Week ending 26 September 2026
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.
Table of Contents
Finite
Disappointment
ICE is more active than ever–you just are hearing about it less
Writing for The Guardian Maanvi Singh, Will Craft, Andrew Witherspoon and Julius Constantine Motal report '...for every arrest that breaks through into public view, countless others happen quickly, before anyone can notice. “The detentions are happening in a flash – we’re talking, like, 90 seconds from the time ICE shows up to that person being driven away,” Willis said. “And often they are moving very quietly, with very soft feet.”'
Maanvi Singh and Will Craft and Andrew Witherspoon and Julius Constantine Motal
On my way to interview a pastor in Palm Beach County about the prayer vigils outside of the now closed Alligator Alcatraz last week I almost was rear ended as traffic slammed to a stop on the turnpike to watch at least half a dozen ICE vehicles detain people in a landscaping truck.
Must We Name Call?
I'm going to admit something here. I am not actually a fan of my member of Congress, Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida's 27th Congressional District Representative. I am actually madder at her than I am almost anyone else. Not because she's the worst politician out there—frankly, it's probably because she is such a politician.
You see, historically, Salazar has campaigned on values I believe she has and that happen to align with me almost perfectly. Then she goes into congress and votes the opposite. She says she's for the environment then she votes to cut funding crucial to the environment. She says she's for immigrants and even has workshops to help immigrants, then she goes and votes for ICE funding and stays mostly quiet about immigration while Miami is the epicenter of so much drama.
Those are two examples that illustrate that her record is in many ways two faced, backstabbing and disgraceful.
I want her to lose.
She wants to win so she questioned the advice President Trump is getting from those around him when it comes to immigration in this video. She has more constituents born outside the United States than any other member of Congress. Literally. The video is 30 seconds.
Frankly, her track record suggests she is talking tough and won't do anything to support immigrants from DC (though, again, she has done some stuff to help people at workshops in Miami, for whatever it is worth–and that's not nothing).
She didn't question the President. She didn't criticize the President. She cautioned him to be careful about who he listens to.
That's it.
And that's what triggered a tirade against her. She deserves to be fired from her job via a free and fair election. She doesn't deserve this stuff.
Ben Blanchet
Florida
Gonna Florida
Long time readers know I'm a big fan of Florida's public university system (not mentioned as much, but the community colleges are great here too). Yes, my life revolves around FIU, but it is literally the reason we are in South Florida. It drew us here and for good reason: it is simply the one of the best schools in the nation when you look at student outcomes and it is one of the best values in the nation, period.
DeSantis has been on a mission to remake the Florida state university system in the image of MAGA, placing cronies as presidents of several universities, including one this week, the remaking of New College as functionally a public Christian school with a focus on sports it doesn't even have facilities for, and even forcing an insanely unqualified Trump lawyer into the Deanship at one of the best law schools in the nation even while the faculty hiring committee disqualified him in the first round.
Now, after years of forcing a MAGA vision on Florida's higher education, US News and World Reports rankings this week saw every Florida public university drop in their rankings. You may quibble that FAMU rose in the national rankings, which is true, but it dropped a spot in rankings of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Think about that a minute.
Full disclosure, I think US New and World Report is a bird cage liner and its ranking do more to hurt students than good. In a desperate attempt to boost national rankings, which at least in this case either failed or made a bad situation look better, Tallahassee has mandated that universities prioritize graduating as soon as possible over almost everything else.
My eldest child is therefore on pace to graduate after three years at FIU. She wants to add a second major, which she already has most of the credits for. The university has stonewalled her for two years even though with two majors she'd still graduate in four years.* Why? Because they want to boost their rankings, which they still dropped in because they have been choosing cronyism over experience.
Florida gonna Florida.
*She did, at the last possible moment, find the right ally to help her secure the second major.
And now for something completely...related
Marco Rubio has invited war criminal, international fugitive, and mega communism fan to Miami for recognition. That's right, Vladimir Putin is coming to Miami this December. Ain't that just great?
Historic
Interlude
As I've been annotating transcripts of the 36 prayer vigils I attended between August 2025 and June 2026 outside the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, a lawyer speaking at the vigils in February 2026 of the Declaration of Independence. He highlighted a few passages and that made me want to do so again here.
Excerpts From the Declaration of Indepence of the United States of America:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.
Infinite
Hope
You know what fills me with hope? The Everglades. The Miccosukee are hosting an event on Friday that I'm going to check out and you should too.
Bear
The History Hound Finds
Where is the Best Coffee in the United States?
For no apparent reason I'm thinking about great coffee cities.
USA today has a poll you can vote in to find the best coffee shops! I think there are some missing in Sacramento, Cupertino, and Seattle, but I don't know which of these to pull out. Seems Texas centric to me, but what do I know?
Here's another list, I'm not sure why it includes some chains, but it seems pretty good.
Food and Wine might have a solid list, though it is technically Yelp's.
In my experience, the shops on Coffee the Canvas's website are quite good (been to half, I think).
Sabiq Rasel
In case you're looking for the best cities for coffee.
Feeling like each month is even more month to month? It's not your fault.
Heather Timmons
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