Homeland Security document shows how ICE plans to cram thousands of detained human beings inside a Georgia warehouse

Deported parents may lose kids to adoption, investigation finds

DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed in court

Snapshots ∙ California ∙ Minnesota ∙ Minnesota ∙ Minnesota ∙ Oregon ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ Tennessee

ICE abducted a Minnesota teen, labeled him an ‘unaccompanied minor,’ and lost him

“We belong to each other now”: Lessons from Minneapolis

Pennsylvania man who spent 43 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned — only to be taken straight into immigration custody — is denied bail Tuesday while he fights deportation

Trump administration keeping underage pregnant migrants in a single Texas shelter where abortion is outlawed

ICE and CBP use free walkie-talkie app ‘Zello’ to power their operations

Former ICE officer recounts illegal training instructions

DHS reportedly launches nationwide probe into naturalized citizens who may have voted before gaining citizenship

Refugees face ‘grave harm’ after ICE memo allows arrests for those without green cards, advocates warn

Trump regime proposes dismantling Amtrak

Top Noem aide entered cockpit before firing pilot over missing blanket, sources say

‘I can destroy the country’: Trump’s rant after Supreme Court strikes down his key illegal policy

Elon Musk’s destruction of USAID has faded from public consciousness in America, despite leaving death and destruction in its wake

A year after the Trump administration dismantled USAID, it is initiating a new round of significant cuts to foreign assistance

NC House candidate fired from community college after calling Charlie Kirk racist

Kristi Noem repeatedly claimed ICE deported a cannibal. It was “completely made up.”

DHS will buy tailored suits for Secret Service agents because Noem dislikes suits they bought themselves

Trump posts AI video of himself punching Canadian hockey players and winning the Olympic gold for Team USA

Republican Congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn calls for hanging people in the streets

Gunman shot dead in Mar-a-Lago was ‘fixated on Epstein files’ and came from a family of Trump supporters

This New Jersey Trump voter’s husband was detained by ICE: ‘I thought they’d focus on criminals.’

Fears of polio resurgence as US vaccine adviser questions need for childhood shots

American health science will not easily recover from Trump’s sledgehammer

Golf is theft.

Planned alcohol advertising restrictions sunk after industry lobbying, freedom of information requests show

Visa’s Olympics credit-card monopoly highlights Europe’s payment headache

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump

Activists hang photo of Andrew leaving police custody in the Louvre

Trump warns Netflix of ‘consequences’ unless it pulls top Democrat from board

Trump regime to cut $600 million in health funding from 4 Democratic states

After first meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” bodyguard for Azerbaijan dictator pushes cop out of the way to attack protesters

Trump says he’s sending a hospital ship to help Greenlanders

A new US blockade is strangling Cuba

Latest “drug boat” strike brings murder tally to 150

Countries that collaborated with Trump on tariffs may be mildly screwed

What happens to business when you close a street to cars

‘I Swear’ subject John Davidson says Tourette’s tics are ‘involuntary’ after shouting n-word at BAFTAs: ‘deeply mortified if anyone’ thinks it was ‘intentional’

AMERICAN POLICE ARE OUT OF CONTROL

ANYTHING GOES

EYE ON AI

IGNORING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

MY BROWSER HISTORY, MINUS THE PORN

NEVERENDING FILM FESTIVAL

WEEKLY DEAD

Nothing will meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives.

2/23/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Daily Grail, Fat Magic, Jemin Na CPA, Joe My God, Jamie Zawinski, Republican Crimes Tracker, Voenix Rising, What Not’s, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo & John the Basket emeritus, Jeff Meyer, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.

News always and only from reliable sources, and I decide what’s reliable — no right-wing bullshit, no Substack because fuck Nazis, and no RawStory, Newsweek, or other clickbait sites. Written news is preferred; video links will be rare, and damned near never to videos where a reporter or podcaster talks to a camera — that’s show biz, not news.

And Now the News

itsdougholland.com
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every movie ever made, in alphabetical order
(we’re in the K’s, with anti-alphabetical cheats)

Kafka (1991)
Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
Kamikaze (1986)
Kandittundu (2021)
Kangaroo Court (2009)
Kansas City (1996)
Dog’s Dialogue (1979)

— — —

Kafka (1991)

Steven Soderbergh made this strange and stoic film, with Jeremy Irons as Franz Kafka. It doesn’t quite work, but also doesn’t bore.

Set in Prague not long after the first World War, everything is gothic and mysterious. Franz works at an insurance company, writes as a hobby, and his only friend has been murdered. The police are formally investigating, but mostly just pushing papers, while Franz follows clues that take him to Gabriela (Theresa Russell), a co-worker involved in shadowy politics with even more shadowy cohorts. As often happens, Russell is so good you’ll wish the movie was more about her, maybe less about Irons, who can’t quite pull off ‘bewildered’.

String-heavy music is suitably eerie. Politics and paranoia come into play, with random bursts of screaming chaos. I was never certain what was going on as it was going on, which was probably the intent, but when it ended, I still didn’t know what all had happened, which I suspect wasn’t on purpose.

Alec Guinness, Iam Holm, and Jeroen Krabbé co-star.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)

A petty thief is pressed into duty impersonating a samurai warlord. There’s a striking resemblance, since both are played by Tatsuya Nakadai, and Akira Kurosawa is the writer-director, so this rather ordinary premise becomes much, much better than it sounds.

The film is set in the 1570s, when guns were new, so there’s more gunfire than sword fights. Also, some extended and very real horse agony that wouldn’t be allowed in an American film. 80% of the movie is the drama that swirls around the impersonation, but it doesn’t build to the heroic ending you’re expecting. For Kurosawa, that would be too easy.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Kamikaze (1986)

A mean, fat, slovenly scientist is laid off, comes home to argue with his family and watch TV. In his room, he’s invented a machine that zaps and kills the people on the telly, so whenever something’s on the tube he doesn’t like, he pushes a floor pedal at home and the victim explodes at the studio. There’s no mention of what happens if he doesn’t enjoy, say, an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, or any show that isn’t broadcast live.

A cop perhaps addicted to tranquilizers investigates, the only sympathetic characters end up dead, the science is ridonkulous, the scientist seems stupid, and the movie gets dumber as it tries to implicate, I’m not sure what, the entire French government (?) in the murders.

Any random maladjusted 13-year-old white boy could’ve written this, but it took three grown men instead, and one of them’s Luc Beeson (Léon: The Professional).

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

Kandittundu (2021)

In pleasant black-and-white animation, an old doofer prone to tall tales and exaggeration tells several stories of magic and mysticism, occasionally interrupted by questions from his increasingly skeptical son. Dad has all the answers, but they’re all bullshit, for twelve minutes of good fun from India.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Kangaroo Court (2009)

The trial of Osama bin Laden is told in a 16-minute SNL-style skit, with a few amusing poem/songs. It’s borderline funny, and better while the characters sing.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Kansas City (1996)

Tough chick Blondie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) kidnaps rich lady Carolyn, a/k/a Pussy (Miranda Richardson), hoping to parley Pussy’s life for Blondie’s husband, who’s in severe hot water for robbing a black gangster while wearing blackface.

The movie’s directed and co-written by Robert Altman, a Kansas City native, in a story of that city’s raucous high-crime & jazz era, the 1930s. I lived in K.C. for 25 years from 2001-2004, and it’s not as lively as the movie any more, which is not to say the movie’s lively. Whether from sights and sounds or plain osmosis, though, I certainly knew where the film was taking place, often down to a few square blocks.

Leigh is always good and often great, so it’s startling that here, she’s not. She plays Blondie with all the depth of the character’s name — as a stereotype always-angry lowbrow, chewing gum and making faces, wearing bad teeth and yakking with a fake accent. Maybe Leigh’s doing the acting equivalent of a jazz solo, but she’s the leading lady, and plays that one note all the way.

Harry Belafonte is terrific as mobster ‘Seldom Seen’. Steve Buscemi, Dermot Mulroney, and Michael Murphy are featured, along with plenty of great music and authentic locations. It’s meanderingly watchable, but not Altman’s best.

Verdict: MAYBE.

♦ ♦ ♦

Dog’s Dialogue (1979)
a/k/a Dog’s Symposium

From the title and the opening shot of dogs barking in a meadow, you know what’s coming, but guess what? You don’t know jack.

The dogs are only incidental to a 22-minute short story, told mostly in snapshots La jetée style. It’s about love, debauchery, doublecross, and murder, and becomes so dark it’s kinda funny, though I suspect normals would be aghast instead of giggling.

For sheer artistry, it’s an accomplishment by co-writer & director Raúl Ruiz. The first half of the story effectively mirrors the second half, as events loop around to begin again, and it’s all occasionally punctuated by the barking of dogs. Pay attention, and it’s mildly spectacular.

Verdict: YES.

2/23/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer.
— — —
If you can’t find a movie I’ve reviewed, or if you have recommendations, please drop me a note.
— — —
No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.

THURSDAY — I’m fevered and tense, like I owe people phone calls, letters, or money. Of course, I do owe people phone calls, letters, and money, but usually I don’t give a damn. Wonder if this is one of those “anxiety attacks” people talk about.

It’s noon on a day off and nothing’s pressing at me, but my heart is racing like I’m supposed to be somewhere important half an hour ago. And also, what’s up with the fever? I’ve been feeling lousy for days now, with assorted aches and a belly that keeps trying to puke, but the fever is new.

♦ ♦ ♦

Here’s a letter from Sarah-Katherine, and it’s polite, perfunctory, and it really says nothing. It’s mighty short, too, but it’s better than the rage I’ve been expecting since telling her I’m not moving to New York.

It’s the first envelope she’s sent me since before we met that came addressed to Doug instead of Doug ♥, but it’s a friendly letter when I deserve worse. Glad she still likes me enough to lick a stamp.

♦ ♦ ♦  

FRIDAY — Dragged the cart to Telegraph and sold fish all day, but I sure didn’t want to. Puked in the street behind my table, and the sight and stench wasn’t good for business, but my nose is clogged and the puke was a ways away so the stink didn’t bug me.

When I got home, I had a sudden need to bawl like a baby. And after a good long lonely cry, I vomited again. Then I laid in bed staring at the ceiling, feeling like crap, and drifted off to a shitty night’s sleep.

Pathetic Life
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