Here is my valentine to all of you — 14 ways that pres. Oompa J Loompa lost this week!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
1. ICE leaving Minnesota
TACO Trump Calls It Quits On Operation Which Killed Two Americans
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan says ICE agents are pulling out of Minnesota as part of a “significant drawdown” following weeks of chaos.
“I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through the next week,” Homan said at a press conference Thursday.
I realize we need to see this to fully believe it but here is why I believe it — they WANT out of this. They have lost and will continue to lose because the people of Minnesota are freaking heroes who will not back down.
They know this. This has been a nightmare for them. They want out because THEY LOST.
That is why I believe that they really will draw down.
x
"They went into Minneapolis with the assumption that we'd see the equivalent of George Floyd...they wanted to provoke this. And the discipline that freedom-loving Americans have shown in this—I think it's been incredible."
Adam Kinzinger on Minnesotans refusal to take the bait.
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-02-13T10:01:41.342Z
2. States are NOT handing over the voter rolls
x
🚨BREAKING: Federal Court DISMISSES DOJ lawsuit to gain access to Michigan’ unredacted statewide voter registration list. Another BIG victory for our clients and voters. Another stunning defeat for Pam Bondi. www.democracydocket.com/cases/michig...
— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T14:33:36.992Z
and not just blue states:
‘DOJ doesn’t have authority to run a state’s elections’: West Virginia’s GOP election chief pushes back on voter roll grab
West Virginia’s Republican chief election official denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) demand for full access to the state’s voter roll, rejecting what he described as an unlawful attempt to seize the sensitive personal data of individual voters by the Trump administration.
Secretary of State Kris Warner (R) is the latest in a string of Republican chief election officials to push back against DOJ’s voter roll grab — a stark sign that the effort is spurring opposition even among some supporters of President Donald Trump.
3. Pres Oompa J Loompa had his worst polls ever (again)
To the surprise of no one, I completely agree that history will be super kind to Biden. He was an amazing POTUS.
x
New poll: In 2024, low-engagement voters went for Trump over Harris by 11 percentage points. But now they disapprove of the way he's handling the presidency by 13. They have moved 25 points against Trump — 2x as large as the shift for high-knowledge voters www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-lost...
— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) 2026-02-12T13:01:20.955Z
Trump’s Support Among Young Men Goes Up in Flames as Midterms Loom
President Donald Trump’s support among young male voters has collapsed in recent months, according to new polling, signaling a potentially serious challenge for Republicans as the midterm elections approach.
4. The DCCC expanded our map AGAIN
DCCC Announces Second Expansion of the House Battlefield for 2026 Cycle with 5 New Offensive Targets
|
Today, the DCCC unveiled five new offensive additions to House Democrats’ Districts in Play for the 2026 cycle, bringing the total number of districts to 44.
This is the second time the DCCC has expanded the offensive map in as many months. Last April, we launched our initial offensive map of 35 Districts in Play – a list that was already larger than at the start of the 2024 cycle. The first expansion was unveiled in December.
The new offensive targets are all in districts that Trump won by 13% or less, and reflect a sustained, dramatically positive political environment where Democrats are overperforming in all special elections since Trump was inaugurated, including in congressional special elections by more than 17%.
|
|
5. They Still Haven’t had even ONE pickup in Oompa Loompas first term!
This week they had their first real chance at flipping an election. But… nope!
Democrats resoundingly defend red district in Louisiana, denying GOP its first pickup
Democrats successfully defended a conservative seat in rural Louisiana on Saturday night, as Chasity Martinez defeated Republican Brad Daigle by a dominant 62-38 margin—a massive 37-point overperformance compared to the 2024 presidential result.
Republicans had hoped to score their first legislative pickup of any kind during Donald Trump’s second term, and they had good reason to think they might succeed in the 60th House District.
so where does that leave us?
Since Trump returned to the White House, Democrats have picked up eight Republican-controlled districts through special elections, as well as 18 seats in New Jersey and Virginia during those states’ regularly scheduled contests last November. Republicans have flipped none.
26 — 0. Yikes. Bad look Donny. Someone is a lame duck!
6. They’ve lost Latino voters (duh)
These maps show how Latino voters helped Democrats flip a reliably red Texas Senate seat
Democrat Taylor Rehmet’s stunning upset victory is explained in part by the massive swing by Latino voters toward his campaign
Across the entire district, VoteHub estimated that Rehmet captured about 79% of the Hispanic vote, a 26-point improvement on the 53% that went for Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024 — the biggest shift of any racial group in the district.
This means, btw, that Republicans completely screwed themselves with their recent gerrymandering, which assumed that Latinos would continue to vote for them at 2024 levels. Whoops!
7. Republicans are screwing the pooch already
their people are dropping out like flies:
Mark Amodei will retire at the end of his term
Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), the only Republican in Nevada’s congressional delegation, announced on Friday he will retire at the end of his current term after more than a decade in Congress.
and they aren’t even getting new people to run!
For the first time ever, New Mexico Republicans won't field a Senate candidate
For the first time since New Mexico became a state in 1912, Republicans won’t field a candidate in a U.S. Senate race.
The GOP learned of its grim fate on Tuesday when Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver determined that the little-known Christopher Vanden Heuvel had failed to submit enough signatures to make the ballot.
Vanden Heuvel was the only Republican who had filed to take on Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan before the Feb. 3 deadline to turn in signatures, so his disqualification almost certainly means that the incumbent will face no major-party opposition this fall.
x
Indiana candidate filing deadline was today:
Dems got candidates in 91/100 State House districts and 25/25 State Senate districts!
The Republicans? 79/100 State House districts and nearly all of their incumbents in the Senate are facing primary challenges.
Hoosier Republicans in disarray
— Uncrewed (@uncrewed.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T01:37:44.419Z
8. MAGA is turning on one another
MAGA vs MAGA: Georgia election exposes divisions in Trump’s base
President Donald Trump may have expected his endorsement of a local prosecutor in the race to replace U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to clear the Republican field. Instead, more than a dozen Republicans are still competing, turning this deeply conservative corner of Georgia into an election-year test of Trump’s hold on his Make America Great Again movement.
Why MAGA-Boosting Comedy Bros Are Turning on Trump
From Joe Rogan to Andrew Schulz, the bromance between right-coded comics and the president is quickly cooling off.
Trump's schtick is wearing on Republicans, costing him his base
President Donald Trump and MAGA loyalists exist in a swiftly deflating bubble, their smallness highlighted by plummeting polling numbers, towering pop culture moments like the Super Bowl halftime show, and the spectacle of the world booing America’s vice president at the Olympics.
But Trump’s base is swiftly eroding, more Republican lawmakers are losing faith, and the upcoming midterm elections could well be a bubble-meets-needle moment.
MAGA World Throws Steve Bannon Under The Bus
Noem is getting thrown under the bus (and she is throwing miller under the bus). What a gross place that bus must be! eew!
x
Sen. Peters: “Did you provide Secretary Noem with an assessment of what Mr. Pretti…was engaged in domestic terrorism?”
CBP Commissioner Scott: “No.”
Sen. Peters: “How would she possibly come to that kind of conclusion to tell the American public that when they're watching this video?”
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-02-12T18:10:46.216Z
9. Invertebrate Republicans Stand up to Leadership (sure sign that Oompa is seen as weak)
GOP revolt sinks effort to block votes on Trump’s tariffs
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s bid to block future votes on President Donald Trump’s tariffs failed Tuesday after an internal GOP revolt.
Three Republican lawmakers, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Kevin Kiley of California and Don Bacon of Nebraska, joined Democrats to defeat a key procedural measure 217-214.
This allowed a vote (without oompa and johnson wanting it) and then what happened?
'Net negative.' Trump loses on tariffs as GOP votes against president
The GOP-led House of Representatives voted to overturn his tariffs on Canada after six Republicans joined with House Democrats to rescind the emergency declaration the president has used as a basis for imposing taxes on imports from one of the United States' closest allies.
10. Governors are sticking together — and against Oopma
again, this shows his power is slipping…
Annual governors’ gathering with White House unraveling after Trump excludes Democrats
The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional dinner at the White House.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors in a letter on Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association’s annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only.
“Because NGA’s mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program,” Stitt wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
11. His efforts to punish his enemies met more stop signs this week
Trump Humiliated After Push to Punish His Enemies Fails
The Trump administration’s attempt to punish six Democratic lawmakers for urging members of the military and intelligence communities to disobey unlawful orders has failed.
Three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News that the Department of Justice was unsuccessful in its bid to secure indictments in connection with the video, which featured six Democrats.
The New York Times, which cited four sources, noted that prosecutors sought to convince the grand jury that the lawmakers had violated a statute that “forbids interfering with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the U.S. armed forces.” The grand jury subsequently rejected the bid.
x
Remarkable: Trump's deranged threat to block the bridge connecting Detroit to Canada is backfiring, giving Dems a big issue in 2026 races in Michigan, which could help decide control of Congress.
Michigan Dems tell me they'll use this against Republicans big time:
newrepublic.com/article/2064...
— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2026-02-11T18:56:25.827Z
12. Democrats are not backing down on ICE demands
Senate Democrats block bill for Department of Homeland Security funding; DHS set to shut down this weekend
On Thursday, Senate Republicans failed to advance legislation to fund DHS for the rest of the fiscal year by a vote of 52-47, falling far short of the 60 needed to clear a filibuster.
After that, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., sought unanimous consent to pass a stopgap bill to keep funds flowing for two weeks while the two parties continued to negotiate. That was blocked by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on behalf of Democrats, who have made clear they won’t accept another short-term bill without reforms.
“The path forward is simple: Negotiate serious guardrails that protect Americans, that rein in ICE, and stop the violence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “Americans are watching what’s happened in neighborhood after neighborhood across the country. They know it’s wrong. They know it’s excessive. And they want Congress, the Senate, to fix it.”
While neither side has gotten into specifics of the ongoing talks, Democrats released a set of 10 demands last week that included requiring agents to wear identification, get judicial warrants to enter private property and stop wearing masks.
13. The D.C. District Court strikes back
Three judges issued three rulings protecting constitutional rights in cases relating to Trump admin actions against federal inmates, Alien Enemies Act deportees, and Sen. Mark Kelly.
Within a 24-hour period, three judges of the D.C. District Court pushed back against the executive overreach in a way that would be unthinkable in another era. In three totally separate cases where the Trump administration has ignored people’s fundamental constitutional rights to advance its program of cruelty and retaliation, judges said, essentially, “Not on my watch,” in the midst of continuing offenses by the Trump administration against the Constitution and the nation’s laws.
On Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, appointed to the D.C. District Court by Trump in his first term, issued a decision concluding that the Justice Department likely engaged in a “sham” process when seeking to carry out Trump’s retaliatory actions against those people whose death sentences then-president Joe Biden commuted to sentences of life without the possibility of parole.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon — a George W. Bush appointee who was nominated to the federal bench on September 10, 2001 — blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to punish Sen. Mark Kelly for the “illegal orders” video the he and other members of Congress issued this past fall.
14. Pam Bondi Embarrassed Everyone
Instead of being fearsome and tough, she looked like weak mean girl using his slam book to find weak insults.
when this all is over Pam Bondi Is Going To Jail and you could almost see her figure that our in real time
In 1973, it drifted down Pennsylvania Avenue in a cloud of cigar smoke and raw political arrogance. It hung in the corridors of power while men in dark suits convinced themselves that loyalty was a higher virtue than law. They were wrong, of course. History was waiting with handcuffs.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General of the Trump Law Firm and Rub-N-Tug Spa, once known as the Department of Justice, is next.
The Attorney General at the time was John N. Mitchell. He was not a fool. He was not a fringe figure. He was the Attorney General of the United States, the keeper of the law’s flame, sworn to preserve it…and yet he mistook his proximity to Richard Nixon for immunity.
John Mitchell went to prison for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.
Records are being made.
Emails are being sent.
Instructions are being given.
And someday, someone will read them aloud in an indictment.
History does not always repeat itself, but it does maintain impeccable bookkeeping.
She was a punchline. So let’s enjoy the joke. We deserve it.
Here are some of my favorites:
How do you get involved?
Donate to our House efforts.
It splits our donations among the 15 seats held by Republicans in swing districts. These are seats that were either won by a margin of 4% or less or were won by Harris in 2024. In other words, these are seats we can win in 2026. None of them are in CA or TX (and thus likely to be redistricted). Any money you donate will go directly to whomever our candidate will be in 2026. We only need to flip three of these!
Here is the link:
WE CAN WIN THESE ELECTIONS! And when we do we can change everything.
Some other ways to get involved
-
If you can, I strongly recommend going to an in person meeting in your area. One way to find a local group is through indivisible: indivisibleproject.formstack.com/…
-
Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
-
The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
-
Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
Looking for something more specific?
Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT:
Want to focus on CIVIL RIGHTS:
HUMAN RIGHTS - GENERALLY:
LGBTQ+:
WOMEN:
Huge thanks to DKos user dabug for help with this list.
Don’t let the options overwhelm you! Try to pick one thing and see if it calls to you. If it doesn’t find something else.
There are so many ways to get involved and help!
Some inspiration before I say goodbye
“Whatever happens, stay alive.
Don't die before you're dead.
Don't lose yourself, don't lose hope, don't lose direction.
Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin.
Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.
Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.
Stay alive with joy.
There is only one thing you should not waste in life,
and that's life itself..."
by Virginia Woolf
.
At Albany Bulb with Elaine
By Alison Luterman
Side by side on a log by the bay.
Sunlight. Unleashed dogs,
prancing through surf, almost exploding
out of their skins with perfect happiness.
Dogs who don't know about fired park rangers,
or canceled health research, or tariff wars,
or the suicide hotline for veterans getting defunded,
or or or. We've listed horror upon horror
to each other for weeks now, and it does no good,
so instead I tell her how I held a two-day old baby
in my arms, inhaling him like a fresh-baked loaf of bread,
then watched as a sneeze erupted through his body
like a tiny volcano. It was the look of pure
astonishment on his face, as if he were Adam
in the garden of Eden making his debut achoo,
as if it were the first sneeze that ever blew,
that got me. She tells me how her dog
once farted so loudly he startled himself
and fell off the bed where he'd been lolling,
and then the two of us start to laugh so hard
we almost fall off our own log. And this
is our resistance for today; remembering
original innocence. And they can't
take it away from us, though they ban
our very existence, though they slash
our rights to ribbons, we will have
our mirth and our birthright gladness.
Long after every unsold Tesla
has vaporized, and earth has closed over
even the names of these temporary tyrants,
somewhere some women like us
will be sitting side by side, facing the water,
telling human stories and laughing still.
I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 💙❤️💛💚✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
