February 22, 2026
Civics; Humor; Inequality; Media; Corruption; A way with words; Authoritarianism; Governance
Civics
Humor
Inequality
Media
Corruption
A way with words
Authoritarianism
Governance
Civics
https://savingplaces.org/public-comment-period-white-house-ballroom
Public Comment Period Open: White House Ballroom Proposal
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC): Written comments are due by Wednesday, March 4, 2026 at Noon ET. Members of the public may also apply to provide oral testimony at the virtual NCPC meeting on March 5, 2026.
https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/
[T]he shortest path to change without hurting consumers is an economic strike targeted at the companies driving the markets and enabling our president. …
These are the subscription-driven consumer tech companies we have identified as having outsized influence over the national economy and our president [along with instructions on how to cancel them].
I never protested before in my entire life, but, uh - sorry, - uh, - I watched 4th and 5th grade kids run away from our own government. I never want to see that again.
As poignant as his words are, the evident emotion in his breaking voice is more so. Topping it off is what he chose to bring to his first-ever protest: a giant American flag.
https://paultshattuck.substack.com/p/resisting-authoritarianism-for-introverts
Resisting Authoritarianism for Introverts: An FAQ for Staying Human in Loud Times
A lot of resistance advice sounds like it’s meant for someone louder. But what if your strength lives in quiet — and that’s exactly what this moment needs?
1. What if I care deeply, but typical forms of activism just drain me?
2. Am I failing the movement if I can’t handle rallies and phone banks?
3. What is it about this authoritarian moment that hits introverts especially hard?
4. Can introverts be effective leaders when everything feels loud and fast?
5. Is it selfish to protect my energy and say no when everything feels like an emergency?
6. How do I find my people when I feel invisible in activist spaces?
7. I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. What’s one thing I can do this week?
https://www.ptshattuck.com/resources/staying-steady-book
Staying Steady
Practical Tools to Interrupt Overwhelm and Build Resilience Under Authoritarian Assault
https://paultshattuck.substack.com/p/the-serenity-prayer-wasnt-built-for
The Defiance Prayer
Please grant me audacity to choose values and goals worth fighting for;
Persistence in the face of failed attempts;
And the wisdom to know the difference between acceptance and giving up.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/what-i-saw-minnesota-ice-war
While we were at [the Whipple ICE facility] talking to observers, a mother and two small children emerged from the building. They had nothing with them other than the clothes on their backs. It was about 15 degrees, the day after an unexpected snow. The three small humans haltingly made their way across the ice and slush in the road. Someone from Haven Watch met them and ushered them into a warm car.
I ask you: What do you think would have happened to this woman and her children had the United States government sent them into the cold and snow, far from taxis or transport, with no way of contacting anyone for help?
What do you think would have become of these three vulnerable human beings at the hands of our government had the people of Minnesota not stepped in to care for them?
This is Anne Frank territory; the stuff of the Stasi and East Germany, or Kosovo and Sarajevo. And the only way it ends is with victory for the regime or a reckoning for all those who waged this war against America.
However alarmed you are, it’s not enough.
https://www.threads.com/@amay.a100/post/DUvb7F9DQah
Hundreds of students from Western Carolina University walked over 1.7 MILES, to vote at their new polling location after the NC Elections board voted to close their on-campus polling site.
Humor
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KR25vZJEKeo
Teacher Follows Student Instructions to make a PBJ sandwich
You can tell this teacher has no problem with distracted students.
https://bsky.app/profile/davelevitan.bsky.social/post/3mf7leqlmks2q
Getting shown up in the arena of elite impunity by *the British monarchy* is an incredible “America at 250!” achievement
https://bsky.app/profile/nytpitchbot.bsky.social/post/3mewjqnck222l
Whether it’s Barack Obama, putting Dijon mustard on a hotdog or Vladimir Putin poisoning a political rival with frog toxins, both leaders have a colorful history of using strange substances.
https://bsky.app/profile/nytpitchbot.bsky.social/post/3mew5nsqsfc27
Whether it’s Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. fighting to desegregate public restrooms or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. snorting cocaine off of toilet seats, toilets play a key role in the history of the Kennedys.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/20/fake-ice-tip-line-viral/
He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called.
A Nashville comedian’s deportation hotline, set up as a joke, has gone viral among viewers who say it shows the “banality of evil personified.”
Inequality
https://www.wsj.com/finance/billionaires-low-taxes-are-becoming-a-problem-for-the-economy-27a560ca
Billionaires’ Low Taxes Are Becoming a Problem for the Economy
Tax avoidance by the superwealthy is an economic issue as well as a political one
Media
The Righting
Alerting mainstream audiences to today’s headlines from the right
https://www.propublica.org/article/rx-inspector-reshaping-decisions-generic-drugs
“A Godsend”: ProPublica’s Rx Inspector Tool Is Helping People Find Critical Safety Information on Generic Drugs
Health care workers are changing how they counsel patients. Experts are using our database to support their research. And some consumers report they’ve discovered troubling records at the factories where their medications are made.
Corruption
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/well/epstein-files-associates.html
There were plenty of signs that something wasn’t right with Jeffrey Epstein. Why didn’t anyone say something?
https://sollenbergerrc.substack.com/p/fbi-interviewed-trump-accuser-epstein
FBI Interviewed Trump Accuser, Epstein Files Show
Trump was credibly accused of sexual assault in the Epstein files. It’s unclear what became of the DOJ’s investigation.
“[REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit,” the presentation says. “In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out.” The victim would have been “approximately 13-15 years old when this occurred,” according to the presentation. The alleged assault took place in the early-mid 1980s, and the same woman also claimed to be an Epstein victim.
The second Trump claim on the slide — that Epstein introduced a victim to Trump when she was 14 years old, saying, “This is a good one, right?”, to which Trump agreed — carries immense credibility within the DOJ: That claim, about an incident at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 1994, came from a key government witness whose testimony at trial helped DOJ prosecutors convict Maxwell, the files reveal.
A way with words
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/the-movie-that-shaped-a-former-border-patrol-chief
When Gregory K. Bovino was a boy, he saw a movie called “The Border,” a crime thriller about corruption among U.S. Border Patrol officers working in El Paso. The film, whose executive producer was Bovino’s great-uncle, Neil Hartley, arrived in theatres in 1982. Bovino was eleven. Years later, he would say that the film had inspired him to join Border Patrol. If that’s the case, it’s a little like entering the hospitality industry after watching “The Shining.”
https://substack.com/@borowitzreport/note/c-215111516
Trump’s constant whining that we must move on from Epstein is eerily reminiscent of Nixon’s claim that the American people were tired of Watergate. In the end, the American people were tired of Nixon.
Authoritarianism
In some ways, this is a bigger deal than the ICE lawyer’s meltdown in court a few weeks ago. We now have the U.S. attorney’s office not going rogue here, but admitting under oath that it has breached court orders more than 50 times. And there were often dire consequences for the people whose rights were violated. [Associate deputy attorney general] Fox tried to paint this as a few errors around the edges, but to me it depicts a complete breakdown of the system.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wvsd.242928/gov.uscourts.wvsd.242928.28.0.pdf
[Judge’s ruling:] The Founders recognized that freedom is imperiled not only when government actions lack legal justification, but also when those actions are carried out by agents whose authority is unchecked and whose actions cannot be traced. …
When officers can wear a mask, fail to verify their credentials, refuse to disclose their name, arrive in an unmarked vehicle, and neglect to provide a justification for their seizure of an individual, the constitutional protection that the Framers envisioned has not just been corroded— it has been eviscerated. …
When officers can conceal their identity, the system effectively collapses. Individuals lack the information necessary to report misconduct for meaningful judicial review or internal investigation. Officers are thereby emboldened to exercise their power in an arbitrary and oppressive manner. And public trust is decimated.
Governance
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-17-2026
While Trump boasts about the U.S. stock market, which is indeed up, U.S. markets have underperformed markets in other countries. Today, Carl Quintanilla of CNBC reported that the S&P 500, which measures 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., is off to its worst year of performance since 1995 when compared to the All Country World Index (ACWI), an index that measures global stocks.
https://washingtonpost.com/health/2026/02/19/alternative-world-health-organization-proposal/
After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it
HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ambetter-ghost-network-consequences
“I Don’t Want to Die”: Needing Mental Health Care, He Got Trapped in His Insurer’s Ghost Network
Ravi Coutinho bought a health insurance plan thinking it would deliver on its promise of access to mental health providers. But even after 21 phone calls and multiple hospitalizations, no one could find him a therapist.
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/02/new-book-debunks-nudge-policies/686044/
Why Nudge Policies Failed
A new book buries the Obama-era idea that small shifts in personal behavior can greatly improve the world.
[A] focus on personal responsibility in this situation was “misplaced.” “The prevalence of plastics, and plastic waste, has not been caused by individual careless consumers,” they write. “It has been caused by the relentless growth of the plastics industry.”
When nudges like these work, the benefits are minor. Meanwhile, and much worse, they shift focus away from truly effective changes—in this case, a limit on the production of single-use plastics—by convincing individuals that they are at fault. In the long term, this failure to address deep social problems contributes to the erosion of people’s trust in governments and institutions, breeding nihilism and an attraction to demagogues who claim to have easy answers. …
Examples of inadequate nudges abound. In the fight against obesity, a well-known intervention is to pay people for losing weight. This does show meaningful effects—as long as they’re being paid. When payment stops, they gain the weight back. As the authors note, a more lasting solution would be to place limits on fat and sugar in ultra-processed food, which makes up more than half of the average person’s calorie consumption.
Chater and Loewenstein refer to these competing policy approaches—the individual and the systemic—as the “i-frame” and the “s-frame.” When we focus on i-frame nudges, they argue, we drain momentum from more effective s-frame solutions. Take paying taxes, a monumentally complex and frustrating endeavor for the average person: The IRS could just calculate your return and send you a check or a bill, as other countries’ tax authorities do. But the tax lobby has consistently blocked this, promoting individual choice to protect the billions of dollars that it earns each year in tax-preparation fees. This kind of misdirection creates a “crowding out” effect: Experiments by Loewenstein and his colleagues have shown that, after people are nudged to conserve energy, they become less likely to support a more systemic solution such as a carbon tax.