The Daily Dispatch: Wounded Characters, Private Armies, and the ANTIFA Card I Need to Print

March 26, 2026

Vindictive Optics

The optics of this continue the vindictive and personal attacks narrative of egos and wounded characters with an immense hole of defects to fill. The Trump administration's housing chief requesting a new criminal investigation into Letitia James is just the latest chapter in what has become a playbook of retribution disguised as justice. Never mind that similar charges already collapsed in Virginia — twice. The pattern is the point.

The Epstein Circus

This is likely the case. I mean, I'm not saying that he kicked over a hornet's nest in the Middle East just to get the Epstein files out of the headlines, but I could be wrong for not suggesting that to be the case. There are very few limits to what that man will do to not be held accountable for his actions is my belief. An Epstein survivor who voted for Trump now fears "we're not going to get justice" — a woman who believed the campaign promises, who watched them evaporate into cries of "Democratic hoax" the moment they became inconvenient. The files remain sealed. The accountability remains deferred.

The Ticketmaster Racket

Corporate data silos have been weaponized against us, the exponent growth of the power of social media facilitated the data broker as a centralized power structure in society. Ticketmaster has sought to employ these monopolizations over their market in much the same way and central corporate tenets of maximize profit over consumer experience is symptomatic of a kleptomania capitalist seizure of society in every facet of life. Documents now show that when regulations forced Ticketmaster to drop hidden checkout fees, they simply raised other fees to offset the loss. "To account for the loss of order processing revenue, we must adjust fees to offset the revenue loss," they wrote to venues. The quiet part, said out loud, filed in a contract.

ICE in the Airports

Again, I will pretend to be shocked that ICE in airports is not contributing anything of significance towards solving the actual problem FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EVERYBODY ELSE. Whereas this administration gets to once again employ its private army of power presentation in public spaces as an authoritarian tool. Maskless agents standing around, handing out water bottles, solving nothing — while TSA lines stretch for hours and travelers miss flights. The image is the objective. The problem is the pretext.

File this under headlines and stories we expected to see as a result of sending ICE to the airports. TSA tipped off ICE in the arrest of a mother and her nine-year-old daughter at San Francisco airport. A Guatemalan woman, crying, surrounded by masked agents who refuse to show their badges. Bystanders filming. This is the machinery working as designed.

The Second Greatest Demerit

ICE is the second greatest demerit against our nation's history. And also stands in firm factual support of the logical thesis that America as settled by European colonial powers has always been a racist institution. In Minneapolis, neighbors patrol their streets, drive families in hiding to work, deliver food. "We're just watching out for our neighbors," one says. "If that's a form of protest, so be it." A retired nurse: "We have white privilege. We have to be the ones to stand up." This is what resistance looks like when it's woven into the daily rhythms of a community.

Meanwhile, anti-ICE protesters in Texas face terrorism charges. I am tired of making the joke about not having an ANTIFA membership card. I think I am going to have to make my own card and start carrying it around with me just so I can pull it out during situations where my position of being opposed to fascism and fascist regimes needs clarification. When the administration declares Antifa "just as dangerous" as Hamas and Hezbollah, the absurdity speaks for itself — but the consequences are real. Fireworks at a detention facility are now prosecuted alongside acts of international terror.

MAGA vs. The World

MAGA hates the globalist organizations like the UN and NATO even as these organizations were created and developed through willing actions by our country through collaboration with the other major world powers. The MAGA hatred of these institutions means that anything they suggest or say will be the opposite of what MAGA does because MAGA is afraid that they will lose their freedom. The UN General Assembly voted 123-3 for a resolution calling the trafficking of enslaved Africans "the gravest crime against humanity" and calling for reparations. The three opposing votes: Argentina, Israel, and the United States. We stand in defiant minority against the moral consensus of the planet, again.

I would totally support any and all indigenous people in efforts to be elected into our national government. The representation deficit is not an accident — it is an architecture.

The Statue and the Robot

I am laughing at this headline, because I saw a photo this week of a statue of Melania erected in her hometown which is not flattering at all — she would be the best person to identify with their special guest in this meeting. Both clad in white, the First Lady and a humanoid robot walked into a gathering of world leaders' spouses to discuss the future of AI in education. Sara Netanyahu, Olena Zelenska, Brigitte Macron — and a machine. The metaphors write themselves.

Air Superiority Is Not Victory

Air superiority is essential as support in a ground war, without holding troops all that bombarded territory is lost. The Guardian traces the lineage of America's air-war delusion back 105 years to an Italian general who proposed that bombing civilians into submission would replace trench warfare. Pete Hegseth's "Epic Fury" briefings against Iran follow the same playbook that produced Guernica, the firebombing of Tokyo, and two decades of inconclusive air campaigns in the Middle East. Bombs destroy. They do not hold.

A Canadian Disruption

Huh. Canadian data centers running Open Source Frontier models would actually disrupt a couple of apple carts, especially if it is some government sanctioned or owned facilities. Mozilla and Mila — Quebec's AI institute — are building what they call "sovereign AI": transparent, privacy-focused, outside the grip of Big Tech. Private memory for AI agents, open models, the works. Whether open source can keep pace with billions in proprietary investment is the question, but the intent matters. "The next frontier in AI isn't just capability, it is trustworthiness."

The Laugh

I have no idea what this is for but I laughed out loud. An iMessage simulator called "Read Receipts." Sometimes the internet just gives you a gift.

---

The Thought Police is a daily editorial column. Views expressed are those of the author.