He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called.

GUILTY… Until proven otherwise.


“He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called.” by Drew Harwell, Washington Post, February 20, 2026.

A Nashville comedian’s deportation hotline, set up as a joke, has gone viral among viewers who say it shows the “banality of evil personified.”

Ben Palmer, a stand-up comic in Nashville, has built a following online with his signature style of elaborate deadpan pranks, stumbling his way onto court TV shows and pyramid-scheme calls to poke fun at the latent absurdities of American life.

Then in January of last year, he had an idea for a new bit: He’d set up a fake tip line that people could use to report anyone they thought was an undocumented immigrant. It was darker than his other stunts, but it felt topical, the kind of challenge he wanted to try. At the very least, he thought, he might get a few calls he could talk about at his next show. Read the whole article here.

 

Am I hallucinating?

Who do you believe? Me or your lying eyes?

NOTE: To see the Moltbots (supposedly) in action, visit here: https://www.moltbook.com/m/general


“Moltbook was peak AI theater,” by Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review, February 6, 2026.

The viral social network for bots reveals more about our own current mania for AI as it does about the future of agents.

For a few days this week the hottest new hangout on the internet was a vibe-coded Reddit clone called Moltbook, which billed itself as a social network for bots. As the website’s tagline puts it: “Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Humans welcome to observe.”

We observed! Launched on January 28 by Matt Schlicht, a US tech entrepreneur, Moltbook went viral in a matter of hours. Schlicht’s idea was to make a place where instances of a free open-source LLM-powered agent known as OpenClaw (formerly known as ClawdBot, then Moltbot), released in November by the Austrian software engineer Peter Steinberger, could come together and do whatever they wanted. Read the whole article here.

 

Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

Devil or angel? You decide.


“Italy launches investigation as newly-restored angel painting in Rome church now resembles Giorgia Meloni,” by Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, February 3, 2026.

Rome, Italy — A painting in a Rome church has prompted an investigation following complaints that a newly-restored cherub bears a remarkable likeness to the nation’s leader, Giorgia Meloni.

The controversy surrounds restoration works carried out on a painting in the Chapel of the Holy Souls in Purgatory in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina, central Rome.

Although the work was completed in December, side-by-side images posted to social media in recent days of the restored work and Meloni show a striking resemblance. Read the whole article here.

Religious Iconography as Protest Art

Reminiscent of Joey Skaggs’ Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning, Central Park, 1968


“Zip-Tied Baby Jesus Guarded by ICE Agents in Illinois Church Nativity Scene,” by TMZ Staff, TMZ, December 4, 2025.

No Room at the Inn, or the Border!!! Baby Jesus Tied Up in Church Nativity Manger.

If Jesus comes to the U.S., he’d better have a valid visa … at least that’s the worry of an Illinois church that’s installed a controversial Nativity scene depicting the baby messiah zip-tied in a manger.

Lake Street Church of Evanston — just north of Chicago — reimagined the Nativity with masked centurions wearing green vests labeled “ICE” surrounding the Holy Family. Mother Mary and Joseph wear respirator masks to shield themselves from tear gas, according to the church. Read the whole article here.

Art That Mocks You

Fart art. Words don’t do it justice. The video in the article explains it…


“Wake Up, Beeple!,” by Valentina Di Liscia, Hyperallergic, December 4, 2025.

Crypto-backed artworks at Art Basel Miami Beach advance the wealth mechanisms they claim to subvert and make you, the viewer, a participant in the ploy.

A monstrous specimen of art as social commentary takes form when the work in question replicates the mechanisms the artist boasts about subverting, and at Art Basel Miami Beach, in a new section titled Zero 10 backed by the crypto marketplace OpenSea, Jack Butcher’s “Self Checkout” (2025) is its most shameless manifestation.

The installation consists of a checkout counter powered by Stripe terminals that beckon visitors to tap their cards and pay any amount, receiving a printed receipt whose length is proportional to their payment and comes with an “NFT companion.” A ticker above the counter tracks the lucre from an initial value of -$75,000, Butcher’s stated investment in the piece. Read the whole article here.