February 27, 2026

clowns and heroes

Hi friends,

It has been a difficult week and I fell behind, but I want to deliver some much-needed good news.

This is not to suggest that there aren’t terrifying events unfolding. The clowns at the Department of Defense, who shot down party balloons and caused El Paso airport to close two weeks ago, have now shot down a Customs and Border Patrol drone.

These clowns want to take us to war in Iran. Hegseth is more concerned with ordering pizzas to scramble an app that predicts military action than he is about the operational responsibilities of his job.

Meanwhile, Trump has ordered the government to stop using Anthropic AI tech for being a

“radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about.”

The reality is that advanced AI models appear willing to deploy nuclear weapons without the same reservations humans have when put into simulated geopolitical crises.

Anthropic’s ‘woke’ proposal to maintain safeguards on its models in order to prevent fully autonomous nuclear strikes seems sound to me, but the regime really resents guardrails of any kind.

Wait a minute! I was trying to begin the weekend on a positive note. The mad king does not make it easy.

There have been some good decisions, of late, which qualify as good news.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the real-world implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs, but it’s clearly a win for the separation of powers and a nasty reversal for the Trump.

Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, all of whom were detained earlier this year, got some good decisions from the courts as well.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal resident who was detained for two weeks last year after showing up for a citizenship appointment, was targeted by Marco Rubio for his pro-Palestinian activism. A federal immigration judge has terminated deportation proceedings against Mahdawi.

Rümeysa Öztürk, a foreign student who was seized by masked federal agents near the campus of Tufts University last year and detained for six weeks, was arrested because she coauthored a pro-Palestinian op-ed in a student newspaper.

An immigration judge ruled last month that Homeland Security failed to prove that there was a need to deport her.

This week, Öztürk was awarded her PhD from Tufts for her research on child development in areas of global conflict.

A federal judge ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia cannot be re-detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Abrego Garcia was deported — in error! — to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT facility last March. Abrego Garcia is still facing criminal charges, but the courts ordered him to be brought back to the US late last spring and have protected him from deportation to Africa since his return.

US District Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled this week that the regime’s policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries” to which they have no ties is unlawful and must be set aside.

Judith Levine’s “Blows against the Empire” post has the story of Jesus Urquilla-Ramos, a man with a pending asylum case and a work permit, who endured a crazy odyssey. A judge has ordered his release.

Incredibly, just hours after ICE detained Columbia student Ellie Aghayeva, Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed concerns about the arrest during an unrelated meeting with Trump, who then agreed to release her immediately.

Mamdani was pitching Trump on the idea of investing heavily in housing for NYC; he brought a gift of a mock New York Daily News front page with the headline, “Trump to City: Let’s Build.”

I applaud Trump for releasing Ellie Aghayeva, and I applaud Mamdani for a series of good decisions — his commitment to talk to anyone, his refusal to pander with expensive gifts, and his willingness to make big asks.

A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Education’s February 2025 directive that sought to prevent federally funded schools and universities from practicing diversity, equity and inclusion unlawfully imposed new legal obligations and was an example of viewpoint discrimination.

“This ruling affirms what educators and communities have long known: celebrating the full existence of every person and sharing the truth about our history is essential,” Sharif El-Mekki, CEO at The Center for Black Educator Development, said in a statement.

It’s cause for celebration.

I made a good decision this month, too. I’ve been following Sonja Norwood on IG (@wickdconfections); she is a delightful, funny baker who is investigating Black recipes that are in danger of being lost.

Norwood prepares and tastes each dish before our eyes (recipes are included) and provides incisive cultural history and witty commentary. She does this all while looking fabulous.

The recipes and Norwood’s acts of culinary resurrection are a testament to Black resourcefulness, love, and the traditions of feeding a community. It’s never the wrong time to learn and teach and celebrate Black history.

A thousand Indigenous campaigners in the Brazilian Amazon successfully fought off a threat to the Tapajós River by occupying a grain terminal.

The campaign in Santarém forced the Brazilian government

to revoke a decree to privatize federal projects on three rivers – the Tapajós, Madeira and Tocantins.

“The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won.”

This heroic campaign preserves a beautiful waterway that was going to be turned into a mega-canal for shipping. It involved a David and Goliath struggle against Cargill, the biggest privately-owned company in the US.

Let’s not make a fuss over this. Hopefully the clowns in charge won’t decide to invade Brazil on Cargill’s behalf.

Owners of farms and warehouses are resisting pressure to sell or lease their property to DHS or data centers as they contemplate the future of their communities.

In Hutchins, Texas, a realty company confirmed that it had been “contacted about the potential sale” of a massive warehouse to DHS, large enough to detain as many as 10,000 people, but the company “has not and will not” sell or lease any property “for use as a detention facility.”

Hutchins has a population of 6,000 people and the company, in consultation with the Mayor, is looking for a buyer or tenant who will contribute to the economic development and civic life of the community.

Here’s a link to the DHS Contracts tracker, which shows where DHS is purchasing properties to use for detention facilities. In addition, it includes information on the impact on local water supplies.

Use this toolkit from the folks at Detention Watch Network to take lawful action against ICE detention expansion near you!

More than a dozen Kentucky farmers were approached by a company offering huge sums to purchase their land. The company had applied for permits for a datacenter; the energy required would be nearly double the capacity of local power plant.

At least six of the Kentucky neighbors gave

categorical rejections, including one who was told he could name any price.

In Pennsylvania, a farmer rejected $15m in January for land he’d worked for 50 years. A Wisconsin farmer turned down $80m the same month.

These folks are holding onto their land even though their communities are at risk if their neighbors choose to sell.

Ask yourself what you would do if someone tried to come in and destroy your community.

I don’t love the word hero, as it is frequently misused, but when we see what people in Minnesota and LA and Kentucky and Santarém have done to defend their homes and neighbors, it’s hard to deny their heroism.

This is why so many of us are still talking about the Benito Bowl. Along with joyful, gorgeous spectacle and the spirited rhythms of Puerto Rico, the performance

insisted on respect for people too often erased. . . . These were not coded or abstract values. They reflected the real lives of people.

The show also resisted systems that profit from culture while disregarding the people behind it. It pushed back against greed, against borders built on fear, and against policies that punish people simply for trying to live.

Have a wonderful weekend!

with love,

L