Coffee Talk with Tiff

February 17, 2026 12:58 pm EST Tiff Coffee Talk with Tiff 0
Coffee. Photo by Jonathan Thursfield.

It’s Tuesday…

President Shitshow’s public schedule for…

02/17/2026:

It’s a classic Closed Press kind of afternoon. Credentials ceremony, then policy meeting, then… another policy meeting. Oval Office. Doors shut. Curtains drawn. Democracy by appointment only. If this were a sitcom, it would be titled “Very Busy Man Does Very Important Things You Can’t See.” Three blocks of time, zero sunlight. Efficiency or opacity? Depends on your level of caffeine and optimism.

Rev. Jesse Jackson.

All about me posted his thoughts on the passing of Rev., Jackson.

This clip is making the twitter rounds.


Assorted Nonsense

DHS Spokesperson aka Propaganda Liar is said to be leaving the post.

One of the Trump administration’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive immigration crackdown is leaving as public opinion sours against the hardline approach, according to two DHS officials familiar with the move.

Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s spokesperson, is expected to inform colleagues Tuesday about her plans, according to the officials. She’s leaving DHS next week.

McLaughlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Politico. 02/17/2026.

CNN confirmed Politico’s reporting.

McLaughlin started to plan her departure in December but stayed in the aftermath of the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to a source familiar. Her plans to leave the administration were first reported by Politico.

She is the latest top DHS official to leave about a year into the new administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan announced last month she would also step down from her position to run for Congress in her native Ohio.

CNN. 02/17/2026.

Apparently, we already have her replacement.

Speaking of continued admin shake ups, the churn isn’t slowing.

The text:

Fox News has learned that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ordered Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to remove Col Dave Butler from his current job serving as chief of Army Public Affairs and chief advisor to Secretary Driscoll, who is currently in Geneva serving on the negotiating team to end the Ukraine war. Butler, served as the head of public affairs for the Joint Chiefs when Gen Mark Milley was Chairman, and was slated to receive his first star. His name appeared for two years in a row on an Army list of 34 officers selected for promotion. That list has been held up by Secretary Hegseth for nearly 4 months because he reportedly has concerns about 4-5 officers selected by the Army board but by law cannot remove them from the list. Col Butler volunteered to take his name off the promotion list, if it would help unlock the other promotions, according to a well placed Army official.

Driscoll, an Army veteran and close ally of Vice President JD Vance, attended Yale Law School with the Vice President and had resisted Hegseth’s pressure to fire Col Butler for months because of his ongoing contributions to the transformation of the US Army.
“We greatly appreciate COL Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation. Dave has been an integral part of the Army’s transformation efforts. He will be missed and I sincerely wish him tremendous success in his upcoming retirement after 28 years of service,” Driscoll said in a statement. Col Butler travelled with Driscoll to Ukraine last November to help jumpstart negotiations.

The demand by Hegseth came last Thursday, Fox News has learned.

Secretary Hegseth entered the Pentagon and immediately began firing top officers or forcing them into early retirement without giving a reason or for cause: Admiral Lisa Franchetti, who was serving as Chief of Naval Operations, General CQ Brown who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Mingus, who was serving as Vice Chief of the Army, General DA Sims, director of the Joint Staff, Air Force Chief General David Allvin, General James Slife, Vice Chief of the Air Force, and General Timothy Haugh, director of the NSA, among others.

The unexplained firings have led to fear, uncertainty and an unwillingness to speak up among senior military leaders.

One of the Army’s best communicators, Col Butler served alongside the nation’s tiered Special Operations units on countless missions overseas attached to the Army’s Delta Force from 2010- 2014. He served as the public affairs officer to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina from 2015-2018 and as the public affairs officer for Gen Scott Miller when he was JSOC commander from 2016 – 2018 and then at Gen Miller’s request served in Afghanistan when Gen Miller deployed to Afghanistan from 2018- 19. Col Butler served as the chief spokesman and director of communications for all US and NATO forces during that time that Gen Miller served as the top 4 star general in Afghanistan.

A former 4 star commander who once commanded US Special Operations said Butler was “the consummate professional, the most competent Public Affairs officer I have ever worked with and a gifted practitioner of strategic communications.”

During the Army’s 250th birthday celebrations last year, President Trump recognized Col Butler by name for helping the Army Chief to organize the parade in Washington DC.

The Pentagon declined to comment and referred us back to Army public affairs.

It’s the tweet. 02/17/2026.

Speaking of Defense Secretary Hegshit…

Speaking of court cases…

A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President’s House last month.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe issued a ruling Monday requiring the federal government to “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026,” which is the day before the exhibits were removed.

The order does not give the government a deadline for the restoration of the site. It does require that the National Park Service take steps to maintain the site and ensure the safety of the exhibits, which memorialize the enslaved people who lived in George Washington’s Philadelphia home during his presidency. The exhibits were abruptly removed in January following months of scrutiny by the Trump administration.

Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, compares the federal government’s argument that it can unilaterally control the exhibits in national parks to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a dystopian totalitarian regime.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (gift link). 02/16/2026.

From the court’s order:

Speaking of more court news; sort of.

Nick Shirley did not in fact break this news or uncover it. This news was reported back in September of 2025.

It took me about ten seconds to find this:

And then another few seconds to read this:

Costa Mesa Woman Charged with Five Felonies for Illegally Registering Her Dog to Vote, Casting Mail-in Ballots Sent to Dog in Two Elections:

A Costa Mesa woman has been charged with five felonies for illegally registering her dog to vote and casting ballots in her dog’s name in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election. The dog’s vote was successfully counted in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election but was rejected in the 2022 primary.

Laura Lee Yourex, 62, of Costa Mesa, has been charged with one felony count of perjury, one felony count of procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, two felony counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote, and one felony count of registering a non-existent person to vote. Yourex is scheduled to be arraigned at the Stephen K. Tamura West Justice Center in Westminster on September 9, 2025, in Department W12. She faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted on all counts.

On October 28, 2024, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office was contacted by the Orange County Registrar of Voter’s Office about a resident who self-reported that she had registered her dog to vote and had in fact cast a mail-in ballot she received addressed to her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, for the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election.

According to the California Elections Code, in order to vote a person must be registered as a voter by filling out and submitting an Affidavit of Registration which includes the voter’s name, residence, mailing address, date of birth, political party preference and a certification that the voter is a citizen of the United States. The affidavit must be signed under penalty of perjury.

Proof of residence or identification is not required for citizens to register to vote in state elections nor is it required to cast a ballot in state elections. However, proof of residence and registration is required for first-time voters to vote in a federal election.  As a result, the 2022 primary ballot cast in Maya Jean’s name was challenged and rejected. The 2021 election to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom was voted down by 61.9% of voters.

Following an investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation, sufficient evidence was discovered to file criminal charges against Yourex for illegally registering her dog to vote and then casting mail-in ballots issued to her dog based on the fraudulent voter registration. On her social media, Yourex posted in January 2022 a picture of her dog wearing an “I voted” sticker and posing with her ballot. Another post from October 2024, showed a photograph of Maya’s dog tag and a vote-by-mail ballot with the caption “maya is still getting her ballot” even though the dog had previously passed away.

Costa Mesa Woman Charged with Five Felonies for Illegally Registering Her Dog to Vote, Casting Mail-in Ballots Sent to Dog in Two Elections. 09/05/2025.

Breaking News:

I have searched for more news but nothing yet.

This is an Open Thread

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About Tiff 3493 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.