Sunday, February 15, 2026

Weekly Roundup: Epstein, ICE & the Super Bowl Culture War: What MAGA Prioritizesn (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

In this episode of Straight White American, Jesus, we unpack the unraveling of Pam Bondi's moral rhetoric under the weight of the Epstein files. 

Bondi once ran campaign ads promising to protect children from trafficking "monsters," yet when Epstein survivors stood behind her in a hearing room, she refused to turn around and acknowledge them. Pressed about Donald Trump's and Howard Lutnick's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, she lashed out at questioners and deflected to stock market numbers. The hypocrisy is hard to miss: a movement that built its identity on "saving the children" now treats actual survivors as political inconveniences. 

When Jared Moskowitz held up the Trump-branded Bible and noted that Trump's name appears in the Epstein files more times than God's appears in Scripture, the exchange crystallized the contradiction—commodified faith, selective outrage, and a refusal to confront abuse when it implicates one's own side. 
We also turn to the Twin Cities, where clergy and neighbors continue resisting ICE operations on the ground. As Axios reports, faith leaders are organizing prayer circles, serving as human shields, and explicitly naming Christian nationalism as incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. 

The theological divide is stark: Christian nationalists invoke Romans 13 to defend "state-authorized violence," while progressive clergy center the red-letter teachings—love your neighbor, protect the least of these—even when it puts them in harm's way. 

From the politics of the Epstein files to the culture-war meltdown over Bad Bunny's Spanish-language Super Bowl performance, the throughline is clear: whose America is this, and whose lives count? As always, we follow the code.
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"A Father's Virtues?" (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast) It's in the Code ep 179

Josh Hawley identifies the defining roles men are called to play in order to exercise their "masculine virtues." The second of these is that of father. What are the virtues Hawley thinks fathers embody? And are they really virtues that only fathers can embody? And exactly what kind of a man can even be a father? Finally, how do Hawley's answers to these questions reveal the ideology at work in his account of "manhood"? Join Dan as he answers these questions in this week's episode.
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Nazi Report Card: How’s the US Doing? with Annika Brockschmidt (Andrew Seidel; One Nation, Indivisible podcast Episode #051)

Andrew brings back Annika Brockschmidt, friend of the pod, German historian and expert on American Christian nationalism. One year after her first appearance in the inaugural episode, Annika tells Andrew how the US is doing on its slide toward authoritarianism/fascism. A wide ranging and surprising conversation. 

Brockschmidt is a journalist, scholar, and author of Amerikas Gotteskrieger: Wie die Religiöse Rechte die Demokratie gefährdet (roughly translated as “America’s Godly Warriors: How Religious Right Endangers Democracy”). 

Annika’s socials: Instagram Bluesky
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"He Gets Us" Still Doesn't Get It (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podast #622)

— The “He Gets Us” campaign has a PR problem no Super Bowl ad can solve. (1:23)

— Oklahoma finally scraps Bible-heavy, conspiracy-laced Social Studies standards. (22:24)

— Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission” just got sued for its pro-Christian bias. (36:49)

— Court rules against anti-trans Christian teacher who demanded right to misgender students. (47:23)

— Judge refuses to toss The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit, putting Boston’s flag policy on trial. (57:29)

— South Carolina’s bill to force the Ten Commandments in school is doomed to fail. (1:07:31)
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US battles major measles outbreak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41JabapebNo

 

TPUSA halftime performer Lee Brice took a heroic stand against country music’s trans cartel

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9M42eJBJho0

 

Confronting Trump Appointee on His Racist Remarks

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xeb_IzHu3sU

 

Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake - The Atlantic

The influential author derides secularism and the modern world. Conservatives—including the vice president—are joining him on a march back to the Middle Ages…

🚨Trump's INSANE Plot To TAKE DOWN THE POPE Just LEAKED!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oikVkcZxerA

 

The Future of the Freethought Caucus (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence reports about a high school softball team in Missouri that had religion pushed on it, and how FFRF was able to put a stop to this. Then, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman reviews this year’s National Prayer Breakfast in D.C. and provides some insight into future plans for the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
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History Minute (096): Civil rights enforcement blocked by the Supreme Court and President Hayes

The guarantee of civil rights promised by the Civil Rights act of 1875 was short-lived. 

Numerous White business owners simply ignored the law in the South, and to a degree, also in the North. Federal enforcement efforts were weak and inconsistent. The severe economic depression of 1873 drew people’s attention, and Northern Whites tired of the many Federal government interventions in the South. 


Then in 1876, the Presidential election was close and the results disputed. As a compromise to settle the election, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes agreed to remove the last Federal troops from the South in exchange for dropping challenges to his being sworn in as President. Once the troops protecting civil rights were gone, a political coalition known as the Redeemers swung into action.


(Note: You may be accustomed to thinking of Democrats as pro-civil rights and Republicans as a party with a lot of white supremacists in their ranks. However, the opposite was true in the 1870’s; I point this out lest anyone be confused while reading the below paragraphs.)


The Redeemers comprised former White Southern Democrats — Confederates, wealthy planters, merchants, and others — who aimed to “redeem” the South by overthrowing Republican state governments, which were largely backed by freed Black people, Northern “carpetbaggers” and Southern “scalawags”.  They sought to restore white supremacy, limit Black civil rights, and reestablish Democratic Party dominance. They pledged a return to pre-Civil War social order. Their legal tactics included poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence through paramilitary groups like the White League and Red Shirts.  By 1877, Redeemers controlled nearly all Southern governments and went about passing Jim Crow and segregation laws.


As lawsuits were filed by Black people asserting their rights when barred from main floor seating in theaters, denied seats in the ladies section of a train, or refused hotel rooms, business owners asserted that the Federal government had no right to tell them what to do. When multiple such cases made their way to the Supreme Court, and consolidated as the Civil Rights Cases, the Court struck down as unconstitutional a substantial part of the the Civil Rights Act of 1875, saying it could be applied only to state actions, not those of private businesses or individuals.


The message to business owners was that they were free to discriminate. This paved the way for Jim Crow — a comprehensive system of laws and customs that mandated segregation and subjugation of Black Americans.


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