ckd | Network

Posted by Lori Dorn

https://laughingsquid.com/benedict-cumberbatch-disgruntled-bank-customer/

Benedict Cumberbatch read a very cleverly written letter written by a disgruntled bank customer who had had enough. The letter writer provided a great deal of humorous commentary about the bank and even suggested a process to turn the tables and regain control of their finances.

Anyone who has ever attempted to deal with a bank will find comfort in the following letter, written by a frustrated account holder who had recently tried, and failed, to pay in a cheque.

This wonderful reading took place during Letters Live event in January 2026.

Benedict Cumberbatch joined us to read this brilliant letter at Letters Live in association with Cunard at London’s Southbank Centre in January 2026.

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The post Benedict Cumberbatch Reads a Hilarious Letter From a Very Disgruntled Bank Customer was originally published on Laughing Squid.

https://laughingsquid.com/benedict-cumberbatch-disgruntled-bank-customer/

https://laughingsquid.com/?p=993887

wildeabandon

I got my exam results yesterday, and they were slightly disappointing, in the "virtually anyone would be fucking delighted, but they were all on the low end of what I was expecting" sense of the word disappointing. I got 15/20 in Catechetics, 16/20 in Anthropology, 17/20 in Psalms & Prophets, and 18/20 in Hebrew II and Ugaritic. The first two are entirely understandable - I wasn't particularly keen on either course, and whilst by no means neglecting them completely, I didn't put in a particularly high level of effort. I'm happy enough with the 18s. They were both challenging courses, and 18 is a bloody good mark.

The one that's bugging me is the Psalms though. I thought I understood the material well, and that I'd had some interesting and insightful things to say. I know that I got 18/20 in the paper that makes up half the mark, which means that I only got 15-16/20 in the exam. Hardly the end of the world, but it's the only one where I don't understand why I didn't do better. I've emailed the prof to ask for feedback, so with luck I'll get something useful. (ETA: Apparently marks get rounded down, not up - I got 8/10 and 9/10 in the two exam questions, and the 8 was because he had to prompt me a couple of times, and since at least one of those time he prompted me for the thing I was about to say anyway I am now feeling a lot less bothered by the overall mark.)

One result though which is positive in a sense is that my overall grade is now almost guaranteed. My average is currently 87%. The top grade boundary is an average of 90%, which had seemed in reach before these results, but would now require me to get 20/20 in all but one of my remaining courses (and 19/20 in that), which isn't really plausible. The grade boundary below is an average of 85%, and whilst the fact that there are just more numbers between 0 and 87 than between 87 and 100 means that there's more scope for my grade to be dragged down than up, I would have to do quite a bit worse than I have been for that to happen. Anyway, the sense that there's not a lot that I can do to change my overall grade means that I can concentrate more on learning for the sake of learning, which in the long term is almost certainly better than chasing grades.

kottke_org_feed

Posted by Jason Kottke

https://kottke.org/26/02/0048306-tinder-hasnt-worked-so-im

Tinder Hasn’t Worked, So I’m Putting Myself on Zillow. “I realize that my late-’80s construction might not land me in the “trending” section right away…”

https://kottke.org/26/02/0048306-tinder-hasnt-worked-so-im

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Barbara Moens, Financial Times

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/eu-says-tiktok-needs-to-drop-addictive-design/

Brussels has warned TikTok that its endlessly scrolling feeds may breach Europe’s new content rules, as regulators press ahead with efforts to rein in the social effects of big online platforms.

In preliminary findings issued on Friday, the European Commission said it believed the group had failed to adequately assess and mitigate the risks posed by addictive design features that could harm users’ physical and mental wellbeing, particularly children and other vulnerable groups.

The warning marks one of the most advanced tests yet of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to identify and curb systemic risks linked to their products.

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/eu-says-tiktok-needs-to-drop-addictive-design/

prettygoodword

arboricide (ah-BOR-i-said) - n., an herbicide intended to kill trees or shrubs; (rare) the killing of a tree.

Or as the OED puts it, "the wanton destruction of trees." In memory of the large pine that, until yesterday, stood between our house and the neighbor's, shading us from the southwest. Its destruction was not wanton, however, as it like all too many pines in our neighborhood was dying (bark beetles). Coined in the 1890s from Latin roots arbor, tree + -cidium, killing (from caedere, to cut/kill).

---L.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: awake

spiralsheep

Science! Always read the notes. Scientists hide all the funny stuff in the notes. From page 40 of 67 pages of notes, bottom of a long note 27 for chapter 8:
"In 1849, through exchange, Higgins gave the Yorkshire Museum 'fossil fishes from Lyme Regis'. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, 20 (as well as donating a 'Turnip presenting a singular monstrosity of form' to the botany collections)."
Monstrous turnip! :D

Reading: on book 21. If anyone wants me to post a monthly list of my 4/5 and 5/5 books then please apply in writing to the management &c.

Friday Five:
( Q1-4. )

5. What does it take to make you happy?
The chain of tiny everyday pleasures: cozy bed, daylight, hot drinks that are absolutely perfect in their moment, truly soft comfy old clothes, whatever the plants are doing this week (e.g. mistletoe spheres high in bare branches), my birb neighbours (get out of my chimney you jackdaw b@$t@rd5! Note to self - get capping pot replaced), my human neighbours acknowledging each other but not intruding when in our shared spaces, the bus queue chats, &c.
Ecstatic joy is a wonderful bonus but I don't need it.

Current Location: Under the chimneypot of doom?

princessofgeeks

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princessofgeeks

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mallorys_camera

We had a brief respite from the punishingly cold temperatures: Last few days, temps actually broke freezing. But today, the polar vortex is bearing back down again. The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Weather Alert: Dangerously cold wind chills as low as 20 to 35 below zero expected throughout the quaint & scenic Hudson Valley.

This disinclines me to leave the house 'cause what if—minute chance, but still—my car breaks down on the way to the gym? Frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.

###

In Work in Progress news: We are up to the Debbie Reynolds death scene, which occurs during an ICU code, so I am wracking my tiny brain for status detail.

Then Grazia ends up going to the creepy New Millennium Kingdom mansion, where she spends 18 hours a day praying as the initial prep work for dismantling her personality begins.

Neal rescues her!

Big dilemma: Does Neal rescue her before or after the creepy mansion bursts into flame from a faulty electrical connection? (Decisions, decisions!)

Then Neal & Grazia have to have some sort of Meaningful Conversation on the front porch of Neal's Catskills cabin.

And magically, perspective swirls so that we are back at the very first scene of Part 1 when Grazia drives up there following Neal's memorial.

It would be great if I could tweak the closing prose too, so it mimics the chick lit cadence of that opening chapter, but I'm not sure I have the writing chops to pull that one off.

But after that, we start with Part 2: Daria.

###

I have my own Bad Cult memories, though I'd have to do some serious excavating to access them since they're buried under many decades of petrified protective amnesia.

As a teenager, I had dealings with a cult called Synanon.

Synanon didn't eat me, but it ate some people I cared about back then—most notably, Michael Garrett whom I still wonder about sometimes late at night.

I'm not sure how many of those Bad Cult memories I can repurpose. They're awfully immersive, and immersion is only of questionable usefulness in a passage that's supposed to be 1,500 words or so in length max. Don't really want to distract from the essential story, which is Neal & Grazia.

Here is Michael Garrett and me in 1968:

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Stephen Clark

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/rocket-report-spacex-probes-upper-stage-malfunction-starship-testing-resumes/

Welcome to Edition 8.28 of the Rocket Report! The big news in rocketry this week was that NASA still hasn't solved the problem with hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System. The problem caused months of delays before the first SLS launch in 2022, and the fuel leaks cropped up again Monday during a fueling test on NASA's second SLS rocket. It is a continuing problem, and NASA's sparse SLS launch rate makes every countdown an experiment, as my colleague Eric Berger wrote this week. NASA will conduct another fueling test in the coming weeks after troubleshooting the rocket's leaky fueling line, but the launch of the Artemis II mission is off until March.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Blue Origin "pauses" New Shepard flights. Blue Origin has "paused" its New Shepard program for the next two years, a move that likely signals a permanent end to the suborbital space tourism initiative, Ars reports. The small rocket and capsule have been flying since April 2015 and have combined to make 38 launches, all but one of which were successful, and 36 landings. In its existence, the New Shepard program flew 98 people to space, however briefly, and launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads into the microgravity environment.

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poliphilo

The Lewes Meeting House has a copy of this print. It'll be worth a few bob. They have it leaning against a wall, out of sight, out of mind. I love old prints and if I weren't a fine upstanding citizen I'd have waited until no-one was looking and added it to my collection.

mw65663_800x657.jpg.webp

It's called Mr West and his family. The original was painted by Mr West and commemorates a visit of his elderly male relatives to see his new-born second son. The two old gents are Quakers wearing Quaker gear- which is presumably why the Lewes Meeting House aquired it.

Mr West is Benjamin West, the American painter. Born in Pennsylvania, he studied in Italy, as one did, then moved to England where he prospered, becoming court painter to George III and the second president of the Royal Academy, in succession to Joshua Reynolds. He seems to have been an agreeable man. When the American colonies rebelled against the mother country he kept a discreet silence and wouldn't be drawn.

He is best known for big, splashy paintings of historical events. He did Bible stories, Roman history, medieval history and modern times. and was prolific in producing them. Sadly they are not very much to modern taste, being theatrical, melodramatic and often wildly inaccurate. If you set aside your prejudices it is possible to admire them for their energy and imagination. The best known of them, and one of the most carefully considered is his Death of Wolfe. Wolfe was the general who captured Quebec from the French- thus securing Canada for the British Empire. I do rather like it. As West's histories go it is really quite restrained. Wolfe was famous and singular among officers for carrying a rifle- just like a common soldier- and there it is discarded at his feet. West has done his research.

Scrolling through the reproductions of West's work on wikipedia I found a number of rather charming little paintings of everyday subjects which look as if they were done quickly, freely and possibly even for fun. In the first we have some gentlemen in a punt out fishing with what looks rather like a sea battle going on in the far distance. In the second we see some sturdy British peasants reaping corn and canoodling in the vicinity of Windsor Castle while some glittery gentlefolk look on.

Benjamin_West_-_Gentlemen_Fishing_-_Google_Art_Project.jpeg

Benjamin_West_-_Gentlemen_Fishing_-_Google_Art_Project.jpeg

Harvesting_at_Windsor_by_Benjamin_West,_PRA.jpeg

devinwolfi posting in

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Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/iphone-lockdown-mode-protects-washington-post-reporter.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71560

404Media is reporting that the FBI could not access a reporter’s iPhone because it had Lockdown Mode enabled:

The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device.

“Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device,” the court record reads, referring to the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team, a unit focused on performing forensic analyses of seized devices. The document is written by the government, and is opposing the return of Natanson’s devices.

The FBI raided Natanson’s home as part of its investigation into government contractor Aurelio Perez-Lugones, who is charged with, among other things, retention of national defense information. The government believes Perez-Lugones was a source of Natanson’s, and provided her with various pieces of classified information. While executing a search warrant for his mobile phone, investigators reviewed Signal messages between Pere-Lugones and the reporter, the Department of Justice previously said.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/iphone-lockdown-mode-protects-washington-post-reporter.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71560

pilottttt posting in

common_nature

And here are some Mediterranean seagulls from Istanbul for you - big, loud and cheeky ;)

( Read more... )

Current Location: Istanbul, Turkey

sabotabby

There's a lot of good stuff on the podcast feed this week, but look, we all have to be Elbows Up these days or whatever, even though Canada is a fake country, because it's better to be a fake country with healthcare than a fake country with crushing medical debt. So I must proudly wave the flag when Behind the Bastards notices and recognizes an actual Canadian bastard, as they did this week with Romana Didulo, Queen of Canada (Part 1, Part 2).

Her Majesty is not a successful cult leader by American standards; she basically ruined the lives of a few dozen people and hasn't directly killed anyone that I know of, though in terms of indirect deaths through encouraging the spread of covid, she's likely ended at least a few lives. She's a fascinating study, though, in Why People Believe Batshit Things Against Obvious Evidence and Logic, and she's worth learning about for that alone. This is an obvious mentally ill person with no charisma, elevated to fame by some rando on the internet, and enabled by a media ecosystem that considers all opinions equally valid unless they're left-wing opinions. In a better society she'd be given the help she so obviously needs; in ours, her worst tendencies were encouraged and rewarded.

Of course, this is all ancient history from the early 2020s and is of no instructive value now. Just, y'know, interesting to listen to.

ETA: I am remiss in not mentioning that there's a third part to come next week. I had like 10 minutes left in the second episode and did not realize there was MORE ROMANA to come.

arstechnica_feed

Posted by Kyle Orland

https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/02/why-darren-aronofsky-thought-an-ai-generated-historical-docudrama-was-a-good-idea/

Last week, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky's AI studio Primordial Soup and Time magazine released the first two episodes of On This Day... 1776. The year-long series of short-form videos features short vignettes describing what happened on that day of the American Revolution 250 years ago, but it does so using “a variety of AI tools” to produce photorealistic scenes containing avatars of historical figures like George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin.

In announcing the series, Time Studios President Ben Bitonti said the project provides "a glimpse at what thoughtful, creative, artist-led use of AI can look like—not replacing craft but expanding what’s possible and allowing storytellers to go places they simply couldn’t before."

The trailer for "On This Day... 1776."

Outside critics were decidedly less excited about the effort. The AV Club took the introductory episodes to task for "repetitive camera movements [and] waxen characters" that make for "an ugly look at American history." CNET said that this "AI slop is ruining American history," calling the videos a "hellish broth of machine-driven AI slop and bad human choices." The Guardian lamented that the "once-lauded director of Black Swan and The Wrestler has drowned himself in AI slop," calling the series "embarrassing," "terrible," and "ugly as sin." I could go on.

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ailbhe

Well, it's a while since I learned some of the extent of them (first clues were here) and this morning the unfixable one made itself known in a now-do-surprise-laundry way. I had a bit of a cry about it. I note that when I first learned what had happened I thought it was my own fault for not agreeing to a c-section, because it took a LOT of reading to discover that he hadn't sewn me up properly.

mekare posting in

drawesome

Title: Sophie at the Ball
Artist:

mekare
Rating: G
Fandom: Bridgerton (TV)
Character: Sophie Baek
Content Notes: blue paper, white gel pen, Sakura Pigma 0.2

Clicky preview:

a masked young woman in a ballroom dress gasping in surprise

mekare

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Current Mood: tired

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/6/look-human-snow

Via Alaska SeaLife Center, which writes:

Sea otters are among the most intelligent marine mammals on this planet, which means they require frequent mental and physical stimulation. In the animal care field, this mental and physical stimulation is called enrichment!

Otters require a variety of enrichment activities every day. Today, Nipi the rehabilitated otter pup is enjoying food toy enrichment that encourages natural foraging behaviors, followed by a joyful romp in the snow!

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/2/6/look-human-snow

shirebound

Happy Birthday,

ysilme! Many ♥ ♥

"I'd be happy to help you eat that."

Rena sleepy.jpg

varlaamthecreator posting in

1character

Character: Misty Monsoon | Rainmaker
Fandom: Toontown: Corporate Clash
Theme Set: Beta
Rating: Teen & Up
Warnings: References to past abuse, heavy canon divergence & OC-insert nonsense

Out on the pier, thinking on how far she's come, Misty joins Midnight in planning their future.
Or: Misty's journey across stormy and sunny skies, finding love transcending both, in 50 sentences. Read over here.
This is also my entry for Siege the Valentines 2026.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: A Tale of Creation by Candlemass

amaebi

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auroracomic_feed

Posted by Red

https://comicaurora.com/aurora/2-6-19/

https://comicaurora.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=5110

see you on monday!

The post 2.6.19 appeared first on Aurora.

https://comicaurora.com/aurora/2-6-19/

https://comicaurora.com/?post_type=webcomic1&p=5110

01d55 posting in

girlgenius_lair

we do indeed have mutual beneficial information!

angrboda

I was only at work for about an hour yesterday before sending myself home again. It was one of those times where you're unsure if you're actually a bit sick or if you're just tired and it'll clear up once you get going. Well, it didn't and I managed to leave before it got bad.

Unlike the previous time we were threatened with a snow storm, this one actually happened and all public transport from here is currently cancelled so I wouldn't have been able to go to work today anyway. However, because it's a sick day, I won't have to pay for an unexpected day off with holiday hours. So my timing isn't actually all that bad. Silver lining and all that, although I would have preferred to not be sick. Husband works from home on Fridays anyway, so he's fine.

It's still snowing out there, but we've got most of it now. We have gone from an orange warning to a blue warning overnight*. Not sure how deep it is, but I would estimate maybe 20-30 cm. The bird bath is so completely covered you can't even see that it's there, so that's an indicator of how deep it is.

The warmest temperature on the forecast for the next nine days at the moment is 0°C, so it's not going to go away anytime soon. In fact next weekend we might get down to -20°C at night. This is extremely unusual for this country, even at night!

Snow plough just came by. Our street is in the second priority category, so that's not bad if they got to us already.

*Scale is Red-Orange-Yellow-Blue, with blue being the mildest. I'm not sure I've ever experienced a red one.

poliphilo

Underneath the water
Six feet deep
There lies Hitler
Fast asleep.

Child's skipping rhyme as recorded by Charles Causeley.

I dreamed I was in the Chancellery at the end of World War II. The papers the Nazis had left behind would need to be sorted through. Then Hitler emerged from wherever it was he'd been hiding and sat down with us.

So many of the great men and women of the past never died in the way history records but faked their deaths and were seen afterwards by "reliable" witnesses. Jim Morrison is alive and working as an electrician in L.A. Tsar Alexander II went off and became a Holy Man. Joan of Arc married a nobleman. As for Jesus- well, need I go on? In the case of Hitler there are still Argentinian country people who remember the elderly German chap who lived with his younger wife on a farm in the hills and used to receive visits from seemingly important folk in big sleek automobiles. There are photos. The moustache has gone. His health wasn't good and he died in the 1960s.

Perhaps the truthiest truth is that there are multiple timelines, billions of them- and there's a certain amount of leakage between them (viz the Mandela effect). In one timeline Hitler committed suicide, In another he was arrested by the Russians, in a third he has rescued. Perhaps there's even one in which he suffered the fate imagined for him in Tarentino's Inglorious Basterds. Why live out only one version of one's life? Let's rather extract every last drop of juice from the human experience.

The latest "great man" to be both alive and dead is Jeffery Epstein. He wasn't suicided, he was spirited away and is currently living out his life in a luxury villa in Tel Aviv. A great number of people believe this to be the case. Winesses have emerged.....

heathercoxrichardson_feed

Posted by Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-5-2026

The past two days have seen a growing struggle between Democrats, who are demanding accountability from the Trump administration, and Republicans trying to hide what the administration is up to.

Last night, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) published a letter he sent to Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Ratcliffe. Wyden is the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and is a careful, hardworking, and dogged member of Congress. When Wyden speaks, people listen. Ratcliffe was an attack dog for Trump during his first impeachment trial and had no experience with intelligence before Trump forced his nomination to become director of national intelligence through the Senate. Now he is Trump’s appointee to the directorship of the CIA.

Wyden’s letter to Ratcliffe said: “I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.” When Wired senior reporter Dell Cameron, who covers different forms of surveillance, commented, “I don’t like this,” Wyden reposted the comment.

Wyden has a long history of alerting the public in whatever way he can when something bad is going on that he cannot reveal because of its classified nature. This letter appears to be a way to alert the public while also notifying Ratcliffe that the CIA director will not be able in the future to deny that he received Wyden’s letter.

Also last night, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) a letter outlining demands Democrats want incorporated into a measure that will appropriate more funds for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS is the department that contains Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. Democrats insisted on stripping DHS funding out of the bills to fund the government for 2026 after ICE and Border Patrol agents began to inflict terror on the country.

Those demands are pretty straightforward, but if written into law as required for the release of funds, they would change behavior. The Democrats want federal agents to enter private homes only with a judicial warrant (as was policy until the administration produced a secret memo saying that DHS officials themselves could sign off on raids). They want agents to stop wearing masks and to have their names, agencies, and unique ID numbers visible on their uniforms, as law enforcement officers do. They want an end to racial profiling—that is, agents detaining individuals on the basis of their skin color, place of employment, or language—and to raids of so-called sensitive sites: medical facilities, schools, childcare facilities, churches, polling places, and courts.

They want agents to be required to have a reasonable use of force policy and to be removed during an investigation if they violate it. They want federal agents to coordinate with local and state governments, and for those governments to have jurisdiction over federal agents who break the law. They want DHS detention facilities to have the same standards of any detention facility and for detainees to have access to their lawyers. They want states to be able to sue if those conditions are not met, and they want Congress members to have unscheduled access to the centers to oversee them.

They want body cameras to be used for accountability but prohibited for gathering and storing information about protesters. And they want federal agents to have standardized uniforms like those of regular law enforcement, not paramilitaries.

As Schumer and Jeffries wrote, these are commonsense measures that protect Americans’ constitutional rights and ensure responsible law enforcement, and should apply to all federal activity even without Democrats demanding them.

Thune has said the demands are “very unrealistic and unserious,” and Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second-ranking Senate Republican, called them “radical and extreme” and a “far-left wish list.” But Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) agreed that agents “need body cameras. They need to remove masks. They need proper training. They need to be conducting operations that are consistent with their mission.”

Trump’s determination to prove that he actually won the 2020 election continues to drive the administration. This morning, in a rambling and often crazed speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump told attendees: “They rigged the second election. I had to win it. I had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would’ve had a bad ego for the rest of my life. Now I really have a big ego, though. Beating these lunatics was incredible, right? What a great feeling, winning every swing state, winning the popular vote. The first time, you know, they said I didn’t win the popular vote. I did.”

The reality that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by about 2.9 million votes explains Trump’s lie that undocumented immigrants voted in the election.

Trump also offered yet another explanation for the presence of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the FBI raid on a warehouse holding ballots and other election-related materials in Fulton County, Georgia, saying that Attorney General Pam Bondi wanted Gabbard there.

Phil Stewart, Erin Banco, and Jonathan Landay of Reuters reported yesterday that a team working for Gabbard seized voting machines and data in Puerto Rico in what sources told the Reuters reporters was an attempt to prove that Venezuela had hacked the voting machines there. The reporters say that Gabbard’s team was looking at whether the government of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro hacked the election.

There is no evidence for this theory, but it has strong adherents among Trump’s followers. Legal and political analysts, including Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, and Allison Gill, have noted that administration officials might force Maduro, who is currently in prison in the U.S. after a raid in which U.S. forces took him and his wife into custody, to “cooperate” on this lie. In The Breakdown, Gill notes that while Trump has no role in elections, the Supreme Court has said that he must be given deference in the conduct of foreign affairs. He has relied on that deference to justify tariffs, immigration sweeps, attacks on small boats, and so on. It is not a stretch to think he is now trying to interfere with the 2026 election by claiming elections are part of foreign affairs.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Reuters reporters: “What’s most alarming here is that Director Gabbard’s own team acknowledges there was no evidence of foreign interference, yet they seized voting machines and election data anyway. Absent a foreign nexus, intelligence agencies have absolutely no lawful role in domestic election administration. This is exactly the kind of overreach Congress wrote the law to prevent, and it raises profound questions about whether our intelligence tools are being abused.”

Tonight, Matt Berg of Crooked Media reported that the FBI has “summoned state election officials from across the country for an unusual briefing on ‘preparations’ for the midterms” on February 25. A top election official from one state told Berg that it’s the “strangest thing in the world.” The FBI official who sent the email, Kellie Hardiman, used the title “FBI Election Executive.” When Berg asked the FBI for an explanation, the spokesperson wrote: “Thank you for reaching out. The FBI has no comment.”

On Monday, Dustin Volz and C. Ryan Barber of the Wall Street Journal reported that Gabbard had bottled up a May 2025 whistleblower complaint without transmitting it to congressional intelligence committees as required by law. Congress members learned about the complaint in November, but the government maintained it was too highly classified to be shared. This was deliberate obfuscation: the Gang of Eight, which is made up of the leaders from both parties in the House and Senate, and the leaders of the intelligence committees from both parties, was set up precisely so that Congress could always be informed of classified information.

Today Gabbard handed over the complaint, after heavily redacting it under claims of executive privilege—which means the president is involved.

The administration’s determination to hide the actions of its own members while exposing opponents has shown dramatically in the redactions in the Epstein files that have been released to date. Officials neglected to redact identifying information about survivors and even sexually explicit photographs of them, while blacking out the names of apparent friends and co-conspirators of the sex offender.

Trump’s name appears throughout the files, and in an attempt to center former president Bill Clinton, rather than Trump, in public discussion of the Epstein files, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) has subpoenaed Clinton and former first lady and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton to testify under oath. He says he doesn’t have to do the same for Trump about his relationship with Epstein because Trump is answering questions for reporters.

Yesterday the Clintons agreed to testify. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton posted on social media: “For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction. So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, [Representative Comer], let’s have it—in public. You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there.”

Forcing a former president to testify under threat of contempt establishes the precedent that Congress can force past presidents and their spouses and families to testify under threat of criminal charges. Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona, Sahil Kapur, and Ryan Nobles of NBC News reported that Democrats are taking note. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) told them: “We are absolutely going to have Donald Trump testify under oath.” Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who sits on the Oversight Committee, said that forcing Clinton to testify does indeed set a precedent. “[A]nd we will follow it,” he said. “Donald Trump, all of his kids. Everybody.”

Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL)—who flusters Comer so badly Comer once cracked and told him he looked like a Smurf, a childish insult Moskowitz needled him over for months—said that after Democrats regain control of the House, Republicans will blame Comer for what comes next:

“The folks here are going to run with it everywhere. It will be crypto. It will be their business. It will be all the investments in the Middle East. It’ll be the Qatari plane…. It’s going to be the latest thing with the UAE. It’s going to be all of it…. They are giving a license to these new chairmen in January and that will be Comer’s legacy. So when [Don] Junior and Eric and their children…[are] all here, they can thank James Comer for that.”

It seems likely Trump has already figured out that forcing Clinton to testify opens up some avenues he would rather leave closed. When asked about the Clintons’ testimony at the end of the month, he answered: “I think it’s a shame, to be honest. I always liked him.” Hillary was “a very capable woman.” “I hate to see it in many ways.”

Another court case might tear away some of the administration’s obfuscation, as well. Zoe Tillman of Bloomberg reported today that U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of the District of Maryland has denied the government’s request to block depositions of Elon Musk and two other former officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in a lawsuit charging Musk with unlawfully dismantling the agency.

Because Musk and the other two “likely have personal, first-hand knowledge of the facts relevant and essential to the resolution of this case,” Chuang said the testimony could go forward. While courts have generally said that “high-ranking government officials may not be deposed or called to testify about their reasons for taking official actions absent ‘extraordinary circumstances,’” Chuang said it was not clear that Musk and the other two were, in fact, high-ranking government officials.

At the same time, the case appeared to meet the criteria for extraordinary circumstances. The government employees who brought the case argue that Musk personally dismantled USAID when he had no authority to do so. The judge noted that the government’s failure to produce documents that explained the decisions killing the agency, as required, suggested that the decisions had been made orally, so the testimony of Musk and the other two men is crucial to the case.

Finally, the last existing arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia expired today. The New START treaty of 2011 capped the number of nuclear warheads each country could maintain. Trump’s account on social media posted that instead of extending the terms of the existing treaty, “we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.” Until that time, though, there is no longer a cap on nuclear weapons for the U.S. or Russia.

—

Notes:

https://www.kvue.com/article/syndication/associatedpress/a-homeland-security-shutdown-grows-more-likely-as-republicans-rebuff-democratic-demands-for-ice/616-d3d39a7d-45c2-4023-9d3e-0421d24936ce

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/politics/fears-nuclear-arms-race-treaty-expires

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-spy-chiefs-office-investigated-voting-machines-puerto-rico-2026-02-04/

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/congress-receives-redacted-version-of-whistleblower-complaint-against-gabbard-35a767d8

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/classified-whistleblower-complaint-about-tulsi-gabbard-stalls-within-her-agency-027f5331

The Breakdown

Trump’s Plan to Nationalize Elections Using Fabricated Claims of Foreign Interference

Back in 2020 after losing to Joe Biden, Donald Trump conspired with multiple individuals to overturn the results. There were multiple conspiracies that all failed, leading to his final act of desperation: sending a violent and angry mob to the Capitol to block the certification of the votes…

3 days ago · 399 likes · 38 comments · Allison Gill

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/politics/justice-department-under-scrutiny-for-revealing-victim-info-and-concealing-possible-enablers-in-epstein-files

https://www.404media.co/the-doj-redacted-a-photo-of-the-mona-lisa-in-the-epstein-files/

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4824337-james-comer-mocks-harris-probe/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/14/you-look-like-a-smurf-comer-moskowitz/71584650007/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-push-clintons-testify-epstein-democrats-warn-haul-trump-rcna257275

https://www.rawstory.com/ice-masks/

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/05/the-wyden-siren-senators-cryptic-cia-letter-follows-a-pattern-thats-never-been-wrong/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-05/elon-musk-can-be-questioned-under-oath-in-doge-case-judge-rules

https://apnews.com/article/2c7a5afc13824161a25d8574e10ff4e7

https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=0540E92B-40E4-428A-81AB-F50BB3A1286F

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69636722/200/j-doe-4-v-musk/

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/05/election-gabbard-puerto-rico-voting-machine-investigation/88528041007/

HillaryClinton/status/2019394857312399796

mattberg33/status/2019560910625632442

Bluesky:

newsguy.bsky.social/post/3me33erm34c2y

m.pahuski.com/post/3me2wsgpsmc2n

sahilkapur.bsky.social/post/3me3e5rms4s2c

nuffnuff.bsky.social/post/3mdmrn4xpq22m

normornstein.bsky.social/post/3mdoymprx5c2y

atrupar.com/post/3me4kr7pr5v2y

angrystaffer.bsky.social/post/3me4oqochxk2f

thebulwark.com/post/3me34c535752f

alexjungle.bsky.social/post/3me4vv7zc5k2q

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-5-2026

ysabetwordsmith posting in

followfriday

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is London.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

daily_illuminator_feed

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2026-02-06

The season of love is upon us, and we'd like to celebrate with you during the Sweet Savings Event on Warehouse 23! Now through February 15, you can save 14% on an exciting assortment of games and accessories.

Kick down the Door in Munchkin Wonderland and accessorize with Munchkin Playmat: The Flower of Love, plus two adorable dice bags themed to Chibithulhu and Unicorns.

You can also grab some unique (and adorable) dice, like the Unicorn Dice and the Candy Heart d6 Dice Set (just don't snack on them!)

If you're having a game night for two, shoot for the stars in Triplanetary, enjoy a twist on chess with the Proteus Pocket Box, and doodle through dungeons in Deadly Doodles and Deadly Doodles 2. We even have a heart-shaped map for Deadly Doodles that you can download for free!

Take a thrilling drive on the freeways of the future with any or all three of the Car Wars Two-Player Starter Sets, available in Orange/Purple, Red/Yellow, and Blue/Green.

If you're shopping for a gift, be sure to place your order right away for the best chance of arrival before Valentine's Day weekend.

– Michelle Richardson

Warehouse 23 News: The Autodueling Continues . . .

. . . with the Car Wars Pocket Box Bundle 2! Visit Midville and Black Lake to see its sights and colorful citizens, or take your chances in the Armadillo Autoduel Arena! Will you find glory or defeat? Find out by picking up this Pocket Box from Warehouse 23 today!

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2026-02-06

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260205.html

NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260205.html

dumbing_of_age_feed

Posted by David M Willis

https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/outings/

https://www.dumbingofage.com/?p=20122

https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/outings/

https://www.dumbingofage.com/?p=20122

cahn

okay, I was not expecting to have quite SO MANY feelings about Operation Mincemeat, the musical, but indeed I do. (I have listened to the cast recording about seventy times and have not been able to see it live, though I, uh. Have now seen it, see end of post.) I don't think I have had so many strong feelings about a musical since Hamilton, only in many ways they are wildly different feelings?? Hamilton is a fancy big-chorus-dancing musical that is concerned predominantly with valorizing a particular hero (Alexander Hamilton) in a eh-mostly-historical way while offering up somewhat revisionist-considerations of some of the other US's famous Founding Fathers, with a major thematic concern of race, but which adheres to pretty standard gender considerations. OM is a budget-vibe musical starring five people who are both the big parts and the chorus, that is concerned predominantly with both rather revisionist-considerations, in a mostly-historical-fiction way, of a particular type of hero (a heavily fictionalized Ewen Montagu) who is known for his part in the WWII shenanigans of Operation Mincemeat, while at the same time offering up larger parts to people who were not at all famous, with a major thematic concern of gender.

( Starting with: There are FIVE people in the cast! )

cellio

Last year we replaced our roof, which unlocked solar panels. (We didn't want to put in panels and then have to lift them to replace the roof. And it turned out that the provider wouldn't have put panels on a roof that old anyway.) Permits and supply chains and inspections and the actual work took a while, but everything was installed and paid for before the tax year ended. It took until last week to get through the utility company's inspection so we could turn it on, and we finally got our "permission to operate" confirmation yesterday morning.

I didn't expect much in the middle of winter, especially on a cloudy day like today, but yesterday when it was sunny we returned more power to the grid than we drew, and today we're doing ok now but it looks like we'll be pulling from the grid overnight. (The battery is getting close to its "do not drop below" point, that being a buffer in case of actual outages.) I have never been so involved in power usage...

The battery has been on since it was installed; we didn't have a power outage during that time, but I assume it would have kicked in if so. 'Tis the season, so I was taken by surprise the first time I got a notification on my phone from my battery saying "National Weather Service says there's a storm coming so I'm charging up to 100%", because of course it does that. This is a whole new world for me. :-)

heathercoxrichardson_feed

Posted by Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/politics-chat-february-5-2026-ee1

tavina posting in

au5k

Navigation: Rules and Info Post | 2025 Collection | Mod Contact: TavinaFanfiction@gmail.com

Pinch hits are assignments in search of a creator! We currently have 12 pinch hits due on February 15th, 2026 at 10pm EST.

Pinch hits must meet the assignment minimums (see minimums under “assignments” on the Rules and Info Post.)

In order to pick up a pinch hit either email the modmail or comment on this post (all comments on this post are screened) with:

The number and or username of the pinch hit you would like to pick up
Your ao3 username
An email where I can reach you

~~( PH 1 - Inception (2010), The Mummy (Movies 1999-2008), Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies) )~~
( PH 4 - Alan Wake (Video Games), Control (Video Game), Max Payne (Video Game) )

( PH 9 - 阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming), 밤에 피는 꽃 | Knight Flower (TV), 陰陽師 | Onmyouji (Anime 2023) )

( PH 13 - Monster - Urasawa Naoki (Anime & Manga), 憂国のモリアーティ | Yuukoku no Moriarty | Moriarty the Patriot (Manga), The Shadow (1994) )

( PH 14 - Jumurdzsák gyűrűje | Yoomurjak's Ring (Video Game), Crossover Fandom, Hallo itt Mátyás király! - Bogáti Péter, Night Prince - Jeaniene Frost )

( PH 20 - Seducing the Sorcerer - Lee Welch, Fille du Diable | Devil's Daughter (1946), Vivacious Lady (1938), Widow Clicquot (2023) )

( PH 21 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 魔尊也想知道 - 青色羽翼 | Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know - Cyan Wings, 千秋 - 梦溪石 | Thousand Autumns - Mèng Xī Shí )
( PH 22 - NoPixel (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs )

( PH 23 - Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild, Tortall - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce, Crossover Fandom, Twelfth Night - Shakespeare, The Big Bang Theory (TV), Leverage (US TV 2008), Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger, Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger )

( PH 24 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime) )

( PH 25 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Wind Breaker - にいさとる | Nii Satoru (Manga) )

ysabetwordsmith

The Impact Fee Illusion

Why “growth paying for growth” often leaves cities weaker, not stronger.

The public discussion usually starts something like this: a new development brings new residents, more traffic, and greater demand for public services. Roads, schools, pipes, and parks don’t build themselves. Someone has to pay for them. Asking growth to pay for growth sounds fair. It sounds prudent. And yet, many cities that rely heavily on impact fees still find themselves financially fragile. They struggle to maintain infrastructure, stretch operations thin, and quietly drift toward insolvency.

( Read more... )