Fifth Circuit gave Trump exactly what he wants to enact mass detentions.

As explained by Geidner,

As Law Dork covered, district court judges across the board have rejected the Trump administration’s interpretation — more than “160 different judges sitting in about fifty different courts spread across the United States,“ per a count from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in a November 2025 decision that has been cited across the country in the months since. Only in a dozen of 362 cases identified did the district court judges side with the Trump administration, Kaplan, a Clinton appointee found.

As Geidner notes, the ruling is nonsensical. If the interpretation adopted by the Fifth Circuit panel were correct, Congress would have noted that the law mandated the detention of millions of immigrants at the time it passed the law in 1996. There was no such discussion at the time the law was passed—a seismic result that surely would have been noted. In short, the Trump- and Reagan-appointed judges on the panel are just making things up—a form of jurisprudence to which MAGA judges are partial.

The decision is so bad that it presents a rare case in which the entire Fifth Circuit, or the US Supreme Court, might rule against Trump on a MAGA policy.

In the meantime, the “on-the-ground” implications are dramatic and alarming. ICE has every incentive to increase its “Kavanaugh stops”—unconstitutional detentions based on racial profiling. If ICE “gets lucky” in detaining people based on race and finds someone who entered the US illegally, that person will remain in custody indefinitely. The number of detentions will skyrocket, turning the US “mass deportation” policy into a “mass incarceration” policy.

Americans are resisting ICE’s efforts to “warehouse” humans in commercial buildings being converted into jails. Citizens are showing up by the hundreds and thousands at city council and county board meetings, pressuring elected officials to tell ICE, “Not in our house!” See NYTimes, As American Views of ICE Dim, Warehouses Become a Symbol of Resistance. (Gift article, accessible to all.)

Per the NYTimes,

A year into the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, communities across the United States are opposing plans to convert warehouses into detention centers. The warehouses have become a potent symbol for critics who have painted them as inhumane places with grim accommodations. [¶]

A broad majority of voters — 63 percent — disapprove of the way ICE is handling its job after a year in which Mr. Trump deployed thousands of federal officers to cities led by Democrats, creating wide-scale protests and scenes of chaos on the streets. Sixty-one percent of voters said that ICE had “gone too far,” including nearly one in five Republicans.

Unfortunately, the decision will embolden Trump and his architect of mass deportations, Steven Miller. ICE will likely act more aggressively and lawlessly, and the number of those in detention will increase dramatically. Although the ruling may not stand, it will increase fear among the immigrant community and their families as it is challenged on appeal.

At the same time, the inability of the Trump administration to understand that it is sowing the seeds of its own destruction gives us reason to hope. Americans did not vote for mass deportations, a policy that is literally traumatizing America. ICE has become the personification of cruelty for the Trump administration.

Against this backdrop, Republicans have the opportunity to negotiate restraints on the illegal tactics routinely used by ICE. But only a week to go until DHS runs out of funding, Republicans have not responded to Democratic proposals for reining in ICE. See The Hill, GOP, Democrats expect DHS shutdown after talks fizzle.

It appears that Republicans will adopt their usual negotiating posture: They will offer nothing. Democrats have the upper hand, having asked for reforms that would bring ICE into compliance with the Constitution and practices followed by law enforcement organizations across the nation.

The decision by the Fifth Circuit panel and the upcoming showdown over DHS funding are unsettling, but these are necessary fights. We must endure a period of instability and uncertainty, even as we have seized the momentum. Any rational administration would recalibrate a policy detested by a strong majority of Americans. But Trump and Steven Miller will double down on their evil policies because they are unable to do otherwise.

American citizens continue to rally to the defense of their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and community members. The worst of Trump’s policies have brought out the best in Americans. The fight is not over, but we are winning the most important battle of all—for the hearts and minds of the voters. In the end, that victory will matter most.

Tulsi Gabbard gives inconsistent explanations for the months-long delay

Tulsi Gabbard failed to transmit to Congress a whistleblower report alleging an “urgent” national security concern. An inspector general for the intelligence community said that “the intelligence report from which the complaint was derived is the most sensitive to-date received by” the inspector general’s office.

Tulsi Gabbard sat on the complaint for more than six months. Her “explanation” is that a lawyer appointed by her failed to advise her to refer the matter to Congress. Of course, as the chief intelligence officer in the US, Gabbard should understand her reporting requirements to Congress without prodding from others. Her excuse is pathetic—and contradicted by other lawyers in the inspector general’s office, who claim that Gabbard was notified nearly nine months ago. See The New Republic, Tulsi Gabbard’s Whistleblower Case Just Got a Whole Lot Worse for Her.

We do not know the subject of the whistleblower complaint, although Gabbard has publicly defended herself as if the complaint concerns her actions. The Times of Israel reports that two foreign nationals were intercepted discussing Iran and “someone close to Trump.” The conversation took place shortly before the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. See Times of Israel, Report: US whistleblower complaint involves call discussing Iran and someone close to Trump.

Gabbard has long been at odds with Trump over his stance on Iran.

Again, we do not know the substance of the whistleblower complaint, but none of this looks good for Gabbard.

Developments in the Epstein matter.

Ghislaine Maxwell will appear before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. She will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Fifth Amendment protects all Americans, even those accused of heinous crimes. Still, Maxwell’s invocation will be particularly shameful; she spoke at length to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche under an agreement that allowed her to speak with immunity, so long as she spoke truthfully. Some commentators suggest that Maxwell lied to Blanche, see Forbes Breaking News, Do The Newest Epstein Emails Show Ghislaine Maxwell Lied To Todd Blanche? Epstein Reporter Weighs In. If true, she should be prosecuted for lying to a federal officer and held to have waived her Fifth Amendment rights.

Over the weekend, a report began circulating that is getting significant traction and deserves comment. Recall that Maurene Comey was a respected assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York. She was fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi in the days leading up to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She was fired, in part, because she was a seasoned prosecutor who knew the facts of the Epstein investigation.

The AP and other outlets are reporting on emails from Maurene Comey to supervisors that say the FBI did not find evidence implicating criminal activity by anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell. See AP News, Inside the FBI’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein | AP News.

The essential details from the AP story are here:

Investigators seized a multitude of videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of females, some of whom seemed as if they might be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sex abuse material — pictures investigators said Epstein obtained on the internet.

No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.

To be clear, Maurene Comey’s comments relate to a specific set of documents reviewed by the FBI and the SDNY—which is not the total universe of the “Epstein files” in the possession of the DOJ, which contain information from other federal prosecutions, the Epstein estate, civil proceedings, and banking records. Moreover, the question of whether Trump “committed crimes” in his relationship with Epstein does not exonerate Trump. There is still much to be learned about Trump’s involvement with Epstein, and Maurene Comey’s internal communications about a specific set of documents is not the end of the inquiry.

Fulton County seeking return of ballots seized by FBI

Here is some encouraging news. Fulton County, Georgia, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking the return of the ballots seized from the registrar. See Politico, Fulton County argues FBI seizure of 2020 ballots shows ‘callous disregard’ for constitutional rights.

Fulton County is also seeking disclosure of the underlying affidavit relied upon by prosecutors that persuaded a magistrate judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to issue a warrant authorizing the seizure of the entire set of voting records for Fulton County’s 2020 elections. The federal government has apparently agreed to the release of the underlying affidavit. See Order | 02/07/26.

Given that Trump’s conspiracy theories of election fraud were rejected nearly 60 times in 2020, it was a surprise that a federal magistrate found probable cause to grant the FBI’s request for a warrant to seize the ballots in Fulton County. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what new evidence persuaded Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas.

The affidavit will be disclosed on Tuesday. At that point, we will learn whether the Trump administration has new evidence or misled Judge Salinas about the underlying facts.

Concluding Thoughts

Trump and MAGA attempted to make the Super Bowl LX halftime show a divisive cultural event. Instead, Bad Bunny delivered an exuberant celebration of America—all of it, including the parts that speak Spanish. But you didn’t need to speak Spanish to enjoy the music and choreography—or to understand that in its very inclusiveness, Bad Bunny’s show was an act of resistance. See Time, Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show Was an Act of Resistance.

As noted in the review, Republicans demanded that Bad Bunny sing in English; instead, Lady Gaga showed up to sing in Spanish. In one of the more touching moments of the halftime show, Bad Bunny gave his recent Grammy award to a young boy who looked like Liam Conejo Ramos—the five-year-old who was abducted by ICE and transferred to Texas.

Trump’s grievance-based worldview could not admit the joy of the halftime show, calling the performance a “a slap in the face” to the US and saying, “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying.” That is news to the 50 million Americans who speak or understand Spanish. US Census.

Trump is missing the moment, badly. He squeaked out a victory in 2024, in part, because of support from the Latino community. He is now terrorizing them with mass deportation raids that indiscriminately stop citizens based on their Latino “appearance,” and he just insulted their language, culture, and music. And he wonders why JD Vance was booed in Italy when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Bad Bunny is an American citizen and the world’s most popular musician (based on Spotify streams). That is something to celebrate; America should be proud to claim him as our own, an inspiration to hundreds of millions of people across the world, a joyful counterforce to the ugliness being spread by Trump.

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