"ICE is planning to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers."
That is a jaw-dropping number! Question: what is the total number of people DHS/ICE/CBP expect to detain with all that money?
Simon, thanks for all the dense fact you bring in today’s Hopium, while painting a clear overall picture – and keeping a focus on what each of us can do. And so inspireing and encouraging that you point to the significant victories Americans who are fighting to defend democracy are scoring!
I was going to say the same thing!! Kamalas campaign raised over a billion. You could build a billion dollar stadium for every NFL team. Absolutely absurd.
My question would be to what end? BC if the goal is for people to "self-deport," they can't do it from detention. So they just want to warehouse people for an indeterminate length of time? That amount of $ would definitely finance that....
They really don't think it will ever end, do they? They just think they'll be in power "forever" and toss aside as many "undesirables" as possible just to scare others from coming in and inflict maximum cruelty? Doesn't really seem like a good return on their investment. [massive snark]....Seems more like they're high on their own supply and haven't really thought any of it through. [shrug emoji]...
I remember when Darleen Druyun, the Principal Undersecretary for Acquisition for the Air Force, went to prison for overpaying Boeing for the Boeing tanker lease. (as I refreshed my memory, there was some additional corruption). And a couple big shot Boeing execs resigned in wake of the scandal.
I got emotional watching it. Seems like I often get emotional these days. Just read about a 2 month old being held in detention with his mother. He is very sick with no medical care. Joaquin Castro has been fighting for him and others in that detention center. Finally, the baby was sent to the hospital. Special place in hell for those responsible.
This is such a strange time. I feel such a tremendous sense of despair, but at the same time, I am filled with joy, beauty, and hope. These three videos made me cry -- with rage and anguish (the first), with recognition and empathy (the second), and with love of country and pride for the role the arts is playing in this fight (the third). I feel like a piece of taffy! My word. But I know that people are rising up across the nation to say "this is not okay". Ordinary people, longtime activists, former Republicans, politicians, artists, and Hopium readers -- we are leading the charge and are going to build a new America that at long last lives up to the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL!
Cameron Trimble reminded us today in her substack of Howard Thurman’s words. This is the “Sound of the Genuine” that we are experiencing. When the external structures lose credibility, something deeper in the human spirit begins speaking again. Howard
Thurman was a theologian and mystic. He was a mentor to MLK. His most famous work is probably Jesus and the Disinherited. We now have our backs to the wall.
This is the second time today I have heard his name. It's time to look into this! (I copied the following prayer of his into a file earlier today: "There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in themselves. There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again. You are the only one.
If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine within you, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching. You are the only you who has ever lived. If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that someone else pulls.
So the burden of what I have to say to you is, 'What is your name - who are you - and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?' There are so many voices and noises going on inside you, so many echos of all sorts, so many internalizing of the rumble and the traffic going on in your minds.
With the confusions, and the disorders by which your environment is peopled, I wonder if you can get still enough- not quiet enough - still enough to hear rumbling up from your unique and essential idiom the sound of the genuine in you. I don't know if you can, but this is your assignment.
The sound of the genuine is flowing through you. Don't be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are a part even of your dreams and your ambitions that you don't hear the sound of the genuine in you. Because that is the only true guide you will ever have and if you don't have that, you don't have a thing. Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself."
. "Ukraine makes fastest battlefield gain in 2.5 years"
Ukraine recaptured 201 square kilometres of territory from Russia in five days last week – its biggest gain in 2.5 years – according to AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The recaptured area is almost equivalent to the Russian gains for the entire month of December.
Ukrainian counterattacks are likely leveraging the recent block on Russian forces' access to Starlink, which Russian milbloggers (military bloggers) have claimed is causing communications and command and control issues on the battlefield.
Military observers noted disruption of the Starlink antennas used by Moscow on the front lines, following announcements by Elon Musk of "measures" to end the Kremlin's use of this technology. Kyiv claimed that Russian drones were using them, in particular, to circumvent electronic jamming systems and strike their targets with precision.
Ukraine’s Intel operations sent login requests to Russia starlink owners (military) after going online again ahead and when they did, Ukraine knew where their positions were. Ha!
The effort to stop the building of detention centers has come to Seattle and King County:
“Today Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck (Position 8), in partnership with King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Port of Seattle Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, and SeaTac Deputy Mayor Senayet Negusse announced support for emergency legislation in response to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) potential moves to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in the Seattle and broader King County region.
“Given documented concerns about human rights violations at such facilities, including at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, City of Seattle, King County and Port of Seattle leaders are each working on separate but simultaneous mitigation measures to prevent expansion of new detention centers in our region.”
In Seattle, Councilmember Rinck will introduce legislation at the Council meeting on February 24. The city of SeaTac has already “enacted a land use moratorium that prohibits the federal government from the creation of new or expansion of existing detention centers within the city of SeaTac.”
As a Pennsylvanian living just a few miles from a recently purchased ICE facility ("administrative") I am outraged and I will be calling Shapiro's office today. Here's the local story. This is not a detention center, but I don't want this stuff anywhere ... ANYWHERE. https://whyy.org/articles/dhs-berwyn-ice-main-line-office-space/
Is there a read on the Democrats in the Maine senate race? Mills is old enough to disqualify her given the current performance of those almost 80. Platner is a political novice with a very compelling presentation. Does the state party have a stance? seems clear to me that Mills could beat Collins but the age is a serious consideration holding back many.
Collins is voting YES on the Save Act. So hopefully the young women of the state will turn out to vote for the democratic candidate that wins the primary.
Platner also has some "compelling" social media posts and a striking tattoo – and I don’t mean that in a good way.
I’ve been hoping a strong younger Democrat would step forward as a third candidate, but it seems like those have chosen to run for governor or other offices. I think Janet Mills is doing her duty but is not that hungry for the position.
yes, he decided after entering the race to cover up a tattoo on his chest from 2007 recognized as Nazi imagery. Personally, I do not subscribe to ageism, more important to me are integrity and good governance.
I would rather have an older moderate (who has very recently put up a great fight defending trans people) than an ostensible progressive with #@$!@# Nazi tattoos. We'd be outraged if a Republican candidate had the same story.
I'm in MA where Ed Markey is a spry 79, with some of the best new policies, effective social media, unquestionable focus and ethics, and partners with younger Sens/Reps. Latest is with Pramila Jayapal and Jeff Merkley with the "ICE Out of Our Faces Act" to rein in surveillance. I would propose that the "performance of those almost 80" is not a consistent category.
(Besides, in our case, Markey's challenger is Seth Moulton who voted the wrong way on the crypto bills among others, ran against Pelosi for Speaker, ran for President, and now runs for Senate. Very much worth questioning his motives.)
Some days ago Arctic Stones started a good discussion about tech alternatives. I’d like to return to that discussion. First, I’ll share my own little experiment and then touch on some larger issues.
I’ve used Firefox as my browser for years and I highly recommend it as an alternative to Google Chrome. Even so, I’ve continued to rely on Google as my search engine. After talking with a friend, I decided to give DuckDuckGo a try. It turned out to be quite an easy thing to do in Firefox. You just go to Settings, choose Search, change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo, and that’s it. So far, DuckDuckGo works perfectly fine. However, if I find that it’s not giving me the search results I want in a particular instance, I can make a one-time search with Google. Also, I can easily turn on and off DuckDuckGo’s AI Search Assistant. Right now, I see no reason to go back to the Google search engine.
I recently listened to the Deep State Radio podcast with Simon, David Rothkopf and Tara McGowan. Near the end of it, Tara alluded to Scott Galloway’s Resist and Unsubscribe. Here is his website:
I personally didn’t find this site useful because I’m not a paid subscriber to anything on his list. However, other people might find it useful. With regard to the consumer-facing companies, I routinely shop at Ace Hardware instead of Lowe’s and Home Depot because Ace is within walking distance, I can usually find what I need, and the employees are generally helpful and friendly. I’m not into mail order, so I rarely use UPS and never FedEx anymore. And until we have municipal broadband, I have limited choices in that category. Otherwise, I don’t have cable, and I stream on my computer BritBox, PBS Passport, and Hoopla and Kanopy through my public library.
Of late, Europeans have been discussing the challenges of tech and financial independence from the U.S. Here’s an article on how UK bankers are seeking an alternative to Visa and Mastercard because of fears of Trump’s craziness:
According to Erica Chenoweth, one of the ways that nonviolent civil resistance movements succeed is by building alternative institutions to the ones that support the regime in power. In my view, we cannot do that fast enough. How we and others extricate ourselves from Big Tech traitors supporting the regime is of urgent concern, in my view.
Lighter note. At first I read it as the Year of the Fire Hose. Also accurate, but not just this year. Year of the Fire Horse - much better.
GOP Gov. Ayotte of NH is showing herself to be some combination of incompetent, corrupt, and capitulating. She's claiming confusion about a human warehouse, apparently being built by one of her donors, in the town of Merrimack. Minimally, that has to be career ending, but should call for her resignation.
DHS/ICE did not expect to have opposition from Republican areas and most of the places they've chosen are in red places, and people are still screaming. This has become a huge, huge problem for them.
I recently heard the movement coming out of Minnesota described as "neighborism." I think that's very good framing. It avoids partisan labels and describes something that's been fundamental to America since, at least, de Tocqueville. The video you showed of the man who came out to protest for the first time is a great example of neighborism in practice. The concept can be expanded beyond just fighting ICE to wanting our neighbors to have health care, a clean environment, good schools, etc.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen about the ICE concentration camps and I'm writing postcards to NC voters.
Called Duckworth and Durbin offices. Actually spoke to staff in both! Talked about stopping the expansion of these detention centers and the grift that surrounds them. Also, No on Save Act. I left a message at Susan Collins office and stated that the Kavanaugh vote and the Save Act vote would be remembered by American women as an utter betrayal. I will work to get another candidate elected to Maine.
I was grading my college DEI class students' papers this morning and one of the students (a Catholic high school student earning college credit) wrote a beautiful paper regarding his worldview of how to treat everyone with dignity and respect. His vocabulary is not yet sophisticated enough to fully eloquently share his thoughts, but he found a quote in our textbook that spoke to him:
"To conclude, I will include a quote from “Privilege, Power, and Difference”: 'For all of our
potential, you would think that we could get along with one another. By that I don't mean to love
one another in some idealistic way. We don't need to love or even like one another to work
together or share space in the world.(...) I mean treating one another with decency and respect
and appreciating, if not supporting, the best we have in us.'"
Folks, we are raising future leaders who are seeing what is happening and rejecting it outright. I was in high school when Kent State and Watergate happened. I know how impactful it was for me to see that our President engaged in criminal acts, and I know these students will carry what they are seeing with them for the rest of their lives too.
In my feedback, I invited him to Hopium Chronicles. I'm very lucky to be a part of these young peoples' lives.
Here is a copy of the letter that I emailed to my Members of Congress:
Dear Senator Tillis:
I wrote to you about laws being broken and rights being taken away from Americans no matter who they are. I also told you we need to deal with ICE and the military being on our streets. They acted like a bunch of terrorists here in Charlotte, NC, rounding up people. Throwing people on the ground. On January 7, 2026, they murdered a woman in Minneapolis, MN. Please watch this video of how this happened and how unacceptable this is. It is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ws3YS6uzos. Please watch this ad which describes how horrible at this link of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNRCcbTdHPg. This is outrageous. They are now arresting journalists such as Don Lemon and Georgia Forte. Don Lemon was arrested at the Grammys. They are not breaking the law, they have a constitutional right to be at these events which is called the 1st amendment. It is time to stop the killing and arresting of American citizens. You took an oath to the Constitution not to Donald Trump. Here is the oath you took: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. You need to stand up for Ukraine and stop this assault by Putin. You need to deal with Donald Trump and his administration not standing up for our values. You need to stop this assault on our health from Robert Kennedy, Jr. People will die if we abandon our scientific research and you will have children and elderly die from this stupidity and cruelty. We are here now, deep into dangerous Mad King/Bond Villain territory. 2026 is no longer about affordability or restoring the ACA subsidies. It is about a pro-democracy movement somehow coming together and forming a unified and far more powerful front against his dangerous Imperial and dictatorial designs. Rule of law must be re-established in America, ICE must be reined in, and Trump’s outrageous plunder and corruption must end That he must back off his illegal and destructive territorial ambitions, end all these ridiculous tariffs, and re-commit to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance Here is the quote from the Declaration of Independence of what is required of us now: But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Here are five things you must do:
1. Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his new threats to seize Greenland and his new, dangerous European tariffs;
2. Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law, and the US must withdraw from Venezuela and cease other threats to violate the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other nations
3. Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world. To put America on a sounder fiscal course due to the enormous deficits brought by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts we should reverse the cuts to the wealthy and corporations
4. Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the dangerous occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented regime corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress end the rancid cover up of the Epstein crimes
5. Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA, Medicaid and our clean energy investments; support and co-sponsor the Stand Up For Science/Rep. Haley Stevens effort to remove Robert Kennedy from HHS.
"ICE is planning to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers."
That is a jaw-dropping number! Question: what is the total number of people DHS/ICE/CBP expect to detain with all that money?
Simon, thanks for all the dense fact you bring in today’s Hopium, while painting a clear overall picture – and keeping a focus on what each of us can do. And so inspireing and encouraging that you point to the significant victories Americans who are fighting to defend democracy are scoring!
I was going to say the same thing!! Kamalas campaign raised over a billion. You could build a billion dollar stadium for every NFL team. Absolutely absurd.
Iowa is the model. See CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations).
My question would be to what end? BC if the goal is for people to "self-deport," they can't do it from detention. So they just want to warehouse people for an indeterminate length of time? That amount of $ would definitely finance that....
They really don't think it will ever end, do they? They just think they'll be in power "forever" and toss aside as many "undesirables" as possible just to scare others from coming in and inflict maximum cruelty? Doesn't really seem like a good return on their investment. [massive snark]....Seems more like they're high on their own supply and haven't really thought any of it through. [shrug emoji]...
I remember when Darleen Druyun, the Principal Undersecretary for Acquisition for the Air Force, went to prison for overpaying Boeing for the Boeing tanker lease. (as I refreshed my memory, there was some additional corruption). And a couple big shot Boeing execs resigned in wake of the scandal.
fantastic dance video of alex & renee. beautiful. poignant.
I got emotional watching it. Seems like I often get emotional these days. Just read about a 2 month old being held in detention with his mother. He is very sick with no medical care. Joaquin Castro has been fighting for him and others in that detention center. Finally, the baby was sent to the hospital. Special place in hell for those responsible.
Get to work people! Every voice matters. Every action matters!
This is such a strange time. I feel such a tremendous sense of despair, but at the same time, I am filled with joy, beauty, and hope. These three videos made me cry -- with rage and anguish (the first), with recognition and empathy (the second), and with love of country and pride for the role the arts is playing in this fight (the third). I feel like a piece of taffy! My word. But I know that people are rising up across the nation to say "this is not okay". Ordinary people, longtime activists, former Republicans, politicians, artists, and Hopium readers -- we are leading the charge and are going to build a new America that at long last lives up to the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL!
Cameron Trimble reminded us today in her substack of Howard Thurman’s words. This is the “Sound of the Genuine” that we are experiencing. When the external structures lose credibility, something deeper in the human spirit begins speaking again. Howard
Thurman was a theologian and mystic. He was a mentor to MLK. His most famous work is probably Jesus and the Disinherited. We now have our backs to the wall.
This is the second time today I have heard his name. It's time to look into this! (I copied the following prayer of his into a file earlier today: "There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in themselves. There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again. You are the only one.
If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine within you, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching. You are the only you who has ever lived. If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that someone else pulls.
So the burden of what I have to say to you is, 'What is your name - who are you - and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?' There are so many voices and noises going on inside you, so many echos of all sorts, so many internalizing of the rumble and the traffic going on in your minds.
With the confusions, and the disorders by which your environment is peopled, I wonder if you can get still enough- not quiet enough - still enough to hear rumbling up from your unique and essential idiom the sound of the genuine in you. I don't know if you can, but this is your assignment.
The sound of the genuine is flowing through you. Don't be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are a part even of your dreams and your ambitions that you don't hear the sound of the genuine in you. Because that is the only true guide you will ever have and if you don't have that, you don't have a thing. Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself."
This is wonderful. Thank you!
Oh, I've not heard that name or phrase before. Wow, so on target.
Common in violent groups is a psychotic leader whose psychosis transfers to its members.
"How to Stop Shared Pychosis - Fast"
🔸️Isolate the leader from contact with others
Dr Steven Hassan
Dr Bandy X Lee
1min 32sec
https://youtube.com/shorts/f-o9oynNzt8?si=rt8e8SMrrpQ-_EzF
UKRAINE – good news from the battlefield!
. "Ukraine makes fastest battlefield gain in 2.5 years"
Ukraine recaptured 201 square kilometres of territory from Russia in five days last week – its biggest gain in 2.5 years – according to AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The recaptured area is almost equivalent to the Russian gains for the entire month of December.
Ukrainian counterattacks are likely leveraging the recent block on Russian forces' access to Starlink, which Russian milbloggers (military bloggers) have claimed is causing communications and command and control issues on the battlefield.
Military observers noted disruption of the Starlink antennas used by Moscow on the front lines, following announcements by Elon Musk of "measures" to end the Kremlin's use of this technology. Kyiv claimed that Russian drones were using them, in particular, to circumvent electronic jamming systems and strike their targets with precision.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260216-ukraine-makes-fastest-battlefield-gain-in-2-5-years
(I’ve somewhat condensed the report.)
Ukraine’s Intel operations sent login requests to Russia starlink owners (military) after going online again ahead and when they did, Ukraine knew where their positions were. Ha!
The effort to stop the building of detention centers has come to Seattle and King County:
“Today Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck (Position 8), in partnership with King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Port of Seattle Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, and SeaTac Deputy Mayor Senayet Negusse announced support for emergency legislation in response to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) potential moves to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in the Seattle and broader King County region.
“Given documented concerns about human rights violations at such facilities, including at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, City of Seattle, King County and Port of Seattle leaders are each working on separate but simultaneous mitigation measures to prevent expansion of new detention centers in our region.”
https://council.seattle.gov/2026/02/13/councilmember-rinck-and-regional-leaders-take-action-to-prevent-new-immigration-detention-centers-in-king-county/
In Seattle, Councilmember Rinck will introduce legislation at the Council meeting on February 24. The city of SeaTac has already “enacted a land use moratorium that prohibits the federal government from the creation of new or expansion of existing detention centers within the city of SeaTac.”
https://seatacblog.com/2026/02/11/seatac-city-council-bars-ice-from-detention-center-expansion-limits-flock-camera-access-to-city-only/
In a recent article, the Seattle Times referred to similar legislation passed in Wynadotte County, Missouri, and in Kansas City, Missouri:
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/wyandotte-county/article314647328.html
https://www.kcmo.gov/Home/Components/News/News/2844/231#:~:text=Font%20Size:-,Kansas%20City%20Passes%20Moratorium%20on%20Non%2DMunicipal%20Detention%20Facilities,%23%23%23
As a Pennsylvanian living just a few miles from a recently purchased ICE facility ("administrative") I am outraged and I will be calling Shapiro's office today. Here's the local story. This is not a detention center, but I don't want this stuff anywhere ... ANYWHERE. https://whyy.org/articles/dhs-berwyn-ice-main-line-office-space/
Is there a read on the Democrats in the Maine senate race? Mills is old enough to disqualify her given the current performance of those almost 80. Platner is a political novice with a very compelling presentation. Does the state party have a stance? seems clear to me that Mills could beat Collins but the age is a serious consideration holding back many.
Collins is voting YES on the Save Act. So hopefully the young women of the state will turn out to vote for the democratic candidate that wins the primary.
Platner also has some "compelling" social media posts and a striking tattoo – and I don’t mean that in a good way.
I’ve been hoping a strong younger Democrat would step forward as a third candidate, but it seems like those have chosen to run for governor or other offices. I think Janet Mills is doing her duty but is not that hungry for the position.
yes, he decided after entering the race to cover up a tattoo on his chest from 2007 recognized as Nazi imagery. Personally, I do not subscribe to ageism, more important to me are integrity and good governance.
I would rather have an older moderate (who has very recently put up a great fight defending trans people) than an ostensible progressive with #@$!@# Nazi tattoos. We'd be outraged if a Republican candidate had the same story.
very well put!
Right! Joe did a lot of excellent things in the areas of renewable energy, Evs and setting the course for manufacturing.
His mistakes were the comms part and going back on the pledge to be a one term president.
I'm in MA where Ed Markey is a spry 79, with some of the best new policies, effective social media, unquestionable focus and ethics, and partners with younger Sens/Reps. Latest is with Pramila Jayapal and Jeff Merkley with the "ICE Out of Our Faces Act" to rein in surveillance. I would propose that the "performance of those almost 80" is not a consistent category.
(Besides, in our case, Markey's challenger is Seth Moulton who voted the wrong way on the crypto bills among others, ran against Pelosi for Speaker, ran for President, and now runs for Senate. Very much worth questioning his motives.)
spry 79 - nice!! agree "not a consistent category". performance review is an average and ppl vary so much
Some days ago Arctic Stones started a good discussion about tech alternatives. I’d like to return to that discussion. First, I’ll share my own little experiment and then touch on some larger issues.
I’ve used Firefox as my browser for years and I highly recommend it as an alternative to Google Chrome. Even so, I’ve continued to rely on Google as my search engine. After talking with a friend, I decided to give DuckDuckGo a try. It turned out to be quite an easy thing to do in Firefox. You just go to Settings, choose Search, change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo, and that’s it. So far, DuckDuckGo works perfectly fine. However, if I find that it’s not giving me the search results I want in a particular instance, I can make a one-time search with Google. Also, I can easily turn on and off DuckDuckGo’s AI Search Assistant. Right now, I see no reason to go back to the Google search engine.
I recently listened to the Deep State Radio podcast with Simon, David Rothkopf and Tara McGowan. Near the end of it, Tara alluded to Scott Galloway’s Resist and Unsubscribe. Here is his website:
https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/
I personally didn’t find this site useful because I’m not a paid subscriber to anything on his list. However, other people might find it useful. With regard to the consumer-facing companies, I routinely shop at Ace Hardware instead of Lowe’s and Home Depot because Ace is within walking distance, I can usually find what I need, and the employees are generally helpful and friendly. I’m not into mail order, so I rarely use UPS and never FedEx anymore. And until we have municipal broadband, I have limited choices in that category. Otherwise, I don’t have cable, and I stream on my computer BritBox, PBS Passport, and Hoopla and Kanopy through my public library.
Of late, Europeans have been discussing the challenges of tech and financial independence from the U.S. Here’s an article on how UK bankers are seeking an alternative to Visa and Mastercard because of fears of Trump’s craziness:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/16/uk-bank-bosses-plan-visa-mastercard-alternative
And this article discusses the many challenges in building European tech independence from the U.S.:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/17/europeans-are-dangerously-reliant-on-us-tech-now-is-a-good-time-to-build-our-own
According to Erica Chenoweth, one of the ways that nonviolent civil resistance movements succeed is by building alternative institutions to the ones that support the regime in power. In my view, we cannot do that fast enough. How we and others extricate ourselves from Big Tech traitors supporting the regime is of urgent concern, in my view.
I cried through all three videos.
Lighter note. At first I read it as the Year of the Fire Hose. Also accurate, but not just this year. Year of the Fire Horse - much better.
GOP Gov. Ayotte of NH is showing herself to be some combination of incompetent, corrupt, and capitulating. She's claiming confusion about a human warehouse, apparently being built by one of her donors, in the town of Merrimack. Minimally, that has to be career ending, but should call for her resignation.
DHS/ICE did not expect to have opposition from Republican areas and most of the places they've chosen are in red places, and people are still screaming. This has become a huge, huge problem for them.
Simon, thanks for the inspiration!
I recently heard the movement coming out of Minnesota described as "neighborism." I think that's very good framing. It avoids partisan labels and describes something that's been fundamental to America since, at least, de Tocqueville. The video you showed of the man who came out to protest for the first time is a great example of neighborism in practice. The concept can be expanded beyond just fighting ICE to wanting our neighbors to have health care, a clean environment, good schools, etc.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen about the ICE concentration camps and I'm writing postcards to NC voters.
Called Duckworth and Durbin offices. Actually spoke to staff in both! Talked about stopping the expansion of these detention centers and the grift that surrounds them. Also, No on Save Act. I left a message at Susan Collins office and stated that the Kavanaugh vote and the Save Act vote would be remembered by American women as an utter betrayal. I will work to get another candidate elected to Maine.
Excellent, I’ve tried four times and never gotten through to a live person Durbin and Duckwort. But I have with Delia Ramírez many times.
There was no preparing for that video. The ending was a tear jerker. Wow.
I was grading my college DEI class students' papers this morning and one of the students (a Catholic high school student earning college credit) wrote a beautiful paper regarding his worldview of how to treat everyone with dignity and respect. His vocabulary is not yet sophisticated enough to fully eloquently share his thoughts, but he found a quote in our textbook that spoke to him:
"To conclude, I will include a quote from “Privilege, Power, and Difference”: 'For all of our
potential, you would think that we could get along with one another. By that I don't mean to love
one another in some idealistic way. We don't need to love or even like one another to work
together or share space in the world.(...) I mean treating one another with decency and respect
and appreciating, if not supporting, the best we have in us.'"
Folks, we are raising future leaders who are seeing what is happening and rejecting it outright. I was in high school when Kent State and Watergate happened. I know how impactful it was for me to see that our President engaged in criminal acts, and I know these students will carry what they are seeing with them for the rest of their lives too.
In my feedback, I invited him to Hopium Chronicles. I'm very lucky to be a part of these young peoples' lives.
Here is a copy of the letter that I emailed to my Members of Congress:
Dear Senator Tillis:
I wrote to you about laws being broken and rights being taken away from Americans no matter who they are. I also told you we need to deal with ICE and the military being on our streets. They acted like a bunch of terrorists here in Charlotte, NC, rounding up people. Throwing people on the ground. On January 7, 2026, they murdered a woman in Minneapolis, MN. Please watch this video of how this happened and how unacceptable this is. It is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ws3YS6uzos. Please watch this ad which describes how horrible at this link of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNRCcbTdHPg. This is outrageous. They are now arresting journalists such as Don Lemon and Georgia Forte. Don Lemon was arrested at the Grammys. They are not breaking the law, they have a constitutional right to be at these events which is called the 1st amendment. It is time to stop the killing and arresting of American citizens. You took an oath to the Constitution not to Donald Trump. Here is the oath you took: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. You need to stand up for Ukraine and stop this assault by Putin. You need to deal with Donald Trump and his administration not standing up for our values. You need to stop this assault on our health from Robert Kennedy, Jr. People will die if we abandon our scientific research and you will have children and elderly die from this stupidity and cruelty. We are here now, deep into dangerous Mad King/Bond Villain territory. 2026 is no longer about affordability or restoring the ACA subsidies. It is about a pro-democracy movement somehow coming together and forming a unified and far more powerful front against his dangerous Imperial and dictatorial designs. Rule of law must be re-established in America, ICE must be reined in, and Trump’s outrageous plunder and corruption must end That he must back off his illegal and destructive territorial ambitions, end all these ridiculous tariffs, and re-commit to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance Here is the quote from the Declaration of Independence of what is required of us now: But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Here are five things you must do:
1. Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his new threats to seize Greenland and his new, dangerous European tariffs;
2. Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law, and the US must withdraw from Venezuela and cease other threats to violate the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other nations
3. Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world. To put America on a sounder fiscal course due to the enormous deficits brought by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts we should reverse the cuts to the wealthy and corporations
4. Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the dangerous occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented regime corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress end the rancid cover up of the Epstein crimes
5. Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA, Medicaid and our clean energy investments; support and co-sponsor the Stand Up For Science/Rep. Haley Stevens effort to remove Robert Kennedy from HHS.
Sincerely,
Matthew
TY Matthew. Well penned, sir.