LOTS OF POSTS IGNORED BY BLOGGER.....
ALL POSTS ARE AVAILABLE ON
MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON
INTERNET ACCESS LOST FOR A FEW DAYS...CATCHING UP....
… Republicans continue to melt down over the Super Bowl halftime show by Bad Bunny as they rolled out MAGA alternative Kid Rock. Their principle objections to the show were: 1. Bunny sang in Spanish; 2. He’s not a “real American” since he’s from Puerto Rico. That is also why TPUSA called their event the “All-American” halftime show. As if mass deportations weren’t alienating latino voters enough already for Republicans, now we have this.
… Then we learned that the TPUSA event was pre-recorded and badly lip-synched by Kid Rock. We also learned that the organizers did everything they could to manipulate the view count to make it look more popular than it was in reality, allegedly using software known as “viewbotting.” We also learned at the Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl watch party, Trump and his cultists did not watch the TPUSA event - opting to check out Bunny instead.
… Trump posted during the show, which appeared to be pre-written based on the time-stamp: "The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World. This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country. There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD.”
… The real world is apparently Mar-a-Lago.
… Bad Bunny’s closing messages during his Super Bowl performance: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” and “Together, we are America.”
 |
… Variety: “Without an announcer to offer context, there was no indication of where the performances were being broadcast from, or if they were taking place in real time. According to sources, the show was pre-taped in Atlanta. Much of the performance appeared to be pre-recorded, as he only raised the mic to his mouth for about half of the lyrics, if that, as widely noted on social media.”
… Country singer-songwriter Zach Bryan: “I don’t care what side you’re on, a bunch of adults throwing temper tantrums and their own halftime show is embarrassing as hell and the most cringe shit on the planet.”
… TV Insider: “The Independent states that the initial 25-minute broadcast of the All-American Halftime Show was viewed approximately 4 million times. NYT reported slightly higher numbers, noting that the show drew 6.1 million concurrent viewers on YouTube. In comparison, Bad Bunny’s performance is projected to draw around 128 million. This would make his set one of the most-watched halftime shows in history, though a little behind Kendrick Lamar‘s 133.5 million record set last year.”
… “Official numbers for Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance have yet to be released, though CBS reported that early figures show it was the most-watched halftime performance of all time with more than 135 million viewers. Apple Music said that his halftime show press conference also broke records and was ‘the most watched in Super Bowl history’ with more than 63 million views across an array of related content, including the live stream and social clips.”
… CNN’s Brian Stelter: “We won’t be getting any Super Bowl game or halftime show ratings today. Overnights are basically a thing of the past, due to Nielsen’s new ‘Big Data + Panel’ approach, which takes an extra day to capture the full audience. Nielsen and NBC will share numbers Tuesday late afternoon.”
… “Contrary to some of the nonsense on this platform, though, there is no doubt that the Apple Music halftime show was exponentially more popular than Turning Point USA’s attempt at counter-programming. TPUSA drew 6 million. The halftime show always draws well over 100 million.”
… X commentator Turnbull: “The final numbers haven’t come in but it’s likely that NBC will generate close to, if not over $1B, from Super Bowl advertising revenue. The TPUSA halftime show had no sponsors. They claim 5M views, which I doubt, so they may generate about $25K in YouTube revenue.”
… Axios’s Andrew Solender: “My takeaway from the Super Bowl ads is that the entire American economy is being propped up by AI, weight loss drugs, cryptocurrency and gambling.”
… Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer questions before the Oversight Committee in her deposition today. Her attorney David Markus issued a statement: “Maxwell will respectfully invoke her Fifth Amendment right to silence and decline to answer questions today even though she would very much like to answer your questions. If this Committee and the American public truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened, there is a straightforward path. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.”
… Chair James Comer was asked by The Independent about the demand from Maxwell that she will only testify if Trump releases her from prison: “This was something new today. Obviously, that’s not for me to decide - that’s up to the president to decide.”
… Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA): “Here is my conclusion after sitting through Maxwell’s deposition with her refusing to answer a single question about the men who raped underage girls, saying she would only do so for clemency. She must immediately be sent back to the maximum security prison where she belongs.”
… Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): “So Maxwell can chat with Trump’s former personal lawyer, but pleads the Fifth when Congress asks about Epstein’s co-conspirators. What did Trump promise her? The DOJ needs to release records of their talks with Maxwell.”
… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL): “Maxwell is now claiming that she was a victim of Epstein. Meanwhile, she has been moved to a very nice prison. Now, they are going to try to transfer her to a prison in DC. She does not deserve any special treatment. Child sex traffickers deserve ONE punishment - the death penalty.”
… Fox: “After reviewing Epstein documents at DOJ, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) says there’s evidence of victims as young as 9 years old.”
… Just a reminder that Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, now Dep. AG Todd Blanche transferred Maxwell to a Club Fed where she plays with puppies and goes to joga classes.
… Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was asked : “9 year old victims? Initially my reaction to all this was, I don’t care, I don’t know what’s the big deal is? But now I see what the big deal is. So members who have been pushing this, they were not wrong.”
… Raskin: “I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that’s troubling to us.”
… “There’s no way you run a billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring with just two people committing crimes, Epstein and Maxwell. No way. It doesn’t work like that. So we need to figure out what other conspiracies were involved, what other co-conspirators were involved? And I really do believe that listening to the survivors is going to be our pathway through this nightmare.”
… “Epstein’s lawyers quoted Trump as saying that Epstein was a guest at Mar-a-Lago and he was never asked to leave, and that was redacted for some indeterminate reason. It seems to be at odds with some things that Trump has been saying recently about how he kicked Epstein out of his club.”
… Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) after viewing he unredacted files: “I mean it’s disgusting. There are lots of names, lots of co-conspirators, and they’re trafficking girls all across the world.”
… Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) discussed that as well as Trump’s racist post about the Obamas: “All this admin cares about is protecting the powerful and protecting pedophiles. They will do anything to distract from that, including deciding to put up in the middle of Black History Month the most racist thing that we’ve ever seen come out of a WH.”
… The Atlantic: “The email that federal law enforcement sent this week to the nation’s top election administrators would have been routine just a few years ago. FBI Election Executive Kellie Hardiman: ‘Your election partners would like to invite you to a call where we can discuss preparations for the cycle.’ But multiple secretaries of state who received the document told us they viewed it as a threat, given recent events.”
… “The FBI had just seized 2020 election materials in Georgia, and Trump had announced his desire to ‘nationalize’ elections, a state responsibility under the US Constitution. ‘The trust has been absolutely destroyed,’ said ME Sec. of State Shenna Bellows. The sentiment is not confined to Dems. Some GOP election officials said that federal officials’ activities involving elections have become so unusual that they are starting to question the officials’ competency and motives. These state officials wonder whether the feds are trying to do what Trump has accused others of doing: rig an election.”
… “Trump has already said that he will accept the results only ‘if the elections are honest,’ and has mused that ‘we shouldn’t even have an election’ given that the midterms typically result in defeats for the president’s party. He has called for the greater use of identification at all polling places, a ban on mail voting, and a prohibition on certain types of voting equipment.”
… “Inside the WH, his obsession with disproving the results of the 2020 election, which he lost, has led to the creation of a standing working group that meets regularly to coordinate federal efforts to investigate past elections and reform future election processes.”
… “Elections officials told us they are now getting ready for interference from both foreign adversaries and the WH. Several said they are still deliberating whether to show up to the FBI-hosted meeting scheduled for Feb 25. Others said they will attend but not speak out of concern that their information could be turned against them.”
It wasn’t a super heavy news day with Trump doing nothing and Congress doing almost nothing, although there were definitely several very important stories. I certainly expect a busy day tomorrow. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin recapping the weekend, you can find it here.
… Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little to no real oversight. Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire US, is holding under 7,000 people.
ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.”
… “Purchasing and converting these warehouse detention camps will cost the US govt billions of dollars. So far ICE has purchased at least half a dozen warehouses at a cost of $70-$110 million each. It'll cost billions more to refit them into detention camps, and hire staff. In the last month ICE has bought warehouses in:
- Hagerstown, MD: $102 million
- Surprise, AZ: $70 million
- Hamburg, PA: $87 million
- Tremont, PA: $120 million
- San Antonio, TX: $82 million
- El Paso, TX: $123 million
- Social Circle, GA: price unknown
This is unprecedented.
… “Crucially, many local govts are furious with ICE over these purchases, because they were not consulted or even told. Because they are federal property now, it's taking a commercial property off the tax rolls while likely imposing dramatic additional infrastructure costs. In each case, it's been a standard sale of a commercial warehouse property owned by a private landlord to the federal govt. The real profit will come with the private prison companies and contractors hired to refurbish and staff these facilities.”
… CBS: “Less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in Trump’s first year back in the WH had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS. The official statistics provide the most detailed look yet into who ICE has arrested during the Trump admin’s far-reaching deportation operations across the US.”
… “The internal DHS figures undermine frequent assertions by the Trump admin that its crackdown on illegal immigration is primarily targeting dangerous and violent criminals living in the US illegally, people Trump and his lieutenants have regularly called the ‘worst of the worst.’”
… CNN pollster Harry Enten: “The economy used to be the wind beneath Trump’s wings, but now it’s his Titanic. His economic net approval (-18 pts) is 26 points lower now than at this point in term one. It’s 53 pts (!!) lower with Independents (-43 pts now). This puts not just the House, but the Senate in play too.”
… NOTUS: “House Democrats think they can expand their 2026 midterm map to include a couple of typically safe red districts because the incumbents have twin vulnerabilities: weak fundraising and ethics issues. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) faced allegations of stolen valor, domestic violence and shady business dealings this campaign cycle, and those issues appear to have deteriorated his campaign’s ability to bring in cash.”
… Last fall, Mills raised a mere $61,000. In that same time period, Bale Dalton, his Democratic challenger, a Navy veteran and former NASA chief of staff, raised more than $343,000. Dalton: “My message is: Life is too expensive, and Cory Mills is too corrupt to fix it.”
… “Chaz Molder, the mayor of Columbia, TN, and Democrat challenging Rep. Andy Ogles, senses a similar opportunity. Although the district also historically votes Republican, Molder raised well over $1 million in the last two quarters of 2025, compared to Ogles’ $209,000 in that same period, as the congressman attempts to fend off an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations.”
… Molder: “We are talking to everyone because we understand we have to bring people together and bring voters to our side that have perhaps voted for Andy Ogles in the past, that are disappointed with their vote because they see what kind of ineffective leader he has been.”
… WSJ: “At Monte Cielo, a new housing development in this growing region of South Texas, half-built homes are sitting empty. On a recent day, just a few workers hovered behind temporary wrap tacked to wall frames. The quiet scene comes after federal immigration agents have hit the development repeatedly, carrying out at least half a dozen raids there in recent months, builders said. The most recent was a few weeks ago. Some eight workers were arrested in a chaotic scene of laborers running away from federal vehicles racing through the subdivision at high speed.”
… “The result? Homes are months behind schedule, and contractors face an uphill battle to recruit more workers to finish them. Alejandro Garcia, one of several builders with homes under way in the development: ‘They hear Monte Cielo and say, ‘No, no. You can pay me whatever you want, but I’m not going to go work there.’”
… Mario Guerrero, CEO of the South Texas Builders Assn: “They are basically taking everyone in there working, whether they have proper documentation or not.” Guerrero added that he voted for Trump, along with most of the region, and supports deportations of criminals, but “when you are terrorizing job sites, people are afraid to go to work.”
… “South Texas is a heightened example of what contractors are facing across the country in areas where ICE activity has intensified. Nationally, a third of commercial contractors reported being affected by immigration enforcement actions in the past 6 months, according to a January report by trade group Associated General Contractors of America.”
… CEO Eliud Cavazos said 57 Concrete had to lay off more than a third of its workers due to a drop in demand from home builders. 57 Concrete, a large regional concrete supplier, saw concrete use fall 60% between late May and Nov as home builders lost workers and were unable to move forward with construction. The company had to lay off 60 of its 150 workers. The 5-year-old company filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy, citing the drop in demand coinciding with immigration raids.”
…. “At Materiales El Valle, a local tile supplier, the ICE crackdown has resulted in $5.3 million in lost sales, said Luis Rodriguez, who manages the company his father-in-law started 4 decades ago. He laid off two drivers and four sales reps and reduced hours for most of the remaining 39 employees, the first layoffs in the company’s history. Rodriguez said he is used to immigration enforcement at job sites, but under previous admins it was to arrest particular people, he said. Now, agents are targeting everyone.”
… Punchbowl: “Funding for DHS runs out on Friday. The House and Senate return tonight, which gives lawmakers just a few days to sort out this unusual situation. Only one federal agency is under threat of a shutdown, but it’s a massive dept with more than 260,000 employees. Meaning this is a big problem.”
… “As of now, having Congress passing a bipartisan deal to fund DHS through Sept. 30 by the Friday deadline seems very unlikely. In fact, an agreement may not be possible at all as the two sides remain far apart. The key question is whether enough Senate Democrats will support another short-term funding patch for DHS - and what happens if they refuse.”
… Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) was asked about the negotiations on CNBC: “I think some Democratic demands put at risk the safety of members of law enforcement who are out there doing an incredibly different job. Host: You mean like taking off their masks and having a badge that shows who they are? Steil: Well, they're known to their supervisors. Host: No other law enforcement officials in the US are allowed to wear masks.”
… NOTUS: “Jasmine Crockett’s post-Senate campaign announcement fundraising surge never materialized. She has been outspent nearly 19-to-1 on political ads this year and hadn’t run a single broadcast ad as of early Feb. And some Democrats in communication with her campaign aren’t sure who exactly is in charge of it. With 3 weeks until next month’s primary, Crockett is locked in a tight fight with state Rep. James Talarico.”
… “The source and other Democrats, including those supportive of Talarico, emphasized that Crockett remains capable of winning the March 3 primary, in part because of her near-celebrity status among Democratic voters and the strong affection of her most dedicated supporters. But some Democrats nonetheless expected more, even if Crockett only launched her campaign two and a half months before the primary.”
… One Dem source who communicates with Crockett’s campaign: “A lot of candidates jump in late to the game. It’s what they do. And a lot of candidates are able to find a real campaign manager and are still able to put together a commanding fundraising plan with a singular goal of beating your competition in the first 24 hours. There wasn’t that work done ahead of time, but there should have been. I just don’t get it. She could have been better organized, but she wasn’t.”
… On the Republican side, Turning Point USA endorsed Ken Paxton today, which is a major boost for him heading down the stretch. Paxton is definitely the favorite at this point to win the GOP nomination unless Trump comes in at the last minute and endorses John Cornyn. Dems definitely rooting for Paxton to win as all polls show him as the weaker matchup against either Talarico or Crockett.
… Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) endorsed Rep. Eric Swalwell today for governor of CA.
… MD Gov. Wes Moore: “This week, I learned that I was uninvited to this year’s National Governors Assn dinner - a decades long annual tradition meant to bring governors from both parties together to build bonds and celebrate a shared service to our citizens with the President of the United States.”
… “My peers, both Democrats and Republicans, selected me to serve as the Vice-Chair of the NGA, another reason why it’s hard not to see this decision as another example of blatant disrespect and a snub to the spirit of bipartisan federal-state partnership. As the nation’s only Black governor, I can’t ignore that being singled out for exclusion from this bipartisan tradition carries an added weight - whether that was the intent or not.”
… The WH issued a statement when asked about Moore’s snub: "Many Democrats were invited to dinner at the WH, and others were not. These are WH events and the President reserves the right to invite whomever he wants."
… Punchbowl: “House Democrats are likely to force a vote Wednesday on overturning Trump's Canada tariffs. Dems’ plans aren’t yet final. But the Canada resolution is expected to be the first Dems call up now that Speaker Johnson’s blockade on tariff votes is over. The House Republican leadership had a mechanism that blocked tariff overturn votes. That mechanism has expired.”
… NBC: “Oscar-nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood have formally requested that a piece of music from their 2017 film ‘Phantom Thread’ be removed from the new documentary about first lady Melania Trump. From their joint statement:
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from ‘Phantom Thread’ has been used in the ‘Melania’ documentary. While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on third-party use, which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”
… Meanwhile, week two ticket sales for Melania plummeted 67%, posting an anemic $2.4 million worldwide. USA Today: “A 67% decline is considered a fairly large drop at the box office, generally indicating that devoted fans prioritized seeing the film early on and that there may not be a huge audience beyond that in theaters.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.