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Ideas, Politics & Power: The American Prospect is an independent political magazine. We cover Washington and beyond like no one else does.
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It’s a localized economic heart attack not unlike the one that hit the planet in March 2020. buff.ly/LD00y6o
ICE Is Strangling the Minneapolis Economy
Trump’s masked kidnappers are recreating the effects of the COVID pandemic in miniature.
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February 13, 2026 at 11:00 AM
When it comes to the World Cup, after decades of America being the world’s precision-guided asshole, we’re just out here being regular guys, missing obvious shots. buff.ly/KjXp5Po
Fantasy Football
Root, root, root for the home team, but maybe not this time.
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February 13, 2026 at 10:40 AM
This is what holding power in D.C. requires today: complete submission to the whims of Trump, and enthusiastic participation in his regime’s campaign of gratuitous cruelty and madness. buff.ly/ZbUIG1r
Doug Burgum, the Regime Toady of Our Time
Dashing the hopes of establishment Democrats, Trump’s interior secretary and ‘energy czar’ has adopted his boss’s excesses as his own.
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February 13, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Private prison company GEO Group’s net income rose 800 percent during fiscal year 2025, the company announced Thursday, thanks mainly to the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar project to create a network of concentration camps across the country. buff.ly/AAzpAHM
ICE Boosts Income at Private Prison Company GEO Group by 800 Percent
The company’s year-end earnings call came just days after a lawsuit alleges guards in the company’s Washington state immigrant prison routinely sexually assaulted immigrants.
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February 12, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Here are several examples where sports might just live up to its ideals on the field by giving fans, communities, and players fair treatment off it. . buff.ly/pt8HdQQ
Making Sports Work
There are lots of examples where sports isn’t dictated by oligarch whims at everyone else’s expense.
prospect.org
February 12, 2026 at 9:30 PM
This case “will answer the question of whether or not a monopoly can be held accountable and do better, or run roughshod over our government and the market.”
Trump Justice Department Poised to Preserve Ticketmaster Monopoly
Settlement talks on a monopolization case against Live Nation are under way, with Kellyanne Conway and other MAGA lobbyists seeking a sweetheart deal.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 9:00 PM
The persistence of Twin City residents will become the stuff of American legend, inasmuch as our legends generally celebrate American citizens defending democratic values against autocrats, fascists, and totalitarians. buff.ly/WcvLp8v
The Occupying Army Retreats       
The announcement of ICE’s withdrawal from Minnesota, like that of the British from Boston 250 years ago, marks a victory for people power.
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February 12, 2026 at 8:46 PM
"If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned." Marco Rubio threatens Cuba, but Trump may prefer deals to regime change.
Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
The president clearly prefers graft and plunder to full-scale wars. But he’s also easily tricked.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 8:30 PM
If these ideas were replicated across the country, sports might just live up to its ideals on the field by giving fans, communities, and players fair treatment off it. buff.ly/lQ00N0I
Making Sports Work
There are lots of examples where sports isn’t dictated by oligarch whims at everyone else’s expense.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Three years ago, the Savannah Bananas quit their independent minor league and struck out on their own, barnstorming the country with a cross between a baseball game, a three-ring circus, and a flash mob. buff.ly/CVAI7z6
Bananas for All
The Savannah Bananas are a national phenomenon. They have succeeded by putting fans first.
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February 12, 2026 at 10:55 AM
In the modern era of pro sports, major league executives have throttled public ownership, preferring to run the leagues like old-boy networks with little publicly disclosed financial information. But there is one exception. buff.ly/1fLPv4e
Getting a Share in Green Bay
The only community-owned franchise in America’s major sports leagues is a legacy of football’s past.
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February 12, 2026 at 10:50 AM
Public ownership is more prevalent in the minor leagues of sports. buff.ly/LR7QFOl
Diamonds in the Rough
Novel public ownership models have kept minor league baseball franchises anchored in communities.
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February 12, 2026 at 10:45 AM
For decades, minor league players endured a shocking amount of labor exploitation at the hands of their teams and the league. That changed in 2023. buff.ly/4QjmVcV
Striking Out—and Winning
In 2023, minor league baseball players won a union contract and put an end to decades of exploitation.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 10:40 AM
The Justice Department is on the verge of settling a monopolization case against Live Nation, another win for MAGA lobbyists who worked urgently to get the ticketing and venue giant off the hook for its relentless intimidation tactics and distortion of market power. buff.ly/erYc2Tt
Trump Justice Department Poised to Preserve Ticketmaster Monopoly
Settlement talks on a monopolization case against Live Nation are under way, with Kellyanne Conway and other MAGA lobbyists seeking a sweetheart deal.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 10:35 AM
Trump, while certainly no anti-interventionist, has also shown disinterest in both the subtle, sustained regime change operations and the large-scale, blowback-prone wars born out of the neoconservative movement. buff.ly/pyIFVds
Can Marco Rubio Con Trump Into Cuban Regime Change?
The president clearly prefers graft and plunder to full-scale wars. But he’s also easily tricked.
buff.ly
February 12, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Insurance conglomerates have quietly transformed by chartering banks to generate interest and junk fees, partnering with an HSA provider for the same reasons, or playing financial games to maximize float. buff.ly/KLCsHIc
The Bank of Big Medicine
Health insurers and providers are using industrial loan companies and other tactics to make money from financial engineering rather than patient care.
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February 11, 2026 at 9:30 PM
“You can’t turn away from this madness and you can’t unsee this injustice and they want leaders who say you’re not crazy, what you’re seeing is real,” Analilia Mejia said. “People get it, voters are not dumb.” buff.ly/eS6WcM7
Progressive Win in New Jersey Hinged on Anti-ICE Organizing
Analilia Mejia won a close congressional primary race by preparing constituents for encounters with ICE. She warned that the agency’s surveillance technology needs more attention.
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February 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Picture all the usual infrastructure for the Olympics—federal agents, National Guard, local police by the thousands, and bomb detection dogs—and add Trump’s obsession with spectacle, more high-tech weapons and surveillance, and federal agents bent on ethnically cleansing the U.S. buff.ly/sPue61h
Olympic Spirits on ICE
Why would tourists come to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics when Trump is transforming the entire country into a xenophobic danger zone?
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February 11, 2026 at 8:30 PM
The House vote is one more crack in the dam of solid Republican support for President Trump and Speaker Johnson. The process will keep anti-tariff votes in the headlines for several days and embarrass Trump, whose team lobbied House Republicans hard to maintain the blockade. buff.ly/E3p0Un6
House Says No to Tariff Man
Speaker Mike Johnson can’t hold a united Republican caucus to support Trump’s unpopular and economically perverse tariffs.
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February 11, 2026 at 8:10 PM
“We feel the Olympics is a Trojan horse that’s bringing more federal agents, more types of surveillance, and bringing more policing," said one community organizer. buff.ly/Vxu2xXF
Olympic Spirits on ICE
Why would tourists come to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics when Trump is transforming the entire country into a xenophobic danger zone?
buff.ly
February 11, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Mejia combined campaigning with training, including town halls with sessions about anti-authoritarianism, civil disobedience, and ways to prepare for encounters with immigration agents, who are terrorizing New Jersey and every other state. buff.ly/4yH5Utf
Progressive Win in New Jersey Hinged on Anti-ICE Organizing
Analilia Mejia won a close congressional primary race by preparing constituents for encounters with ICE. She warned that the agency’s surveillance technology needs more attention.
buff.ly
February 11, 2026 at 10:45 AM
Banking offers much higher profit margins and federal subsidies than either the insurance business or health care services. UnitedHealth Group knows this: It owns a bank, Optum Financial. buff.ly/lyln8YY
The Bank of Big Medicine
Health insurers and providers are using industrial loan companies and other tactics to make money from financial engineering rather than patient care.
buff.ly
February 11, 2026 at 10:30 AM
As the Women’s National Basketball Association fights for a fair contract, their victories can reverberate across the entire labor movement. For working people today, all eyes should turn to women’s basketball.
Baselines and Picket Lines - The American Prospect
Superstar athletes are close to American royalty, but they still have to fight like other workers for fair pay.
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February 10, 2026 at 9:30 PM
New York is hardly the only American big city that could elect a socialist mayor. buff.ly/mPU3xf5
Do L.A. and D.C. Have Their Own Mamdanis?
Two somewhat socialist mayoral candidates are working to see that they do.
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February 10, 2026 at 9:23 PM