“The evidence suggesting the Justice Department is an institution in crisis is increasingly difficult to avoid.”
The timeline of events isn’t exactly subtle. Two weeks ago, after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that he was ending his bid for a third term, Donald Trump and his White House team said the end of the Democratic governor’s campaign wasn’t enough, and they wanted Walz to face a Justice Department investigation.
Less than a week later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president had begun complaining privately about Attorney General Pam Bondi, “describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda,” at least in part because she hasn’t pursued his perceived political enemies as quickly as he’d prefer. The following day, the Journal published a follow-up report, adding that Trump also criticized some of his own U.S. attorneys at a White House event, “complaining they weren’t moving fast enough to prosecute his favored targets.”
Connecting the dots was rather straightforward: Team Trump wanted the Justice Department to go after Walz, and the president has been whining about the pace at which prosecutors were pursuing his domestic foes.
Take a wild guess what happened a few days after the Journal’s report reached the public. MS NOW reported:
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, according to two people familiar with the matter, a significant escalation of President Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution against his critics and a move that is almost certain to further inflame tensions with the state.
The investigation focuses on allegations of obstructing federal immigration enforcement amid protests throughout Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week.
The governor and mayor join a growing list of Democrats facing Trump administration investigations, which now includes former President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, Sen. Ellisa Slotkin of Michigan, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. [!]
By all accounts, the criminal inquiry in Minnesota is quite thin. As a Washington Post report summarized, Walz and Frey “have loudly disparaged ICE’s presence in the state and the way Trump and his administration have defended the officer and sidelined state officials in an investigation into the shooting. The subpoenas the Justice Department is preparing to send suggest the agency is looking at whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements about the administration’s actions amount to illegal interference with law enforcement.”
In other words, the Justice Department has opened a criminal case against a governor and a mayor for criticizing alleged Trump administration abuses in ways the Trump administration doesn’t like.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of prosecutors’ scrutiny of Walz and Frey, but in the meantime, the one person in Minnesota who need not worry about a Justice Department investigation is the ICE agent who shot and killed Good.
“There are over 1,000 shootings every year where law enforcement are put in danger by individuals, and they have to protect themselves, and they have a lawful right to do so,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Department of Justice doesn’t just stand up and investigate because some congressmen thinks we should, because some governor thinks that we should.”
Blanche, a former Trump defense attorney, added, “We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate. And that is not the case here. It was not the case when it happened and is not the case today.”
In other words, Trump’s Justice Department won’t investigate an ICE agent who shot and killed an unarmed woman, but it will investigate a governor and mayor who condemned an ICE agent who shot and killed an unarmed woman — as well as the victim’s family. […]
President Trump’s decision to suspend naturalization ceremonies is leaving residents across the country in an unusual position, now stuck in limbo after they were on the verge of gaining U.S. citizenship. […]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suspended naturalization ceremonies for citizens of the 19 countries covered by the travel ban. It’s a list that’s since grown, as the president in December expanded the list to 39 countries.
In some cases, immigrants have already passed the citizenship test, only to be blocked from taking the oath that makes their naturalization official.
“People are just somewhat confused and concerned that, although they sort of went through the process, with the exception of the actual ceremony, that now at the eleventh hour, on the ninth inning they’re going to be disqualified and not allowed to be officially sworn in,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said.
[…] The U.S. typically naturalizes about 800,000 new citizens per year, the bulk of which are from Mexico, India and the Philippines.
[…] “They are rightfully upset that the administration has stopped them — individuals who are already approved for citizenship — from taking their oath of allegiance to this country.” [Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on the floor this week.]
[…] many prospective citizens have been in the U.S. for years if not decades and have been vetted at every turn.
[…] many of those who are about to take the oath have already progressed though various immigration statuses, taking years to gain their green card and then eventually seek citizenship.
[…] There have been reports of residents from countries that are not on the travel ban list having their appointments canceled, and because other migrants have been arrested after immigration court hearings, some are fearful to make appearances.
“Now I’ve got people who are saying to me, ‘Should I go to my naturalization ceremony? What if they grab me in my naturalization ceremony?’ It’s really unprecedented, and it’s attacking legal immigration. They’ve always said they want to attack undocumented immigrants, the so-called worst of the worst,” Jayapal [Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)] said.
“It’s Martin Luther King Day, Which Suddenly Seems Incredibly Relevant”
On this Martin Luther King Day holiday, thousands of federal agents are continuing to lay siege to Minneapolis in an operation that’s no longer only about pursuing Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing program (though that’s definitely still aggressively underway). As Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pointed out, it has become a “campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota,” because they continue to stand up against the deportation campaign and the fascist invasion of the Twin Cities.
If you want to be terrified for America’s future, look at what Trump’s Homeland security thugs are doing in Minnesota.
But if you want to be inspired for America’s future, look at how ordinary Minnesotans refuse to be terrorized.
Minnesota, right now, is where Americans are bravely, resolutely, and boisterously living out King’s words in “Letter From Birmingham Jail”:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Yes, you’ve heard those words so often they verge on cliché. But let’s spend a few minutes seeing them applied in the Twin Cities. (With a wind chill of -8 degrees F for today’s high, and another “Arctic blast” on the way at that! As this post goes online, the “feels like” wind chill is -28° F)
The most popular personal accessories in the Twin Cities are whistles and cell phones (personal body cams are another option). The owner of Minneapolis bookstore Comma says on Instagram that more people have been dropping by to pick up free whistles than to buy books […]
Following a trend that may have begun in Chicago, people are stocking Little Free Libraries with whistles and “Know Your Rights” pamphlets. If that isn’t a beautiful adaptation of an already nice thing into a tool for getting through crisis, I don’t know what is.
In another strategy borrowed from Portland and Chicago, nerds are sharing files to make hundreds of loud 3D-printed whistles for pennies apiece. Mischief, a Minneapolis toy store, is just one of many local small businesses making and distributing whistles […]
[…] In one of those double-edged Nice Things that are only necessary because of terrible things, the City of Minneapolis wants folks to know that if their car gets towed to an impound lot after ICE grabs them, the city will release the vehicles “to their owners or a representative” at no charge. [smiles] The implication that the owner may have been disappeared and deported is implicit in “or a representative,” which is fucking terrifying. But for families in a crisis who may depend on that car, the city has at least made clear it won’t add the insult of impound/towing fees to the injury of people being grabbed off the street.
Sometimes the comfort is as cold as the below-zero temperatures in our ongoing national horror.
You want Mutual Aid? How about the folks in the Twin Cities who are picking up and doing laundry for folks who have to stay home and can’t risk going to a laundromat, since ICE is lurking there, too. The People’s Laundry is primarily a mutual aid service to provide laundry help for people in poverty or who are without housing, but it’s expanded its services for people who are in hiding. [!]
[…] As in Portland, some of the protesters outside the federal building that ICE has turned into a detention center have chosen tomfoolery, to mock the violent thugs, because if there’s anything fascists hate, it’s being made ridiculous. And few things can better underline the ridiculousness of these thugs than this Fox News chyron (yes, it’s a screenshot from very real video.) [“Frozen Pickle Yells at ICE”, more social media posts, including one from Boise, Idaho]
But here’s a disturbing (and entirely predictable) escalation from DHS: They tolerated people in funny costumes making fun of them in Portland. In Minnesota, even dancing furries are being treated as enemies of the state.
Friday morning, DHS sent out a gang of thugs to tackle and rough up a protester dancing in a fox costume in front of the federal building. (Ignore the Bluesky poster’s erroneous caption saying it was the city police department; the goons’ body armor, necessary to protect them from mockery, is clearly marked “DHS”.) [Video]
[…] After the murder of Renee Good, we know the stakes of standing up to this regime. There will almost certainly be more killings. But it won’t work. Instead, people will keep showing up to chase ICE away, as they have again and again. Just look at how people seemingly materialized out of nowhere to confront the goons in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Lyn Lake last week, just days after Good was shot: [Video]
[…] Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock discussed the now deadly terror the government is unleashing in Minnesota, pointing out that the prospect of deadly violence didn’t deter the Civil Rights movement either. […]
And yes, he quoted the same line from “Birmingham Jail,” because our destinies are inextricably linked to our neighbors’.
Warnock also recounted a story that MLK aide Andrew Young told about a meeting in which King urged Lyndon Johnson to push for the Voting Rights Act. Johnson pointed out that he’d already expended a great deal of political capital on passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and thought it was a bit ungrateful of King to want another landmark bill less than a year later. He told MLK, “I don’t really have the power. You think I have more power than I have.”
King’s aides left the meeting downcast, but King, in Warnock’s telling, just shrugged his shoulders and told them, “Well, I guess if the president doesn’t have the power, we’re going to have to go get him some.” (Young’s version was phrased slightly differently but made the same point.)
That led to more demonstrations, including the attempted march from Selma to Montgomery which was cut short by Alabama state troopers beating marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. Nationwide outrage helped build consensus that it was time for the VRA as well.
Warnock told Scott, “I think that’s the moment we’re in now. We’ve got to remind ourselves that it’s not about the people in power, it’s about the power that’s in the people.”
Goddamn right. We’re at a very dangerous place right now, and instead of LBJ in the White House, we have a far stupider version of Bull Connor. […]
One more King quote for you, from his 1958 “The Power of Nonviolence.” Just sub in “ethnic cleansing” for “segregation” here:
But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to the tragic militarism. […]
God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change our world and our civilization.
We are at a truly terrifying moment in our history. But we have to bring this madness to an end. Find a protest, participate in a boycott, find opportunities to volunteer, and keep up the pressure on your electeds at every level.
“As federal agents swarm the Twin Cities, their presence has also grown in medical centers. Health care workers are pushing back.”
The arrival of thousands of federal immigration agents has altered life in Minneapolis and St. Paul in ways large and small, including in the corridors of hospitals serving the Twin Cities.
The sheer presence of the agents, sometimes in uniform, sometimes in plainclothes, has been enough to unnerve health care workers, who were already straining under conditions some have compared with those of the coronavirus pandemic.
[…] “Any medical center or hospital is supposed to be a place of healing,” said Dr. Brian Muthyala, a physician at the hospital systems Hennepin Healthcare and M Health Fairview. “It is a place where people go when they are at their most vulnerable, when they are hurt or scared or in need of care, and any presence that disrupts that environment is harmful.”
Officials with the Homeland Security Department said that they do not conduct operations in hospitals. “We go in if there is an active danger to public safety,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an agency spokeswoman. [Not true]
Health care workers, however, describe a different reality, saying agents have broken hospital protocol, refused to provide documentation and, in some cases, gotten into shouting matches with doctors and nurses.
[…] “Federal agents barging into patient care areas trying to question or detain patients — I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Dr. LeFevere, who works at Regions Hospital, a few blocks from the State Capitol in St. Paul.
[…] Federal immigration officers, like all law enforcement agents, are allowed to enter hospitals, clinics and other medical institutions if they are accompanying a patient in their custody and cannot be restricted from accessing public areas. But hospital officials said they do not allow immigration officers into private spaces, such as patient rooms and care units, without judicial warrants and that security officers escort them and limit their searches to the terms of those warrants.
[…] One health official said that over the past week, agents had brought in about two dozen patients to M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital, which is the closest medical center to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building […]
Two nurses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care, described witnessing a confrontation between health care workers and federal agents last weekend that devolved into a screaming match in a hallway at Hennepin Healthcare System in Minneapolis.
A crowd of nurses and physicians, many in scrubs and medical gear, tried to stop the agents from shackling a severely injured man to his bedside, they said. […]
Hennepin County lawyers have filed a legal petition on behalf of the patient contesting his confinement by ICE […]
The patient remains in the hospital, and agents have been rotating in and out of the facility as they keep watch at his side, according to three health care workers who asked not to be named because they did not have permission from their employer to speak on the issue.
About 10 miles to the east, in St. Paul, Dr. LeFevere said there had been at least two instances at Regions Hospital when federal agents entered the emergency department, once through the ambulance bay and another through a back entrance reserved for law enforcement.
In both cases, it appeared that the agents had been trailing people with whom they had interacted with on the streets, but the individuals were not in their custody, Dr. LeFevere said. The agents became argumentative when health care workers requested to see their warrants, but they eventually left the hospital, he said.
[…] Jeffrey Lunde, who serves as a Hennepin County commissioner and chairman of the hospital board of the Hennepin Healthcare System, said there were recent instances at Hennepin Healthcare in which hospital staff had asked federal agents to produce documentation as to why they were present in a private area or in a patient’s private room. Agents were not able to provide it.
[…] Nurses, doctors and other health care professionals across the Twin Cities had prepared for precisely such situations as they watched immigration crackdowns unfold in other cities over the past six months.
Jamey Sharp, a health care worker who is also a community organizer with the nonprofit Unidos MN, said his organization had trained more than 300 health care workers since March on patient privacy and knowing their rights. The group, which advocates social justice, said it had also helped to connect health care workers through Signal chat groups in hopes of tracking the activity of federal agents inside their facilities and ensure that rules were being followed.
[…] Aisha Gomez, a Democratic state lawmaker who represents parts of South Minneapolis, said she is worried about deleterious effect.
“I am deeply concerned about the chilling effect it is having on people seeking the care,” Ms. Gomez said.
“Denmark says its troops could stay in Greenland for one to two years.”
With Donald Trump continuing to ramp up pressure in his bid to annex Greenland, Denmark on Monday is boosting its military presence on the Arctic island, according to local press reports.
A “substantial contribution” of Danish combat soldiers is expected to arrive in Kangerlussuaq, the location of Greenland’s main international airport, on Monday evening […]
Denmark’s top military commander in the Arctic, Maj. Gen. Søren Andersen, said that about 100 Danish soldiers have already arrived in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, and a similar number in Kangerlussuaq, in western Greenland. The soldiers are due to take part in the Arctic Endurance training exercise. Andersen said last week that the deployment is a response to Russian threats and not to Trump. [That last bit sounds like a diplomatic or political spin.]
Copenhagen on Monday asked for a NATO mission to Greenland, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said, […]
Lund Poulsen slammed Trump’s threats against Greenland as “really, really hurtful,” but warned the alliance still can’t afford to sever ties with Washington.
“If the Americans withdraw from NATO tomorrow, we will have a huge challenge in fending for ourselves,” he said, adding: “it also gives us reason to do more on the European side.”
[…] “We will continue the mission for a year, maybe two, with the cooperation of foreign soldiers. We are trying to establish a schedule for deploying troops to Greenland in 2026 and the following year, so yes, it is a long-term mission,” Andersen told Le Monde.
In the past days, the European military officers participated to a reconnaissance mission and “assessed training opportunities throughout the year and are planning to return in March with different capabilities,” Andersen said.
The deployments came amid intensifying pressure from Trump, who wants to annex the Arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. He has not ruled out using military force to do so.
Trump denounced the move by allied countries, warning: “These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable.”
Trump argues that Denmark hasn’t done enough to protect Greenland from a possible attack from Russia or China, joking that Copenhagen only has two dog sleds to defend the island. In reality, Denmark said last year it would boost defense spending for Greenland by 27.4 billion krone (€3.7 billion) for naval vessels, patrol aircraft, drones and surveillance radars.
Despite Trump’s contention that Chinese and Russian vessels are “all over the place” near Greenland, there is no evidence that is the case. [Trump lied, as usual.]
Denmark announced last week it was boosting its presence on Greenland and that the exercise could include guarding critical infrastructure, providing assistance to local authorities, receiving allied troops, deploying fighter aircraft in and around Greenland and conducting naval operations.
Good news concerning Trump losing, again, in the courts:
A federal judge on Jan. 9 became the third one to block key provisions of President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at revising election rules nationwide, ruling that the Constitution gives states and Congress —not the president— the authority to exercise power over elections.
The administration signaled it is likely to appeal the decision, the latest blow to Trump’s agenda on elections.
His March executive order sought to require proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form, mostly ban the use of machine-readable codes when tallying ballots, and prohibit the counting of ballots postmarked Election Day but received afterwards.
The administration has appealed two earlier rulings in other cases against the executive order. The cases could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court, but election law experts told Votebeat the president faces long odds. […]
More at the link. This fight, and similar court fights, are ongoing.
[…] The White House has said the president is planning a second executive order on elections, though it’s unclear what will be in it, and federal court rulings so far show the approach has limitations. […]
Ukraine will continue to carry out offensive military operations, as victory cannot be achieved through defense alone, the country’s top military commander said, warning that Russia’s strategic plans for 2026 remain unchanged and aimed at all of Ukraine.
Ukraine plans to go on the offense more in 2026. Except for the Kursk surprise distraction, Ukraine has made little attacks to blunt Russian attacks or to surprise under defended points of value. Syrsky avoids saying anything specific, only that Ukraine plans to take the initiative in some way. This could entirely be deception but I expect Syrsky is being honest. To force Russia into a reasonable settlement Ukraine has to go on the offense at some point or Russia has to collapse internally. Russia looks like it may be unstable but Ukraine can’t depend on Russia failing to win the war for them.
Speaking in an interview with LB.ua, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Oleksandr Syrsky said Russia is sticking to its long-term objectives, adjusting only timelines, troop numbers and weapons supplies.
Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russia’s goals have not changed. They have not changed since the first year of the war, when Russia had to back off it’s quick attack and resort to a slow conquest so this isn’t really big news.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a daring daytime mission on Monday, aircraft from the European members of NATO flew over the White House and sprayed its airspace with antipsychotic medication.
All NATO leaders signed off on the plan with the exception of the UK’s Keir Starmer, who proposed inviting Donald Trump to yet another state dinner.
Explaining the rationale behind the mission, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said, “We saw his letter to me as a cry for help.”
On the decision to deploy antipsychotic meds, Stoere added, “We were uniquely qualified to do this because our drug prices are far lower than in the U.S.”
Stressing that the NATO members did not take their decision lightly, the Norwegian PM said, “We had been hoping that Congress would intervene, but we were left with no other choice.”
This line is particularly funny, since Trump just confused Norway and Denmark in his petty complaint (again) about the Nobel Prize:
Explaining the rationale behind the mission, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said, “We saw his letter to me as a cry for help.”
Trump’s message:
Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT
House votes to fund the arts, despite Trump threats
Months after President Trump proposed excluding the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) from his Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the Republican-led United States House of Representatives approved a bill that would continue funding both agencies.
Last Thursday, January 8, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of several funding measures, including the Interior and Environment Appropriations Act of 2026, the bill that determines the annual allocations for the NEA, NEH, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and other cultural programs.
The House voted in favor of full or near-full funding for the nation’s federal cultural agencies despite various threats from the Trump administration to dismantle or otherwise reduce allocations for many of them. The Senate is expected to pass the bill, but on Monday, it delayed a final vote.
[…] After Mr. Trump’s response, Mr. Store said in a statement, “As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have on several occasions clearly explained to Trump what is well known, namely that it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, that awards the prize,” Mr. Store said.
[…] Mr. Trump has repeatedly challenged Denmark’s claims to Greenland, but in decades-old agreements that the United States has signed with Denmark, the United States has recognized Denmark’s close connection to the island.
A 2004 amendment to an older defense pact between Denmark and the United States, which grants the United States broad military access, explicitly recognizes Greenland as “an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
And in 1916, Denmark sold what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands to the United States for $25 million in gold. In the treaty for that deal, a clause reads, “The United States of America will not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.” […]
You cannot even own land in Greenland. You can get an allotment for your house, and you own the house on top of the land. But Greenlanders don’t believe that the land is for one person; it’s for everyone. […] It’s a big miscalculation that he thinks that Greenlanders would be excited by cash. We are not. Even it it were $100,000 per person, we wouldn’t give up free healthcare; we wouldn’t give up free education; we wouldn’t give up being part of Europe […] we are autonomous right now […] Everyone here knows about the Inuit in Alaska and all of the American Indians […] Their land was taken from them, and they haven’t been treated that well in America. We know that Trump is surrounding himself with white power people, and we are not White […] so we know our rights would be taken away.
[…]
We know about the treaties that we have with America. This is akin to when you have a dog sled team (he’s using that analogy) and one of the dogs all of a sudden turns around and bites you. You have to take it out […] and shoot it. Of course we’re not gonna shoot Americans […] but you cannot trust that dog any more forever. […] We still want to be friends, but […] if Donald Trump wants a new world order, okay that’s what he’s gonna get.
* That YT channel mirrored—and edited out b-roll—from Viory, a UAE news site.
* The YT channel also weirdly anonymized her as “Greenlandic Politician”. She is Tillie Martinussen, a former MP of the Cooperation Party she co-founded breaking from Democrats in 2018, of which she has been the only member to ever win a seat. The party aims to privatize public companies and deregulate.
Her electoral defeat was largely due to the climate of civil war that erupted within the [Cooperation Party] in late 2020, when a group of leaders, including the party’s [other] founder, accused the leader of appropriating party funds for her own benefit. In the end, she was unanimously re-elected and her accusers were expelled.
No other parties have negative equity in their accounts for 2020. […] an ongoing police investigation after several former members reported chairman Tilie Martinussen to the police. The police report alleges that money from the party treasury was used for private consumption.
“Remember the president’s many rants about Tylenol? The latest evidence shows how wrong he was.”
Ahead of a White House press conference on autism in September, Donald Trump made a deliberate effort to hype the information he said he was eager to share. The president boasted the week before the event that he was poised to deliver an announcement that was “very, very big.” A day later, he added that the information he was ready to share was “so big.”
Those who tuned in to the White House announcement, however, quickly learned otherwise. Trump, standing alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instead stood at a podium and said, “Don’t take Tylenol” — 11 times.
Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Washington Post after the event, “That was the most dangerously irresponsible press conference in the realm of public health in American history.”
Undeterred, the president kept going in the weeks and months that followed, publishing an online screed to his social media platform two weeks ago that began, “PREGNANT WOMEN, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON.”
It remains a mystery why Mr. “Inject Disinfectants” believes that he has the credibility and expertise needed to give Americans guidance on matters of public health, but for those interested in evidence, The New York Times reported over the weekend:
A scientific review of 43 studies on acetaminophen use during pregnancy concluded that there was no evidence that the painkiller increased the risk of autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
‘We found no clinically important increase in the risk of autism, A.D.H.D. or intellectual disability,’ Dr. Asma Khalil, a professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at St. George’s Hospital, University of London, and the lead author of the report, said at a news briefing. The study was published on Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet.
Khalil added that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, remains “the first-line treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant women have pain or fever in pregnancy.”
Confronted with this scientific research, the White House had little choice but to acknowledge reality.
No, I’m just kidding. Trump and his team, at least so far, have ignored the latest findings, which dovetail with other recent research on the same subject.
The next time the president starts offering advice on over-the-counter pain treatments, however, keep this in mind.
In a letter to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway — that was forwarded to European ambassadors in Washington – President Trump connected his threats against Greenland (which is Danish) on Norway’s failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize (which is not awarded by the Norwiegan government).
People buy the equipment on Amazon and it shows up at Benson’s house. From there, he reaches out to local community organizers […] “I think more than 350 of those cameras have gone out and are already deployed in the community now,” […] Benson got the idea […] when ICE told local police that one of his friends was ramming their cars. “That was completely fabricated,” Benson told me. But there was no way to prove it. It was the word of the federal government against Benson’s friend.
birgerjohanssonsays
Let’s Talk Elections
“Democrats’ Midterm Advantage Is BIGGER Than It Looks”
As I mentioned on the other thread, this Trump letter to “Jonas” should be grounds for convening an emergency meeting to invoke the 25th amendment. Each and every day brings more examples that the man is not fit to be in charge of his own affairs let alone the USA government and that his mental capacity is going down fast. That should be shouted on every news media 24/7 until something is done but of course nothing will be done.
With Americans reeling from high consumer prices, the federal government will suspend tax refund seizures and wage garnishments for people in default on their student loans, the Education Department said Friday. The action dials back the Trump administration’s recent decision to resume involuntary collections after a nearly six-year suspension because of the pandemic.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will attend the Supreme Court’s oral argument Wednesday in a case involving the attempted firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook, an unusual show of support by the central bank chair.
As Steve Benen noted, a symbolic move, but important.
birgerjohanssonsays
Something for your flying cars?
Li-S batteries have far more energy by weight than lithium-ion batteries.
When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.
In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”
The doctor told Graham to consult three other specialists and her primary care provider before returning in a week, according to medical records. Then she sent Graham home as her heart kept hammering.
[…] As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients. The expert consensus is that cardioversion is safe during pregnancy, and ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen specialists who said they would have immediately admitted Graham to a hospital to get her heart rhythm under control. They found fault, too, with a second cardiologist she saw the following day, who did not perform an electrocardiogram and also sent her home.
Graham came to believe that the best way to protect her health was to end her unexpected pregnancy. But because of new abortion restrictions in North Carolina and nearby states, finding a doctor who could quickly perform a procedure would prove difficult. […] she would spend her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.
Graham hated feeling out of breath; her life demanded all her energy. Widely admired for her skills behind the wheel, she was often called upon to train fellow officers at the Greensboro Police Department. […]
She thought her surprise pregnancy had caused the atrial fibrillation, also called A-fib. In addition to heart disease, she had a thyroid disorder; pregnancy could send the gland into overdrive, prompting dangerous heart rhythms.
When Graham saw the first cardiologist, Dr. Sabina Custovic, the 192 heart rate recorded on an EKG should have been a clear cause for alarm. “I can’t think of any situation where I would feel comfortable sending anyone home with a heart rate of 192,” said Dr. Jenna Skowronski, a cardiologist at the University of North Carolina. A dozen cardiologists and maternal-fetal medicine specialists who reviewed Graham’s case for ProPublica agreed. The risk of death was low, but the fact that she was also reporting symptoms — severe palpitations, trouble breathing — meant the health dangers were significant.
All the experts said they would have tried to treat Graham with IV medication in the hospital and, if that failed, an electrical shock. Cardioversion wouldn’t necessarily be simple — likely requiring an invasive ultrasound to check for blood clots beforehand — but it was crucial to slow down her heart. A leading global organization for arrhythmia professionals, the Heart Rhythm Society, has issued clear guidance that “cardioversion is safe and effective in pregnancy.” [!]
Even if the procedure posed a small risk to the pregnancy, the risk of not treating Graham was far greater, said Rhode Island cardiologist Dr. Daniel Levine: “No mother, no baby.”
[…] The next day — as her heart continued to thump — Graham saw a second cardiologist, Dr. Will Camnitz, at Cone Health, one of the region’s largest health care systems.
According to medical records, Graham’s pulse registered as normal when taken at Camnitz’s office […] Camnitz noted that the EKG from the day before showed she was in A-fib and prescribed a blood thinner to prepare for a cardioversion in three weeks — if by then she hadn’t returned to a regular heart rhythm on her own.
Some of the experts who reviewed Graham’s care said that this was a reasonable plan if her pulse was, indeed, normal. But Camnitz, who specializes in the electrical activity of the heart, did not order another EKG to confirm that her heart rate had come down from 192, according to medical records. “He’s an electrophysiologist and he didn’t do that, which is insane,” said Dr. Kayle Shapero, a cardio-obstetrics specialist at Brown University. According to experts, a pulse measurement can underestimate the true heart rate of a patient in A-fib. Every cardiologist who reviewed Graham’s care for ProPublica said that a repeat EKG would be best practice. If Graham’s rate was still as high as it was the previous day, her heart could eventually stop delivering enough blood to major organs. […]
Three weeks was a long time to wait with a heart that Graham kept saying was practically leaping out of her chest.
Camnitz knew about Graham’s pregnancy but did not discuss whether she wanted to continue it or advise her on her options, according to medical records. That same day, though, Graham reached out to A Woman’s Choice, the sole abortion clinic in Greensboro.
North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks; Graham was only about six weeks pregnant. Still, there was a long line ahead of her. Women were flooding the state from Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, where new abortion bans were even stricter. On top of that, a recent change in North Carolina law required an in-person consent visit three days before a termination. […]
Graham would need to wait nearly two weeks for an abortion.
[…] a procedure at the clinic would not have been right for Graham; because of her high heart rate, she would have needed a hospital with more resources.
Dr. Jessica Tarleton, an abortion provider who spent the past few years working in the Carolinas, said she frequently encountered pregnant women with chronic conditions who faced this kind of catch-22: Their risks were too high to be treated in a clinic, and it would be safest to get care at a hospital, but it could be very hard to find one willing to terminate a pregnancy.
[…] Graham never learned that she would need an abortion at a hospital rather than a clinic. Physicians at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, the premier academic medical centers in the state, said that she would have been able to get one at their hospitals — but that would have required a doctor to connect her or for Graham to have somehow known to show up.
[…] In the United Kingdom a doctor trained in caring for pregnant women with risky medical conditions would have been assigned to oversee all of Graham’s care, ensuring it was appropriate, said Dr. Marian Knight, who leads the U.K.’s maternal mortality review program. […] The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is more than double that of the U.K. and last on the list of wealthy countries. [!]
[…] Graham texted [a friend]. “Ain’t slept, chest hurts.” “All I can do is wait until the 28th,” Graham said, the date of her scheduled abortion.
On the morning of Nov. 19, Scott awoke to a rap on the front door […] A police officer introduced himself and explained that Graham hadn’t shown up and wasn’t answering her phone. He knew she hadn’t been feeling well and wanted to check in.
[…] When Scott walked into their bedroom, Graham was face down in bed, her body cold when he touched her. The two men pulled her down to the floor to start CPR, but it was too late. SJ stood in his crib, silently watching […]
The medical examiner would list Graham’s cause of death as “cardiac arrhythmia due to atrial fibrillation in the setting of recent pregnancy.” […]
High-risk pregnancy specialists and cardiologists who reviewed Graham’s case were taken aback by Custovic’s failure to act urgently. Many said her decisions reminded them of behaviors they’ve seen from other cardiologists when treating pregnant patients; they attribute this kind of hesitation to gaps in education. Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in pregnant women, a recent survey developed with the American College of Cardiology found that less than 30% of cardiologists reported formal training in managing heart conditions in pregnancy. “A large proportion of the cardiology workforce feels uncomfortable providing care to these patients,” the authors concluded in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The legal threats attached to abortion bans, many doctors have told ProPublica, have made some cardiologists even more conservative. [….]
Three doctors who have served on state maternal mortality review committees, which study the deaths of pregnant women, told ProPublica that Graham’s death was preventable. […]
Graham’s is the seventh case ProPublica has investigated in which a pregnant woman in a state that significantly restricted abortion died after she was unable to access standard care.
The week after she died, Graham’s family held a candlelight ceremony outside of her high school, which drew friends and cops in uniform, and also Greensboro residents whose lives she had touched. One woman approached Graham’s sisters and explained Graham had interrupted her suicide attempt five years earlier and reassured her that her life had value; she had recently texted Graham, “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here today, expecting my first child.”
As for Graham’s own son, no one explained to SJ that his mother had died. They didn’t know how to describe death to a toddler. Instead, his dad and grandmother and aunts and uncles told him that his mom had left Earth and gone to the moon. SJ now calls it the “Mommy moon.”
For the past two years, every night before bed, he asks to go outside, even on the coldest winter evenings. He points to the moon in the dark sky and tells his mother that he loves her.
Nestled in a strip mall in suburban Philadelphia, The Trump Store is hard to miss, with its all-caps sign in bold next to a photo of President Trump hugging the American flag. But after six years of drawing MAGA supporters from all over, the 800-square-foot store, which sports everything from hats and watches emblazoned with the president’s name, is closing. The store’s owner, 56-year-old Mike Domanico, said that, with sales down, it was time.
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are in crunch time.
So far, Congress has passed six of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government. The House last week passed an additional two-bill package known as a minibus that would fund the State Department and the Treasury Department. Senators will take that minibus up after they come back from their recess.
That leaves just four bills for the lower chamber to clear — including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill, which has emerged as a major point of contention between both parties.
As of Monday afternoon, appropriators had not released text for the four bills.
Democrats in both chambers are intensifying their push to overhaul U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after one of its officers fatally shot an unarmed woman in Minneapolis. They are threatening to oppose the DHS bill unless it includes tougher oversight and conduct guidelines for ICE officers.
It’s unclear whether both parties can reach an agreement on the DHS bill before the Jan. 30 deadline to prevent a partial government shutdown.
If they don’t, one option they have is to pass a stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution, that would temporarily fund the department at existing levels until they strike a deal.
The clock is tight for both chambers, with the Senate in recess this week and the House set to be out next week.
A solar radiation storm stronger than one we’ve seen in over two decades is in progress, the Space Weather Prediction Center announced Monday.
The storm is classified as an “S4” – the second-highest possible level of a solar radiation storm. The last time we observed an S4 storm was in October 2003.
“Storms of this strength are very rare,” said the Space Weather Prediction Center. Forecasters expect the storm to continue for days, cutting off high-frequency communications completely in the polar regions and posing some added health risk to passengers and crew in high-flying aircraft.
The strong solar flare that triggered the radiation storm has also caused a severe geomagnetic storm, which strengthened to a G4 on Monday afternoon and “came with a punch” at around 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time, said Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator with the SWPC.
“We reached nearly 20 times what’s normal background level for magnetic energy out in space with that arrival here at Earth,” said Dahl.
If the geomagnetic storm continues into the evening, northern lights could be visible across much of the United States.
[…] As of the Monday afternoon forecast, the lights were expected to be visible in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, northern Utah, northern Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, northern Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, northern Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Alaska.
[…] If the G4 levels we saw earlier in the day are reached again in the evening, that could make the northern lights visible as far south as Alabama and California, the SWPC said.
[…] For your best shot of seeing the aurora, look to the northern horizon.
“The death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 3,941 people, activists said.”
Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not “point your weapons at the people,” […]
The hacking comes as the death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 3,941 people […] Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had his invitation to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, withdrawn over the killings.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between the United States and Iran over the crackdown after President Donald Trump drew two red lines for the Islamic Republic — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations. A U.S. aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East.
[…] The footage aired Sunday night across multiple channels broadcast by satellite from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster. The video aired two clips of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, then included footage of security forces and others in what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed without offering evidence others had “laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people.”
“This is a message to the army and security forces,” one graphic read. “Don’t point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran.”
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a statement from the state broadcaster acknowledging that the signal in “some areas of the country was momentarily disrupted by an unknown source.” […]
A statement from Pahlavi’s office acknowledged the disruption that showed the crown prince. […]
ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP on Monday showed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, as well as other American military vessels, in the Strait of Malacca after passing Singapore on a route that could take them to the Middle East.
[…] The Mideast has been without an aircraft carrier group or an amphibious ready group, likely complicating any discussion of a military operation targeting Iran given Gulf Arab states’ broad opposition to such an attack.
[…] The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll Monday to at least 3,941, warning it likely would go higher.
[…] The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities.
[…] The agency also reported over 25,700 people had been arrested. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners.
“While the killers and seditious terrorists will be punished, Islamic mercy and leniency will be applied to those who were deceived and did not have (effective) roles in the terrorist event,” a statement Monday from Iran’s president, its judiciary chief and its parliament speaker said.
ICE came to my brother-in-law Saly’s apartment, broke down the door, trashed the place, handcuffed him, and put a gun to his daughter-in-law’s head. They did not allow him to put on proper clothing and forced him outside in freezing weather.
As snow falls, an elderly man wearing nothing but blue boxers and white Crocs with his hands restrained behind his back is forced out of his home by ICE agents. A red and white plaid blanket is draped around his shoulders, but his chest is completely bare […] ChongLy Scott Thao, also known as Saly, is a Hmong American born in Laos who has lived here most of his life. Born in a Laos refugee camp, he’s a US citizen, and St. Paul, Minnesota is his home.
[…]
“There were, gosh, 10-15 agents […] They all had weapons. People were screaming to see a judicial warrant. They were ignoring everybody. Neighbors were outside.[“] […] Photos from that moment show his grandson looking out the window, a pacifier in his mouth. […] Thao was then thrown into an ICE vehicle and taken away. […] video of the whole scene, which I’ve posted to Youtube. [Reuters filmed the battering ram.]
[…] “Saly is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He has NO criminal record […] ICE drove him around for nearly an hour, questioned him, and fingerprinted him. Only after all of that did they realize he had no criminal history and no reason to be detained. They then dropped him back off at his apartment like nothing happened.”
[…]
DHS [alleged] that the operation was targeting “two convicted sex offenders” with final orders of removal from an immigration judge. She claimed, without evidence, that Thao lives with these two men and that he was detained because “he matched the description of the targets.” […] both appear to be significantly younger than him. […] Thao was taken half-naked in 10 degree weather simply because he’s Asian.
[…]
The only people residing at the home are Mr. Thao, his son, his daughter-in-law, and his young grandson. […] The family said no warrant was presented, agents did not ask for Thao’s ID, but they “nevertheless forcibly entered the home with weapons drawn.” […] Thao and his family have lived in the home for two years.
[…]
“We received reports of federal law enforcement officers going door to door, asking people where the Asian people live,[“] Mayor Her said.
* The family GoFundMe said Thao was traumatized but not physically harmed. The large red patches on his face, torso, and legs were severe psoriasis. His health has declined since the attack.
Commentary
ICE forcing their way into homes without a warrant goes SO FAR BEYOND what Kavanaugh descibes and yet it’s commonplace now.
a home invasion.
Kavanaugh himself said what they are doing is not what he said they could do.
Any one of these daily atrocities should result in a full congressional investigation and a disbanding of the agency. The fact that it’s all just shrugged off by those with the power to stop it is a national disgrace.
The bar is so low at this point I’m actually pleasantly shocked they dropped him back off at his apartment instead of just kicking him to the curb on the spot and letting him freeze to death.
If Kavanaugh isn’t careful, his blatant racism will overshadow his penchant for drunken sexual assaults.
birgerjohanssonsays
Seth Meyers: We are living in a cocaine snow globe.
Trump’s Bonkers Message to Norway Over Greenland; Nobel Committee’s Responds to Trump.
EU explores €93B Trump tariff retaliation over Greenland threats – Lynna, OM@3, linking to earlier comments
The retaliation should be aimed squarely at Trump’s techbro sycophants: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Pichai, Altman… block their social networks, sales outlets and AI tools. Sure, no block will be fully effective, because of VPNs and Tor, but it’ll hit them in the advertising revenue, and these are the guys with real influence, not American small businesses dependent on European sales to stay solvent.
KGsays
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a daring daytime mission on Monday, aircraft from the European members of NATO flew over the White House and sprayed its airspace with antipsychotic medication.
All NATO leaders signed off on the plan with the exception of the UK’s Keir Starmer, who proposed inviting Donald Trump to yet another state dinner. – Lynna, OM@11 quoting the Borowitz Report
Borowitz is right to call out Starmer’s sycophancy (he fancies himself a “Trump whisperer” although the trade and investment deal he thought he’d negotiated turned out to be made entirely of froth). But unfortunately he’s by no means alone in NATO: leaders of Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Czechia are all Trumpist in political orientation – while Starmer is not, but is simply putty in Trump’s hands.
birgerjohanssonsays
Yesterday was the birthday of both Dolly Parton and Edgar Allan Poe.
I found this verse on Zuckerbergbook.
.
Working 9 to 9
For a man whose eye is ceeepy
That’s why I decide
To assault him when he’s sleepy
But his heart still beats
In the floorboards where I set it
It’s enough to drive me
Crazy if I let it!
Activists troll Trump with naked doodle card on Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday. Rachel Maddow shares photos of a giant replica of the naked woman birthday doodle that appears to have been from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday. The replica is meant to commemorate Trump’s relationship with Epstein as Epstein’s birthday approaches.
Moral principles drive faith leaders to speak out against Trump on immigration, foreign policy. Rachel Maddow shares recent examples of prominent members of the clergy speaking out against Donald Trump’s abuse anti-immigrant tactics and his belligerent foreign policy, and talks with Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, about defending immigrant members of his community and Donald Trump’s dismantling of the moral role the U.S. plays in the world.
Towns reject ICE as agency looks to place immigrant prisons throughout United States. Rachel Maddow reports on a growing number of towns and communities that are speaking out and standing up to Department of Homeland Security plans to open ICE detention and processing facilities to take in immigrants being arrested in federal raids. The rejection of ICE facilities fits into a bigger picture of pressure being put on companies and organizations that have become tacit ICE resources, from Avelo Airlines conducting deportation flights, to Home Depot allowing arrests of day laborers in their parking lots.
For Trump’s opponents, a model for finding their fight to stop him. While Donald Trump has made clear how he intends to wield his power and retain his power, the most pressing question for Americans is how his opponents intend to stop him. Jon Ralston, founder and CEO of the Nevada Independent, and author of the newly published “The Game Changer: How Harry Reid remade the rules and showed Democrats how to fight,” talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Democrats’ best political tactician and savviest fighter in living memory would have handled stopping Trump and retaking power before it’s too late.
“The administration doesn’t just want to criticize parts of the media, it also wants to control parts of the media — even if that means exceeding legal limits.”
As many service members and veterans likely know, Stars and Stripes is a military newspaper with a generations-old pedigree, and which has long described itself as the “U.S. military’s independent news source.”
The word “independent” is key: Stars and Stripes covers the military, but it has long enjoyed the same kind of editorial freedom that civilian newspapers have, even if that means publishing reports the Pentagon doesn’t always like.
It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump’s Defense Department decided it was time to change the nature of Stars and Stripes’ work. The New York Times reported:
The Pentagon on Thursday said it planned to commandeer Stars and Stripes, a government-funded newspaper that covers the military, and align it with official department messaging.
‘We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,’ Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, wrote in a post on X.
The decision to effectively seize control over Stars and Stripes came roughly a month after the Pentagon held its first briefing with a group of conservative “correspondents” who agreed to cover the DOD in ways the administration approved of.
One day after the Pentagon commandeered Stars and Stripes, the public learned that CBS News had aired an unedited version of anchor Tony Dokoupil’s interview with Donald Trump following a demand from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who reportedly had threatened to sue the network if it failed to comply.
One day after that, the president said he intended to issue an executive directive that would order television networks not to air other college football games at the same time as the annual Army-Navy football game.
[…] a picture emerges of an administration that doesn’t just want to criticize parts of the media, it also wants to control parts of the media […]
Asked about Trump’s plan for an executive order on networks and college football games, for example, Jeffrey Cole, the director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s Center for the Digital Future, told The Washington Post: “With a stroke of a pen, the President will assert a power that any television programmer in history would have killed for. […] he has no legal power of enforcement.” […]
At least in part, Trump wants only the Army-Navy football game on TV because that is the game that he and Marco Rubio plan to attend.
“Remember the pretense that the White House’s tariffs policy was the result of ’emergency’ conditions? That’s gone now.”
Related video at the link.
There are all kinds of questions about what, exactly, Donald Trump intends to do with his so-called Board of Peace, but the president is apparently looking for countries to become members of said board, which will ostensibly have something to do with the future of Gaza.
The Republican’s pitch is, however, facing some predictable international skepticism, even as he seems to believe he can blackmail some U.S. allies into participating in the endeavor. The New York Times reported:
President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza.
France was among the countries the Trump administration invited last week to join the body, which Mr. Trump has said he plans to lead to oversee the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and supervise the rebuilding of Gaza.
During a brief Q&A with reporters on Monday night, Trump initially acknowledged that he’d invited Vladimir Putin to join the “peace” panel, which seemed utterly indefensible given the Russian leader’s obvious rejection of peace in Ukraine. Soon after, a reporter asked the American president if he had a reaction to the French president saying he doesn’t intend to be part of the endeavor. [social media post, with video]
“Oh, did he say that?” Trump replied, apparently unaware of comments that Macron had made 12 hours earlier. After suggesting that “nobody wants” Macron to be a part of the panel that Trump had invited him to join, the Republican added, “What I’ll do is, if they feel, like, hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes — and he’ll join.”
I have no idea whether or when Trump might follow through on such an idea, but the comment underscored a larger point that the White House has been generally reluctant to acknowledge: The entire foundation of the president’s tariff strategy is rooted in an “emergency” that doesn’t exist.
The administration and its lawyers have spent months arguing that the president must have unilateral power to impose arbitrary tariffs on U.S. trade partners — without congressional approval — in response to “emergency” conditions that necessitate dramatic action.
Except, with a Supreme Court due to rule on Trump’s trade policy any day, Trump keeps giving away the game. Brazil prosecuted a politician allied with Trump? Tariffs. European countries aren’t on board with his Greenland crusade? Tariffs. Macron isn’t interested in Trump’s “Board of Peace”? Tariffs.
The “emergency” pretense is gone (to the extent that it ever existed in the first place). If the justices notice this and rule against the White House, Trump will have no one to blame but himself.
Anders Vistisen, a Danish member of the European Parliament, shared his opinion of President Donald Trump’s Greenland aggressions during a debate Monday, making his stance very clear.
“Let me put this in words you might understand,” he said. “Mr. President: Fuck off.” [video]
Visiten’s comment comes shortly after Trump sent a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre Sunday night, accusing Norway of withholding the Nobel Peace Prize from him.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
While Visiten was admonished for breaking the chamber’s language rules, his message was far less toothless than Republicans’ vows to rein in Dear Leader.
It has taken Trump just one year to dismantle almost all goodwill with the United States’ European allies.
Republicans are up in arms after California Gov. Gavin Newsom set a special election to fill a GOP-held House seat for Aug. 4—the latest date he could under state law.
The move ensures that the seat—left vacant when Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa died unexpectedly on Jan. 6—will be open for eight months, thereby robbing House Speaker Mike Johnson of a critical vote in his narrow and unruly majority.
“Gavin Newsom’s decision to punt this special election to August is a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars and a disservice to the people of California’s First District,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson whined in a statement. “He could have scheduled this election alongside the June primary, but instead chose to leave this seat vacant for months. Californians deserve a voice in Congress, and Newsom is denying them one for purely political reasons.”
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California also complained, writing in a post on X, “When its [sic] a Democrat seat, Newsom says the goal is representation as soon as possible. When its [sic] Republican, he purposely leaves constituents stranded.”
Of course, Newsom was just giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine. GOP governors have held Democratic-leaning seats open for even longer, as a way to help House Republicans.
For example, a safely Democratic House seat in Houston will have been vacant roughly 11 months, after Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott played politics and called a special election for the latest date he could.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis kept the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings vacant for nine months, starting in 2021. That robbed Democrats of a vote in a critical period of then-President Joe Biden’s first year in office.
Yet Republicans weren’t complaining then.
They whine only now, when a Democrat is using Republicans’ hardball tactics against them.
Indeed, that should be a feather in Newsom’s cap in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field in the 2028 presidential race.
Newsom has consistently fought fire with fire, including shepherding through a mid-decade redistricting effort that thwarted President Donald Trump’s efforts to rig the midterm elections for Republicans.
Back in August, when Newsom launched the redistricting effort, he explained why it’s so critical that Democrats do whatever they can to fight back against Trump and the GOP.
“We’re not going to act as if anything is normal any longer,” Newsom said at the time. “It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore. It’s about how we play hardball. And California has your back.”
With his decision to hold California’s 1st District open as long as possible, Newsom is proving that to be true once again.
“The judge said he would allow Halligan to avoid attorney disciplinary proceedings for now ‘in light of her inexperience.’ ”
A federal judge has barred Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan from “masquerading” as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, but said he would allow her to avoid attorney disciplinary proceedings for now “in light of her inexperience.”
U.S. District Judge David Novak issued an order that bars “Ms. Halligan from representing herself as the United States Attorney in any pleading or otherwise before this Court until such time as she may lawfully hold the office either by Senate confirmation or appointment by this Court… should either occur.”
Novak warned that Halligan would face disciplinary referrals if she continued to improperly refer to herself as the United States Attorney. A judge ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully serving in the role, though the Justice Department has appealed that ruling.
“The Court recognizes that Ms. Halligan lacks the prosecutorial experience that has long been the norm for those nominated to the position of United States Attorney in this District,” he wrote. “Consequently, and in light of her inexperience, the Court grants Ms. Halligan the benefit of the doubt and refrains from referring her for further investigation and disciplinary action regarding her misrepresentations to this Court at this time.”
The move came the same day as the federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia posted a job opening for a top federal prosecutor position previously occupied by Halligan.
Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck entered an order on Tuesday ordering the clerk of the court to post a vacancy announcement, soliciting applications from attorneys interested in filling the position of Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. [LOL, kind of funny … and ridiculous that this has to be done.]
“In the exercise of the authority conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 546(d) to appoint an Interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia until the position is filled by a Senate confirmed person, the Court is soliciting expressions of interest in serving in that position,” the order read.
Under the law, when the position is vacant — as the chief judge declared it was — the court can “appoint a United States Attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled” by a Senate-confirmed candidate. The application deadline is listed as Feb. 10, 2026.
A judge ruled in November that Halligan was unlawfully serving in the role and dismissed cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. After President Donald Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute James and Comey, frequent targets of the president’s ire, Halligan— who had no prior prosecutorial experience — presented the cases against them to federal grand jurors. […]
“Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Launches De-Youngkinization On Day One”
“With a big middle finger to ICE and Trump, too.”
Abigail Spanberger was sworn in Saturday — wearing Suffragette white, her hand on her grandmother’s Bible — as Virginia’s first woman governor, though she’s the 75th person to hold the office. She quickly made clear that with a Democratic trifecta in the commonwealth, elected by far larger margins than outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin, it’s time to stand up to the authoritaran regime that’s taken over the federal government. She didn’t name Donald Trump, and didn’t have to. Everyone knows who eliminated the jobs of roughly 23,000 federal workers who live(d) in Virginia (plus layoffs of another 7,000 private jobs, many with companies that contracted with the federal government).
It was a good speech! Here, have a video and a transcript! [Many embedded links are available at the main link.]
[…] After the speech, Spanberger signed a package of 10 executive orders aimed at reversing some of Youngkin’s policies, and at shielding people from the economic impact of the dog’s breakfast that Trump is making of federal tax and funding policy.
Beyond the EOs, Spangberger and the new Democratic majority in both houses will decouple Virginia tax law from federal policy, a step the Lege began right after Congress passed the Big Stinky Bill:
Virginia normally conforms to federal tax law on a “rolling” basis, with some exceptions. However, state lawmakers paused that conformity in 2025 in light of the federal cuts to taxes that could have trickle-down effects on Virginia’s tax collections — to the tune of billions of dollars.
Democrats said during the opening of the General Assembly session they would not look to conform to many of new federal tax law’s provisions.
And in the most significant departure from her predecessor, she threw out Youngkin’s executive order requiring state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE. [!!]
Youngkin only had the power to order state law enforcement agencies — Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections — to enter into “287(g) agreements” with ICE, although his February 2025 order also encouraged local agencies to do so.
That order also created a “task force” to help ICE apprehend criminal immigrants […]
And here’s a telling data point: Not a single one of Virginia’s municipal police departments followed up by signing a 287(g) agreement. [!] But 26 sheriffs — who are elected — did. [!] Funny what happens when law enforcement priorities are subject to demagoguery.
At the signing ceremony, Spanberger said, “State and local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws.”
[…] Other orders were aimed at revamping regulations to make housing more available and affordable, and to encourage new home and apartment construction. Another order seeks to depoliticize appointments to the boards that govern Virginia higher education [yes !], thank Crom. Still others will end Youngkin’s attempts to make discrimination great again by dismantling anything that might be labeled “DEI.” You can see a full list at the Governor’s Office webpage.
Seems like Spanberger and the Virginia trifecta (not a good band name, but a good governing team) are already off to a good start. Man, we love what a Blue Trifecta can get done.
[…] Stocks and the dollar plunged after European leaders threatened retaliatory sanctions over Trump’s “blackmail” and began loudly and angrily questioning the extent to which the US is an ally, and the Danish pension fund was already divesting itself of US Treasury bonds because of US instability. Tuesday the bond sell-off snowballed with the growing uncertainty. America strong! [vdeo]
[…] a distracted NATO is not paying attention to Putin’s antics in Ukraine, and the Arctic will only become more important to world domination as the polar ice caps melt away. And as usual Trump’s brain is stuck in the ’80s. All of them! The 1680s, the 1780s, whatever AI meme bastardized from a scanned 1980s middle school textbook that Stephen Miller forwarded to Natalie Harp to put in front of his face at 1 a.m. [ridiculous images and Trump’s social media posts are available at the link.]
As European leaders fret over President Donald Trump’s bluster about Greenland, Ukrainians continue to endure one of the toughest stretches since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Spare a thought for a country that has been fighting a brutal war of national survival for nearly four years — and remains uncowed.
The Kremlin is weaponizing winter, trying to freeze its smaller neighbor into submission. Early Tuesday, Russia launched a fresh onslaught of more than 300 drones, as well as significant numbers of cruise and ballistic missiles, with most targeting the capital of Kyiv. Its mayor says more than 5,600 high-rise buildings are now without heat and about half the city of 3 million is without water. [yikes]
The high Tuesday was 17 degrees Fahrenheit. The low was four. Air raid sirens went off all night. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been attacked,” said Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal. [!]
Worse attacks may be coming. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns that Russia is looking to knock out more substations connected to nuclear power plants [!], potentially endangering the operation of the plants themselves. He says Ukraine’s energy generation capacity had been reduced to 11 gigawatts, while the country needs 18 to sustain itself. Ukraine’s maximum import capacity from Europe is around 2.3 gigawatts, and allies such as Italy are rushing emergency assistance to repair parts of a badly damaged electrical grid.
Zelensky said Tuesday that his military intercepted a “significant number” of Russian missiles overnight but they had to use 80 million euros’ worth of munitions to do so. [!] He acknowledges that several systems in his country have run out of missiles. Over the weekend, a Ukrainian delegation pleaded for more during a meeting in Miami with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready for peace. Trump, surprising no one, claimed last week that Zelensky remains intransigent because he won’t surrender unconquered territory to Putin, but Zelensky’s stubbornness is understandable and reflects the will of his people. Has Trump already forgotten about Putin embarrassing him with lies about an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Russian leader’s home?
[…] the front line is not moving despite the countless Russian lives Putin has been willing to sacrifice […] he has decided to terrorize Ukraine’s civilian population instead.
Putin thinks he can sap the Ukrainians of their will to fight, but the war looks sure to grind on for quite some time.
Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a brilliant technocrat responsible for the country’s embrace of drones at scale, is busy making reforms to the military, both in procurement and recruitment. He has set a goal of killing 50,000 Russians a month. “Last month, 35,000 were killed,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “If we reach 50,000, we will see what happens to the enemy. They view people as a resource, and shortages are already evident.”
The Russian leader only responds to this kind of toughness and resolve, but the American president seems unwilling to learn that lesson. Meanwhile, Ukraine suffers.
‘Unconquerable’: What a visit to frigid Ukraine convinced me, by David Ignatius
It’s a bitterly cold Saturday night here, the temperature 10 degrees Fahrenheit and falling, and a few pedestrians are skittering down the icy sidewalks to get inside before the midnight curfew. Because the heat is out in some homes in the wake of savage Russian bombing of power facilities this month, they may have to visit one of the hundreds of warming centers in the city to get through the night.
This grim winter scene is a snapshot of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal strategy for victory. By pounding Ukraine’s sources of power and heat, he hopes to freeze the country into submission. President Donald Trump sometimes talks as if he agrees with Putin that Russian victory in this bloodbath is inevitable — and that Kyiv must give up territory in a peace deal.
But conversations here Sunday with Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and other senior officials convinced me that this bleak picture is misleading. Ukraine will soon deploy a new generation of domestically produced air-defense interceptors, powered by artificial intelligence, that could allow the country to fight on indefinitely.
“We have a clear plan about how to stop Russia in our skies,” Fedorovsaid in a meeting Sunday in the defense ministry’s headquarters on a quiet Kyiv side street. A few minutes later, he signed an agreement with the U.S. defense software company Palantir to build an advanced AI “Dataroom.” It will use the millions of bits of sensor data and imagery that Ukraine has gathered over four years of war to train AI systems that can predict Russian attacks — and then guide cheap, autonomous interceptors to defeat them.
“It’s not about us winning, but about us becoming unconquerable,” said Andrii Hrytseniuk, chief executive of Brave1, a technology incubator that has coordinated Ukraine’s astonishing battlefield innovation with drones and AI. “The war stops when the enemy realizes that its political goals cannot be achieved,” he argued.
[…] In its desperate attempt to fend off Russia, Ukraine has developed what may be the world’s most innovative defense-technology sector. Fedorov embodies this drive. He’s just 34, dressed like a tech bro in a simple sweatshirt. But back in 2022, he convinced President Volodymyr Zelensky to seek help from Palantir and Starlink, and launched a project known as the Army of Drones.
Another champion of using technology aggressively has been 40-year-old Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the former chief of military intelligence, who Zelensky just elevated to head his presidential administration. This tech savvy is a big reason Ukraine has survived the onslaught from the much larger and more powerful Russia.
Brave1 coordinated this technology push. When the war began, Ukraine had just seven companies making small drones; a year later, it had 70, and today there are 500 [!] — producing millions of aerial drones annually, according to Hrytseniuk. Another 280 companies are developing autonomous ground vehicles — unmanned tanks, in effect. In 2022, nearly all of Ukraine’s attack strikes were from artillery; today, nearly 90 percent are by drones.
[…] Though Ukraine has fought Russia to a stalemate on the ground, its biggest weakness has been air defense. Relentless Russian attacks have destroyed power and heating plants and other critical infrastructure. Ukraine wages a brave nightly battle against as many as 1,000 missiles and drones, but the attacks have made life miserable for civilians. The Dataroom interceptor project is an attempt to create an air-defense shield to end this nightly onslaught.
[…] Putin doesn’t want to make concessions because he still thinks he can win. But Ukraine’s new network of AI-driven air defenses will make that less likely. If Ukraine can protect the civilians on Kyiv’s frozen streets — and reassure them that they won’t face another winter in the deep freeze, even if the war continues — perhaps Putin will reconsider his bet.
“The subpoenas widen the federal investigation into whether Minnesota officials conspired to impede law enforcement during the Trump administration’s immigration operations.”
Related video at the link.
The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other state leaders, escalating its investigation into whether state officials conspired to impede law enforcement during the Trump administration’s immigration operations, according to a document reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the investigation.
The subpoenas were also sent to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and two counties, according to the document and the person familiar with the probe.
[…] Frey sharply criticized the Trump administration and accused the Justice Department of misusing its power.
“When the federal government weaponizes its power to try to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs, every American should be concerned. We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with,” Frey added.
“In Minneapolis, we won’t be afraid. We know the difference between right and wrong and, as Mayor, I’ll continue doing the job I was elected to do: keeping our community safe and standing up for our values,” the Democratic mayor added.
In a statement, Ellison said the subpoena was “for records and documents, not for me personally.”
“Everything about this is highly irregular, especially the fact that this comes shortly after my office sued the Trump Administration to challenge their illegal actions within Minnesota,” the state attorney general said.
“Let’s be clear about why this is happening: Donald Trump is coming after the people of Minnesota and I’m standing in his way,” Ellison added. “I will not be intimidated, and I will not stop working to protect Minnesotans from Trump’s campaign of retaliation and revenge.”
[…] Federal officials are also investigating Good’s partner to determine whether she may have impeded a federal officer moments before Good was shot and killed, two people familiar with the investigation said.
Walz has said previously: “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.” He was referring to ICE officer Jonathan Ross, a war veteran who spent over a decade working for the Department of Homeland Security.
“For those concerned with the integrity of the Social Security system, the latest allegations are extraordinary — legal accountability or not.”
Related video at the link.
Within weeks of Donald Trump’s second inaugural, members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team showed up at the Social Security Administration and started demanding access to files. The efforts were not well received: Michelle King, in her capacity as the acting Social Security commissioner, resigned after refusing a DOGE request to access the agency’s sensitive government records.
Months later, Charles Borges, who served at the time as the SSA chief data officer, filed a remarkable whistleblower complaint that alleged members of the DOGE operation had uploaded a copy of a highly sensitive database to a vulnerable cloud server, creating “enormous vulnerabilities.”
In fact, The New York Times reported that the database in question included “individuals’ full names, addresses and birth dates, among other details that could be used to steal their identities, making it one of the nation’s most sensitive repositories of personal information.”
As this year gets underway, not only is the DOGE team facing new accusations about the misuse of Social Security data, but the Trump administration revealed in a court filing last week that this might actually have happened. Politico reported:
Two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to ‘overturn election results in certain states,’ [!!!] and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls, the Justice Department revealed in newly disclosed court papers.
Elizabeth Shapiro, a top Justice Department official, said SSA referred both DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from using their official positions for political purposes.
At this point, it’s worth emphasizing that the Trump White House has repeatedly indicated that it simply doesn’t care about the Hatch Act, a federal ethics law intended to limit the political activities of federal workers, and has treated it like the punchline to a joke.
Put another way, even if DOGE members are found to have violated the Hatch Act in this case, it would be up to the Trump administration to punish them, and that seems extraordinarily unlikely. For that matter, even if there were reason to believe the unnamed officials in question crossed other legal lines, it’s hard to believe that the hyperpoliticized Justice Department would take such allegations seriously. Indeed, prosecutors who even took a second look at the matter might risk getting fired, given the degree to which Main Justice has been corrupted.
But for those concerned with the integrity of the Social Security system, the allegations are extraordinary, whether or not these individuals face any accountability. The court filing describes incidents in which members of DOGE shared Social Security data on unapproved third-party servers and might also have retrieved private information they weren’t supposed to be able to access under an existing court order.
An Axios report characterized the court filing as “a stunning admission from the Trump administration, after it battled in court over DOGE’s rights to access and use Social Security data as part of its effort to uncover fraud and waste.”
The White House and SSA officials did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment. Watch this space.
Right-wing billionaire Elon Musk continues to exert his influence over the Republican Party, this time with a $10 million donation to a political action committee backing Senate candidate Nate Morris in Kentucky.
Axios reported Monday that Musk made the donation after meeting with Vice President JD Vance and other senior White House officials in November. The contribution is Musk’s largest ever to a Senate candidate.
So far, nine other Republican candidates have declared their candidacy for the seat, which is being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell.
The donation comes at an awkward time for Musk and Morris. Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, has recently been blocked in several countries after it generated unauthorized sexual images of people—including children. The bot is also under investigation in California.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont slammed the donation, highlighting the transaction as a symptom of the corrupting influence of money over politics.
“Are we really living in a democracy when the richest man on earth can spend as much as he wants to elect his candidates?” Sanders wrote on X. “The most important thing our nation can do is end Citizens United and move to public funding of elections. Billionaires can’t be allowed to buy elections.”
Morris is a friend of Vance’s from when they worked together in the venture capital industry. A self-labeled MAGA extremist, Morris once said that he supports a ban on legal immigration until undocumented people residing in the United States are removed. [!!]
[…] Musk has announced plans to support other Republican candidates this year—a reversal from his very public fight with Trump in 2025. […]
EU leaders have toughened their position and want the European Commission to ready its most powerful trade weapon against the U.S. if Donald Trump doesn’t walk back his Greenland threats.
Germany has joined France in saying it will ask the Commission to explore unleashing the Anti-Coercion Instrument at the emergency EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, according to five diplomats with knowledge of the situation.
[…] What governments request of the Commission will be decided largely by what the U.S. president says in his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. While several European leaders have been trying to arrange meetings with Trump on the Davos sidelines to talk him down from imposing the tariffs, they are also preparing for the possibility that Trump follows through on his threats.
Trump on Saturday announced he would slap a 10 percent tariff on NATO allies that have opposed his move to take Greenland, including France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and Finland. The U.S. leader has since escalated further, threatening a 200 percent tariff on French wine and Champagne. [!]
Aside from the anti-coercion tool, or “trade bazooka,” leaders have also discussed using an earlier retaliation package that would impose tariffs on €93 billion worth of U.S. exports. Two of the EU diplomats indicated that it is possible to impose the tariffs first, while the Commission goes through the more cumbersome process of launching the powerful trade weapon.
“There is a convergence with the Germans, there’s an awakening on their part, that we have to stop being naive,” said a senior French official, referring to using the bazooka against Washington. […]
[…] The trade weapon is one of the EU’s main levers against the U.S. because it includes a wide range of possible measures such as imposing tariffs, restricting exports of strategic goods, or excluding U.S. companies from tenders. A decision to use the instrument would not be taken lightly because it would have a significant impact on the EU economy.
[…] Pulling the trigger on the ACI would require the support of at least 15 countries in the Council of the EU.
Diplomats hope that Trump ally Giorgia Meloni will also get on board. As the EU’s third-biggest country, Italy’s joining the push would be an important display of unity, they said.
[…] For now Rome has indicated it would prefer to continue de-escalatory talks with Washington, while the position of fellow potential ally Poland is still unclear. However, with France and Germany’s positions converging, pressure on Rome and Warsaw to fall into line with the rest of the bloc will be intense.
Key to the evolution of Germany’s position on hitting back at Trump is buy-in for such a move from industry.
Bertram Kawlath, president of the VDMA German machine builders’ association, called for Brussels to consider using the anti-coercion tool, despite the fact that the European mechanical industry is “already disproportionately affected by the U.S. tariffs.”
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first at-home test that can detect three common infections in women—gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis—as well as the first home-based kit for [HPV]. [A Syphilis test was approved in 2024].
The agency ended the year by approving two different drugs for gonorrhea, the first new options for the disease in decades.
[…]
As more people test at home it could become harder to track national infection rates, which previously have been reported by a handful of large testing laboratories. Additionally, the new tests and drugs come with higher price tags that may limit access. For example, Visby’s $150 test is not covered by insurance.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Lynna @50: Eric Columbus: “The funny (?) thing is that Halligan’s temporary gig would expire today even if she had been validly appointed. [Screenshot]”
U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the oil in the South American country. U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta ‘without incident’ and that the tanker was ‘operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.’
A startled British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the plan, which his administration had previously supported.
In recognition of the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inaugural, the White House released a list of “365 wins” from the past year. One of the entries gave the president credit for delivering “a historic stock-market rebound, with the major stock indices all hitting repeated new record highs.”
It was a flawed boast for a variety of reasons. For one thing, while the major indexes improved in 2025, nothing about the results was “historic.” For another, given that the U.S. stock market had a very good year in 2024, characterizing that growth as a “rebound” didn’t make sense, either. (Also left unsaid is the fact that several major economies internationally fared better than the United States on stock market growth. [True])
But perhaps most notable of all was the problem the White House didn’t see coming: the bad timing of the boast. The New York Times reported:
President Trump’s intensifying standoff with European leaders over the fate of Greenland prompted a sharp response from investors Tuesday, with the value of U.S. stocks, the dollar and government bonds all falling.
The S&P 500 dropped over 2 percent for the first time since October, as investors reacted to Mr. Trump’s increasing threat of higher tariffs on European allies unless they supported his plans for America to take control of Greenland.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Vix index — sometimes referred to in financial circles as the “panic index” — jumped, reaching levels unseen in months. [!]
As an NBC News report, assessing the overall losses, noted, “The S&P 500 ended lower by around 2.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite plunged more than 2.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped around 870 points. The S&P 500’s losses Tuesday erased the index’s gains for the year so far. The Nasdaq is now down more than 1% in 2026.”
The same report added that the sell-off “amounted to more than $1 trillion in value wiped out from the S&P 500.” [!]
Happy Anniversary, Mr. President.
If recent history is any guide, the White House will suggest the downturn is unrelated to Trump, his radical Greenland crusade or to the tariffs that risk a trade war with U.S. partners in Europe.
But there’s no great mystery as to what drove Tuesday’s events on Wall Street. “This is ‘sell America’ again within a much broader global risk,” Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central banking strategy at Evercore ISI, wrote in a message to clients.
Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his return to the presidency with a press conference on Tuesday. However, instead of addressing the issues on which his administration is failing, Trump rambled and ranted about a host of other topics. [video]
A considerable amount of Trump’s time was dedicated to justifying the killing of Minnesota mother Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
“They’re going to make mistakes sometimes. ICE is going to be too rough with somebody—you know, they deal with rough people. Are they going to make a mistake? Sometimes it can happen,” Trump said.
Trump inaccurately claimed that Good’s father was “a tremendous Trump fan” and that “I hope he still feels that way.” This appears to actually be a reference to Good’s former father-in-law, whom conservative outlets like Fox News have touted because he said he doesn’t blame ICE for the killing. [video]
Trump also criticized a woman, apparently Good’s wife, Becca Good, who witnessed the killing.
“When [Good] was shot, there was another woman that was screaming ‘shame, shame, shame, shame,’ right? We saw it. So loud. Like a professional opera singer, she was so loud and so professional,” Trump said.
The right has repeatedly pushed the made-up conspiracy theory that people protesting against ICE actions in Minnesota are paid political agitators. [video]
In another section of his rambling speech, Trump held up mugshots of purported criminals who were also allegedly undocumented immigrants, using the photos to justify the brutality of ICE’s actions across the country. [video]
As has often been the case during his time in the public eye, Trump made racist remarks. This time, it was his decision to call the majority-Black nation of Somalia “a backward country” where “they just have people running around, killing each other, and trying to pirate ships.”
Trump and other Republicans have recently attacked the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota for attacks and racist smears, most notably singling out Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar. [video]
In response to criticism of his deployment of armed federal troops to American cities with large minority populations, Trump said, “To me, a town, it looks better when you have military people. These are big, strong guys. The bad guys look at them and say, ‘We’re not gonna mess with them.’”
He argued that crime has fallen in the cities where federal forces were deployed, which is generally false. (Crime rates were already going down under former President Joe Biden.)
“Your lover’s not going to be killed anymore, so he can act like a real lover,” he said. “You can walk right through the middle of the town. And D.C. is beautiful again too.” [video]
Trump also returned to a favorite topic of his—long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. He claimed the race was “rigged” and that “numbers are coming out that show it even more plainly.”
None of this is true. Trump lost to Biden because more people voted for Biden.
The cringeworthy event reinforced why, after a year back in the presidency, Trump faces numerous crises of his own making. Costs are generally up, people live in fear of being harassed and killed by their own government, and the United States has become an international pariah.
Even Trump’s longtime allies at Fox News have begun to admit his unpopularity is a drag on the party. […]
President Donald Trump gave a long—and very ponderous—press conference Tuesday, stepping in for propaganda princess Karoline Leavitt.
At one point in his incoherent rant, Trump launched into a reverie about reviving archaic “mental institutions” with “bars on the windows.” Yes, really.
“I grew up in Queens, we had a place called Creedmoor [Psychiatric Center],” Trump said, “Creedmoor. Did anybody know that? Creedmoor. It was a big … I said, ‘Mom, why are those bars on the building?’ I used to play little league baseball there at a place called Cunningham Park. I was quite the baseball player, you wouldn’t believe. But I said to my mother, ‘Mom,’ she would be there, always there for me. She said, ‘Son, you could be a professional baseball player.’ I said, ‘Thanks, mom.’ I said, ‘Why are those bars on the windows?’” [video]
He went on to blame Democrats for the deinstitutionalization of the 1970s and 1980s, saying it caused many people to become homeless.
But as psychiatric treatments improved, Creedmoor—like most state-run mental health facilities—saw a decline in its number of patients.
The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, signed by former President Jimmy Carter, was designed to serve as a critical safety net for people who couldn’t obtain mental health services. The legislation was promptly defunded and effectively dismantled by former President Ronald Reagan.
But after blaming Democrats for the end of an older, more barbaric era in mental health care, Trump circled back to his childhood memories.
“It wasn’t normal, you know?” he said. “You’re used to looking at, like, a window. But this one you’re looking at all the steel—vicious steel, tiny windows, bars all over the place. Nobody was getting out. It’s called the mental institution. That was an insane asylum.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited “The View” on Tuesday, where he reiterated his staunch opposition to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, saying it is an “entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist.”
“I am in support of abolishing ICE,” Mamdani said. “We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people—no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case.” [video]
Mamdani told the show’s hosts that he has no intention of negotiating the dissolution of our country’s civil rights laws with President Donald Trump amid threats he will unleash his ICE goons on New Yorkers. He emphasized that immigration laws do not support Trump’s invasion of American cities.
“What we are talking about is not people who are convicted of serious crimes. We’re talking about people whose crimes simply seems to be being in New York City,” he said.
The mayor said he’s determined to stand up for his city.
“I am trying to inspire amongst New Yorkers a sense of faith and belief in what government can do,” Mamdani explained. “And it’s very hard to do that when they look at masked agents and see them as another face of a similar government—because then they ask themselves, am I supposed to trust or am I supposed to fear?” [video]
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are violating Minnesotans’ civil rights, including those of off-duty officers, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said in a Tuesday briefing.
“[As] recently as the last two weeks, we as the law enforcement community have been receiving these complaints about civil rights violations, and our streets from U.S. citizens,” Bruley told reports. “What we’re hearing is they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause and being forced to demand paperwork to determine if they are here legally. As this went on over the past two weeks. We started hearing from our police officers. The same complaint as they fell victim to this while off duty.”
He went on to say that each of the individuals targeted is “a person of color.”
“In Brooklyn Park, one particular officer that has shared her story with me was stopped as she passed ICE going down the roadway. When they boxed her in they demanded her paperwork of which she’s a U.S. citizen,” said Bruley, noting that as a U.S. citizen she wouldn’t have any “paperwork.”
“When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she’s been treated, she pulled out her phone and attempted to record the incident. The phone was knocked out of her hands, preventing her from recording it,” the police chief continued. “The officer had their guns drawn during this interaction. And after the officer became so concerned they were forced to identify themselves as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of slowing the incident and de-escalating the incident down.” […]
“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop. This behavior erodes the trust that these police chiefs, who worked tirelessly for the last 5 years, and theoretically in the last 60 years, to stop this exact behavior from happening,” he added.
JMsays
@61 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain: The timing is surely not an accident. Part of the whole point of this argument is that Pam Bondi can’t just keep appointing people as temporary interim US Attorneys over and over as a way around getting Senate approval.
JMsays
@63 Lynna, OM: The US seizing these ships is violating international standards and possibly illegal but on the plus side it is cutting off one of the ways Russia was escaping from sanctions. Russia was shipping oil to Venezuela and then passing it off as oil from Venezuela, letting them sell it to a wider audience at higher prices.
birgerjohanssonsays
German spoof article: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student – they don’t want to get blamed again”.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
ICE is Kavanaugh stopping and drawing guns on Minnesota cops now.
the last 2 weeks, we […] have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations […] from US citizens. […] they’re being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause to demand paperwork to determine if they are here legally. […] we started hearing from our police officers, the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off-duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them.
[Agents] boxed [one officer] in, they demanded her paperwork, of which she’s a US citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork. […] she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident. The phone was knocked out of her hands […] the [agents] had their guns drawn during this interaction. […] [she was] forced to identify [as a] police officer in hopes of deescalating […] the agents then immediately left after hearing this, making no other comments, no other apologies
[…]
many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers.
[…]
When you call ICE leadership or you call Border Patrol leadership […] they’re unable to tell you what their people were doing that day. […] They like to give you a website to go file a complaint, but the complaint requires the identity of the agents. The agents don’t have nametags on. They cover their face. They don’t have body cameras.
[…]
I have contacts through 30 years of law enforcement […] in ICE, HSI, and others. […] I just fundamentally don’t believe that it’s coming from the top. I don’t think that the leaders in Washington, DC fully understand what some of the groups are doing here on the street […] what actual evidence do I have? None, other than agents that I’ve talked to and leadership in certain groups of teams have made it clear this is unacceptable behavior […] I fundamentally believe that this is a small group […] What is a ‘small group’? I absolutely have no idea […] who it is or how many, but I know it is a small portion of the whole.
That excusing is delusional. The admin is flamboyantly white supremacist, reveling in reckless force without regard for law. Also the specific orders for ICE occupations have been documented.
in late May, Stephen Miller […] the architect of the president’s immigration agenda, addressed a meeting at [ICE HQ]. The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn’t pleased. The agency had better step it up. […] Agents didn’t need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores.
But if one were to single out a small group of the worst…
In Greg Bovino’s deposition for the Chicago Book Club lawsuit, plaintiffs counsel Locke Bowman asked whether Kristi Noem gave him direction on the use of force. She does not.
But when Bowman asked Bovino if he had spoken to Stephen Miller about use of force, the DOJ lawyer […] instructed him not to answer [invoking executive privilege].
Bowman also noted that in a TV appearance, Bovino said he took his instructions from the Executive Branch, whether Trump or Kristi Noem. The implication is fairly clear: That Stephen Miller is the one instructing him on use of force.
it is very important for people to maintain distinction bt ICE & CBP. That’s bc CBP’s Greg Bovino takes orders directly from the White House. Jonathan Ross is ICE but Bovino was present. Bovino [is] involved in MANY of worst incidents.
While we’re definitely seeing some of the new ICE goons in MN, Ross and Charles Exum (who shot Marimar Martinez in circumstances not dissimilar from the killing of Good) are both highly trained, and they are doing what Stephen Miller wants them to do.
Under the law, ICE is required to provide necessary medical care for this population. While ICE employs some of its own medical staff, it often uses third-party providers. ICE’s Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, for example, houses over 500 detainees and has no doctor or dentist on staff.
ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025. Last week, ICE posted a notice on an obscure government website announcing it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30. Until then, medical providers are instructed “to hold all claims submissions.” ICE’s failure to pay its bills for months has caused some medical providers to deny services to ICE detainees […] In other cases, detainees have allegedly been denied essential medical care by ICE.
[…]
Beginning in 2002, […] When a detainee needed medication or treatment that the ICE facility could not directly provide, the VA Financial Services Center processed reimbursement claims from pharmacies and third-party medical providers. ICE paid the VA for this service—no resources were diverted from veterans.
Beginning in 2023, however, […] Republican officials and right-wing media outlets. […] claimed Biden was “robbing veterans to pay off illegals.”
After Trump’s election, criticism […] quieted down until, on September 30, 2025, […] a small right-wing nonprofit, filed a lawsuit […] to compel the Trump administration to respond to a public records request for documents regarding the VA’s role
[…]
the VA “abruptly and instantly terminated” its agreement with ICE on October 3. That cancellation […] left ICE with “no mechanism to provide prescribed medication” and unable to “pay for medically necessary off-site care.” Among the services ICE said it could not provide were “dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, [and] chemotherapy.” […] The situation was described by ICE as an “absolute emergency” that needed to be resolved “immediately”
[…]
More than three months later […] Acentra, one of the companies that won the ICE contract to replace the VA, says it will not be ready to process claims until at least April 30. […] the situation with ICE detainees has grown so dire that the VA is now working to potentially bring its claims processing back online temporarily
[…]
data shows that, in 2024, the VA processed $246.4 million in medical claims […] In 2025, despite an 83 percent increase in the daily detained population, the VA processed just $157.2 million in claims. […] the data suggests a nearly $300 million gap between needed care from third-party providers and what ICE paid. This gap is a combination of unpaid bills since October 3 and ICE detainees who are simply being denied necessary medical treatment.
birgerjohanssonsays
KING GORGE.
Jimmy Kimmel: “Trump on Verge of War Over Nobel Peace Prize Snub & He Celebrates His First Year In Office.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=22TJbqBCQA0
They will terrorise you
And call you a terrorist
They will threaten you
And call you a threat.
There is blood in the snow
Where her life drained out
Is America great again yet?
.- Sarah Daly.
Typed out off desktop screen, any typios mine.
Silentbobsays
@ 82 StevoR
Is this a black tie affair?
birgerjohanssonsays
“Trump Attacks World Then Forgets How To Speak … Leaders Go Silent!”
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
‘F*** off’: World HITS BACK as Trump’s aggression shocks global leaders. “These allies are becoming aware that the most powerful person in the world is a danger and threat to it and making the world order unstable,” says Chris Hayes.
Video is 9:47 minutes
birgerjohanssonsays
Martin Shaw turns 81 today. He has played many roles from The Professionals, and the successor of Roy Marsden in the role of inspector Dalgleish. Wikipedia:
For all of Donald Trump’s misguided boasts about his economic expertise, the president can’t seem to overcome his own economic illiteracy, frequently referencing phrases and concepts that he doesn’t seem to understand at a basic level.
In a recent News Nation interview, for example, the Republican said the United States’ wealth reached its apex in 1887, which didn’t make any sense at all. Hours earlier, he had boasted about lowering the cost of prescription drugs by 600%, which still isn’t how numbers work.
On the U.S. job market — an especially difficult subject for Trump given the severity of his failures — the president bragged that fired federal workers now like him “a lot” because they’ve all received high-paying jobs in the private sector, which might make sense were it not for the struggling private-sector job market that has emerged since the Republican returned to the White House.
But during his lengthy press conference on the anniversary of his second inaugural, one assertion stood out as especially ridiculous. [video]
“Fourth quarter GDP is on track to pass perhaps much more than 5% growth,” Trump said, referring to the nation’s gross domestic product. He added, “Nobody in this room has ever heard about 5%. I think it could be 20% if we do it right.”
So, a few things.
First, the idea that 5% quarterly GDP growth is unheard of is plainly wrong. In fact, the U.S. saw quarterly GDP growth of 7% twice in the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, which wasn’t really that long ago.
Second, most sensible officials recognize the importance of underpromising and overdelivering, especially after having already failed to deliver on earlier GDP promises. And yet, Trump keeps raising the bar, creating a dynamic in which even strong growth will likely disappoint the president’s unrealistic expectations.
But even if we put that aside, I’m stuck on the president’s claim that U.S. economic growth “could be 20%.”
As a matter of historical record, never in recorded history has the U.S. ever seen 20% growth. In 1942, when domestic production roared at the start of World War II, GDP growth reached nearly 19% — and we haven’t reached double digits since, even during economic booms.
We wouldn’t even want to see growth that robust, since it would invariably lead to breathtaking levels of inflation. [True]
As Trump really ought to understand, the numbers he casually threw around are not going to happen — and should not happen.
Whining about his weak public support on the economy, the president added at his press conference, “Maybe I have bad public relations people.” Or maybe he has bad policies that are a direct result of his profound ignorance?
[…] The president published a post to his social media platform on Tuesday:
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE must start talking about the murderers and other criminals that they are capturing and taking out of the system. They are saving many innocent lives! … Show the Numbers, Names, and Faces of the violent criminals, and show them NOW. The people will start supporting the Patriots of ICE, instead of the highly paid troublemakers, anarchists, and agitators!
The obvious problem with messages like this is that Trump is peddling assertions that are entirely fictional. The people protesting ICE tactics in Minnesota, for example, are not “highly paid troublemakers.” For that matter, the proposition that ICE agents are only capturing “violent criminals” is belied by the statistics that show most of its targets do not have criminal records.
But the less obvious problem is the one that the president doesn’t appear to understand on a conceptual level. To hear Trump tell it, when the Department of Homeland Security and ICE “start talking” about their work, the American public will learn what agents have been up to and be duly impressed.
In reality, the American public already knows what ICE agents have been up to. That’s the problem.
To conclude that the agency is struggling with a public relations crisis is to overlook the inconvenient fact that DHS and ICE are guided by the wrong policies, not the wrong talking points. [!]
At issue are masked, heavily armed federal agents acting with impunity, terrorizing communities, harassing and detaining citizens and noncitizens alike, while racially profiling its victims.
DHS leaders such as Kristi Noem and Tricia McLaughlin have invested all kinds of time and effort doing exactly what the president has recommended, taking their case to the American people, but this hasn’t worked: The American mainstream is rightly repulsed by what it’s seen and learned about ICE tactics.
In a New York Times opinion piece, writer Radley Balko concluded, “We can still stop these abuses of power, but we need to be clear about what we’re facing. This is no longer a conversation about law enforcement or immigration policy. This is about authoritarianism.”
The sooner the president comes to terms with the failures of his administration’s policies and stops pitching a new PR strategy, the safer the public will be.
[…] other world leaders at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland […]
The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Trump is showing up for an annual gathering of the global elite here in the Swiss Alps, swinging a wrecking ball at the international order. […]
The reactions from many U.S. allies and partners, some of them aired in public, many of them still only expressed in private, are stark: Trump’s America seems to have lost its mind.
The most dramatic example of such perceptions came during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s prepared remarks at the gathering, in which he declared, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” Without explicitly referencing Trump, Carney went on to describe “the breaking of the world order,” a “brutal reality” in which leading world powers no longer feel “subject to any constraint” as they “abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interest.”
Carney was not alone. French President Emmanuel Macron similarly made clear that his country would not capitulate to Trump’s bullying. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said that he and his allies tried to “appease” the White House, but that those efforts have run their course.
“We were in a very bad position at the moment, we were dependent on the United States, so we chose to be lenient, but now so many red lines are being crossed that you have the choice between your self-respect,” he continued. “Being a happy vassel is one thing, being a miserable slave is something else. If you back down now, you’re going to lose your dignity, and that’s probably the most precious thing you can have in a democracy is your dignity.”
Around the same time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk published an item to social media in which he declared, “Appeasement is always a sign of weakness. Europe cannot afford to be weak — neither against its enemies, nor ally. Appeasement means no results, only humiliation.”
International skepticism of Trump and his agenda is not altogether new, but as the American president’s radicalism becomes more dangerous and destabilizing, the reactions of some of the United States’ closest allies of longest standing is qualitatively different from anything we’ve yet seen in the modern era.
The emerging picture is one in which leading nations — treaty allies, neighbors, trading partners and friends — see a Trump-led U.S. as an erratic menace, a once-great hegemonic power descending into madness and risking global stability.
In their wildest dreams, America’s foreign adversaries couldn’t have written a better script.
Before the audience in Davos, President Donald Trump repeated a claim on Wednesday that he’s said before — that the Russian war on Ukraine “wouldn’t have started” if the 2020 U.S. presidential election “weren’t rigged.” [What the fuck?!] [video at the link]
One thing is for certain: The 2020 election was not stolen. Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been broadly refuted.
Trump, who has long been calling for prosecutions related to the 2020 election, added that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did. [bluster and lies]” […]
“Pentagon orders more active-duty soldiers to ready for possible Minneapolis deployment.”
“The department has issued a ready to deploy order for a Army military police brigade stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”
The Pentagon has ordered active-duty military police soldiers based in North Carolina to prepare for possible deployment to Minneapolis, three people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
A prepare-to-deploy order was issued yesterday for members of an Army military police brigade stationed at Fort Bragg, two of the people told MS NOW. At least a few hundred soldiers are being prepared for the possible mobilization to Minneapolis, two of the people said. All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deployments.
[…] The possible infusion of military police is in addition to the Pentagon orders last Friday that two battalions with the Army’s 11th Airborne Division prepare to deploy. The 11th Airborne is stationed in Alaska and specializes in winter weather conditions. Each infantry battalion has at least 500 soldiers.
The potential deployment would come as thousands of immigration agents continue to clash with Minnesota residents and protesters in Minneapolis after the killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. A military police brigade would have some law enforcement training and typically have experience in providing security, securing routes and performing crowd control.
When Trump deployed about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles last summer, they primarily stood guard around federal buildings, including a detention center.
If these personnel are deployed in the interior of the United States, they cannot engage in civilian law enforcement unless Trump follows through on his escalating threats to invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act. The law allows the president to deploy active-duty troops in response to a “rebellion.”
Trump’s racist BS about Somali immigrants, as presented in Davos:
During a bizarre speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald Trump revisited his own appallingly racist claims—both insisting that the country of Somalia “stinks” and is populated by “low-IQ people,” and peddling his administration’s assertion that Somali immigrants in Minnesota have masterminded a welfare fraud scheme.
“Somalia—they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought,” Trump rambled to the Davos audience, undercutting his own racist claims while also remaining plenty racist. “I always say these are low-IQ people. How do they go into Minnesota and steal all that money? And we have, you know, they’re pirates—they’re good pirates, right?” [video]
Having already doubled down on being a racist dirtbag, Trump proceeded to triple down on it, defending his authoritarian attack on Minnesota and smearing Somalia, the concept of immigration, and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he dismissed as a “fake congressperson.”
“Ilhan Omar, talking about ‘The Constitution that provides me …’ She comes from a country that’s not a country, and she’s telling us how to run America,” Trump blathered. “Not going to get away with it much longer, let me tell you.” [JFC] [video]
The translators at Davos should be getting double-time pay.
Mainstream media outlets on Wednesday once again reported on a strange, rambling speech by President Donald Trump as if it were a normal presentation, continuing the tradition of “sanewashing” his rhetoric and misinforming their audiences.
Trump’s presentation before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had him referring to Greenland mistakenly as Iceland as part of his near-constant fuming about the need for the United States to take over sovereign territory. [video]
But soon after the speech was over, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer characterized Trump’s rant “very strong,” betraying the haphazard and unfocused remarks that had just aired on the news network.
The New York Times reported on the speech in a piece headlined “Trump Threatens Europe Over Greenland but Rules Out Sending Troops.” That was based on Trump’s statement, “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”
But this ignores Trump’s considerable history during his time as a tabloid media figure, a reality TV host, and as a politician during which he has lied with abandon. Trump’s claim that he would not use force against Greenland should rationally be put in context of his past claim that President Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen (a lie) or that climate change was a “hoax” from China (a massive lie). [video]
During his Davos speech, Trump also claimed that in Greenland, which he referred to as Iceland, they “love me, they call me daddy.” But just this past weekend, a large protest against Trump was held in Greenland, not to mention remarks from Danish leadership.
The strange “daddy” comment—conservatives are obsessed with this cringe-inducing rhetoric—was not noted in the Times report. It was also scrubbed from the Washington Post and Associated Press write-ups.
As they did in his first term, the mainstream media is reporting on a version of Trump that does not exist. They paint Trump as a far more sober and sane person than the man the entire world, including millions of Americans, can see right before their very eyes.
His actions and remarks create global instability and lead to loss of life. But for the mainstream press, sanitizing Trump takes precedent over reporting the truth.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #94…
In one sense, its possible that, had That Felon in the White House, been elected in 2020, the Russian war on Ukraine might not have happened. It would have been because Trump simply forced everyone to hand Ukraine to Putin.
[…] Trump’s largely incoherent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is unlikely to quell the growing questions about his mental fitness after he flubbed the name of the arctic territory he wants to conquer.
On multiple occasions, Trump incorrectly referred to Greenland as Iceland, a nearby country.
First, Trump blamed Tuesday’s stock market slide on “Iceland,” saying, “They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money.” [video]
Of course, the stock market dipped because investors were rightly concerned about Trump’s rage-fueled tariff threat against our NATO allies, who rightly stood with Denmark and against Trump’s threats to take the country by force.
Then Trump talked about how our NATO allies were happy with him until he started talking about taking Greenland by force—which yeah, no shit.
“Until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy,” Trump said, once again flubbing the name of Greenland and using a word we hope to never hear come from his spittle-flecked mouth ever again. [video]
The fact that Trump is confusing the name of the territory he has been bizarrely consumed with conquering gives fuel to Democrats’ argument that Trump’s Cabinet officials need to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to determine that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and thus remove him from the role.
“The president of the United States is extremely mentally ill and it’s putting all of our lives at risk,” Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona wrote in a post on X after Trump embarrassingly told the Norwegian prime minister that his demands to conquer Greenland were the result of him not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. “The 25th Amendment exists for a reason—we need to invoke it immediately.”
“Donald Trump is unfit to lead and clearly out of control. Invoke the 25th Amendment,” Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California wrote in a post on X.
Trump, for his part, has been defiant that there are no problems with his health or cognitive abilities, even though we all see with our own eyes that he can’t stay awake at events, has bruising on his hands, and speaks like an incoherent fool.
The fact that he keeps confusing the territory he wants to take over—though apparently not by military force, he said on Wednesday—will do nothing to assuage those concerns.
“Donald Trump is overseas embarrassing America on the world stage. Again,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a post on X.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was denied entry to the USA House in Davos, Switzerland, where he was invited to speak during the World Economic Forum.
“Under pressure from the White House and State Department, USA House (a church acting as the official US pavilion) is now denying entry to @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom to speak with media after Fortune — the official media partner — invited him to speak,” his press office wrote in a statement on the social platform X. […]
“RFK Jr. Must Be So Proud: South Carolina Racks Up 646 Measles Cases In Latest Outbreak”
“Clearly this is all going according to plan.”
On Tuesday, USA Today published a new mini-documentary in its Extremely Normal series — which examines how groups and ideas previously considered “extreme” have found their way into the mainstream — about “crunchy MAHA moms” who love natural foods and hate vaccines. To absolutely no one’s surprise, these “crunchy MAHA moms” spent a lot of time talking about how they just wanted more research to “prove” vaccines are safe, only to admit at the end that even if they had all the proof in the world, they still wouldn’t get their kids vaccinated, because they “haven’t dealt with any of the diseases” their kids were not vaccinated against.
Probably because, you know, other people did get their kids vaccinated.
Well, a whole lot of people are now dealing with a pretty serious outbreak of one of those diseases in South Carolina right now. Six-hundred forty-six people, to be exact(ish), have been diagnosed with measles, with 88 new cases confirmed on Tuesday. And it’s not just children. Eighty-four students at Clemson and Anderson Universities are currently being quarantined with the vaccine-preventable virus — a pretty serious situation given that, the older you are, the more deadly the disease can be.
Tuesday also happened to be the one-year anniversary of the first reported case of measles last January. If it turns out these cases are linked, that would mean the US has had a straight year of continuous measles infections. What does that mean? Well, it means that, for the first time since the year 2000, measles will no longer be considered eradicated in the United States.
[…] You know, the kinds of people who say things like “Well, if the vaccine actually works, then it shouldn’t matter to you if I vaccinate my kids or not!” despite the fact that they have been told over and over again that herd immunity is necessary to protect those too young or immunocompromised to get the vaccine, as well as the three percent of people the vaccine doesn’t work as well for. And the fact that it is, again, very clear that their decision not to vaccinate their kids has led to the virus making a comeback.
We’re also likely to see some surges of other diseases as well, pretty soon. Cases of meningitis were already on the rise, due to post-COVID anti-vaccine hysteria. Thanks to RFK Jr.’s recent decision to take that vaccine off the recommended schedule, we can expect to see even more. […]
In the documentary I mentioned earlier, RFK Jr. falsely claimed that “we know” vaccines can cause chronic disease and that the manufacturers admit on their inserts that they cause things like ADHD and diabetes, for which there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever. [!]
Well, we know that they can cause chronic disease because first of all, we have lots of data on that [we absolutely do not] [!!]. Many many studies [NOPE] […]
As someone with ADHD, allow me to be very clear when I say that A) it’s not a “chronic disease,” you absolute tool, and B) Even if that were the case, I would happily take being alive with a neurological difference than being dead without one. […]
Here is the list of adverse reactions that are actually listed by the manufacturer, none of which includes a single thing RFK Jr. mentioned.
The following adverse reactions have been identified during both the subcutaneous and intramuscular use of M-M-R®II or its components in clinical trials or reported during post-approval use: fever, rash, and injection-site reactions.
The following adverse reactions have been identified during the subcutaneous use of M-M-R®II or its components in clinical trials or reported during post-approval use: headache, dizziness, febrile convulsions, anaphylaxis and anaphylactoid reactions, arthritis, thrombocytopenia, encephalitis and encephalopathy.
This is not to say that these potential side-effects can’t be serious, but they’re also very rare [!]. Studies suggest that in 2024, only 77 percent of two-year-olds in the United States were up to date on their MMR vaccines, significantly below the 95 percent necessary to keep outbreaks from occurring. Even so, that’s still about 2.8 million babies, and there has not been a single death recorded in even one individual healthy enough to have received the vaccine. Last year, there were three measles deaths out of those 2,242 cases. Not a lot, but still a whole lot more than zero out of 2.8 million. [Good points]
So far, there haven’t been any deaths in South Carolina, and we certainly hope that continues to be the case. But if it doesn’t, it sure will be too bad, because it didn’t have to be this way.
This is all very dangerous, thank you, the president being an actually insane person! (Paul Waldman) We can all see he’s lost his goddamn mind, and those of us with parents with Alzheimer’s can see it be best. (Paul Krugman)
What comes after the American Age is maybe not that fun actually (and is A LOT of war)! (The Bulwark)
Excerpt from Paul Waldman’s post:
It’s time to say it: The president of the United States has lost his mind.
That is not hyperbole. I (and many others) have often referred to things Donald Trump has done or said as insane, deranged, mad, or unhinged. He has always been ignorant and petty and vindictive and cruel and bigoted. But this is different. Something has broken in his brain.
Is it dementia? Is it an adverse reaction to the medications he is taking? I have no idea. I am not a psychologist, and I am not offering any specific medical diagnosis. But I’ll say it again: The president of the United States has lost his mind. This is not just a national emergency, it is a global emergency.
Nothing is assured, but over the last few days it has become a real possibility that Trump will literally take the United States to war against our European allies. It would be bonkers for almost any reason, let alone the impossibly stupid reason for which he is doing it. He wants to seize Greenland against the will of not only the people who live there but the American people as well — because he’s obsessing about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, and because it looks really big on the misleading map he saw, and because he wants to destroy NATO, and because he is desperate to show how big and powerful he is.
We can debate just how much importance each of those factors plays in the discordant cacophony clanging about his fevered mind. But this crisis is escalating, because one of one disturbed man’s increasing disconnection from reality.
This is getting out of hand […]
Excerpt from Paul Krugman’s post:
I had never heard the term “sundowning” before it happened to my own father, yet it’s a fairly common syndrome. In his last few months my father remained lucid and rational — remained himself — during daylight hours. Once the sun went down he deteriorated, becoming confused, paranoid and aggressive.
It’s terrible to watch sundowning in someone you love. But that’s a personal tragedy – not a national or global one. It’s an entirely different matter when the president of the United States is sundowning — a president surrounded by malign sycophants who tell him whatever he wants to hear and indulge his every whim, no matter how destructive.
For good reasons, it’s normally bad practice to pronounce on someone’s mental health from afar. […] But after reading the letter that Trump just sent to the prime minister of Norway (Jonas Gahr Støre has confirmed that it’s genuine) there should be no doubt that we have a president who is suffering a real detachment from reality: […]
Excerpt from Arc Digital:
[…] As Norway has repeatedly explained, the government does not decide who gets the prize. And Norway has no say in who controls Greenland.
for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS
Total bullshit, and not worth our time to debunk each lie. The “eight” includes Congo-Rwanda, where fighting continues, India-Pakistan, who say they reached their current status themselves, and Iran, which Trump bombed to little effect. The weird “PLUS” at the end is probably leveling up the lie, similar to how the number of wars he falsely claimed to have stopped was seven at first, then grew to eight.
I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but now can think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
So absurd it’d be laughable if it weren’t deadly serious. In the first year of his second term, Trump ordered the U.S. military to launch attacks in Venezuela, Nigeria, Yemen, the Caribbean, eastern Pacific, Somalia, Syria, and Iran. His illegal tariffs have undermined the global trading order that has helped keep the world relatively stable—a lesson from the 20th century, since the collapse of trade in the Great Depression contributed to World War II—and his threats to U.S. treaty allies have weakened the United States.
Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China
Of course Denmark would have trouble protecting its land on its own if a larger country attacked. But it doesn’t need to. Denmark and its security partners in NATO, the most powerful alliance in history, protect Greenland together, along with the rest of the North Atlantic. Besides, Russia and especially China are not threatening Greenland. America is.
Everyone can see Trump doesn’t care about protecting land from Russia. Ukraine is under Russian attack, but rather than working to counter Russia’s aggression, Trump has been trying to get Ukraine to surrender.
The main beneficiaries of Trump undermining the Western alliance, America’s trade relationships, and the U.S.-led world order are China and Russia. Taking advantage of America’s new hostility, China recently cut a deal with Europe to allow more sales of Chinese electric vehicles, and another deal with Canada, a broader agreement that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed as “a new strategic partnership.”
Russia’s aggression under Vladimir Putin means few countries are interested in a deal with Russia, but Putin has long dreamed of ending NATO, and probably can’t believe his luck. On Russian state TV, commentators celebrated Trump’s Greenland threats for “delivering a catastrophic blow to NATO” that is “truly tremendous for Russia.”
and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.
There are written documents, namely the Greenland Home Rule Arrangement of 1979 and the Self-Government Act of 2009, reflecting the will of the people of Denmark and Greenland. But yes, the reason it’s Denmark and not Sweden, Portugal, the U.K., or another country traces back to who landed boats centuries ago.
Many will note the hypocrisy of a white American president saying that boats landing hundreds of years ago is not a basis for current ownership. But Trump’s stance is consistent with a worldview that rejects sovereignty, rights, law, and related concepts, where there’s no such thing as legitimate claims to land, and ownership is exclusively a question of force. […]
President Trump says he decided to levy a 39% tariff on Swiss exports because Helene Budliger Artieda, director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, “just rubbed me the wrong way.”
Commentary
Well that’s certainly a national emergency.
As we all should know by now, he has very specific requirements for how women are supposed to rub him.
According to the NYT it was the President of Switzerland who rubbed him the wrong way.
David is correctly identifying the official here, but Trump himself had no clue what her name was or what her position was, saying she was “I guess the prime minister”. Believe it or not, but we used to expect presidents to know these things.
“She just rubbed me the wrong way”—Trump is now rambling about the Swiss head of state, whose name and title he does not know. [Video clip]
In the space of two minutes he confused Greenland and Iceland four times by my count. Folks might not believe this now, but it was considered a quasi scandal when Governor George W. Bush could not name world leaders when he was still a candidate. Trump can’t keep straight the country he is threatening to steal.
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.
He has poured his energy […] into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.
A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.
The Trumps have made at least $23 million from licensing Mr. Trump’s name overseas since his re-election.
A hotel in Oman. An office tower in western India. A golf course on the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These are a few of the more than 20 overseas projects the Trump Organization is pursuing, often requiring cooperation with foreign governments. These deals have made millions for the Trumps, according to Reuters. And the administration has sometimes treated those same governments favorably. One example: The administration agreed to lower its threatened tariffs on Vietnam about a month after a Trump Organization project broke ground on a $1.5 billion golf complex outside of Hanoi. Vietnamese officials ignored their own laws to fast-track the project.
The Trumps are pocketing $28 million from Amazon for a documentary about Melania Trump.
Amazon paid far more for the rights to “Melania” than the next highest bidder — and far more than the company has previously paid for similar projects, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chairman and one of the world’s richest people, has many reasons to curry favor with the administration, including antitrust regulation, Amazon’s defense contracts and his space company’s federal contracts.
Major tech and media companies have paid Mr. Trump $90.5 million in settlements since his re-election.
The settlements have come from X, ABC News, Meta, YouTube and Paramount. None of them were justified on the merits. Paramount, for example, agreed to pay the president $16 million for what he claimed was the deceptive editing of a 2024 Kamala Harris interview. The editing was a normal part of journalism. Three weeks later, the Federal Communications Commission approved an $8 billion merger with Skydance.
[…] The Trumps have made at least $867 million through various cryptocurrencies.
Mr. Trump’s sale of crypto has been by far his biggest moneymaker, according to Reuters. People who hope to influence federal policy, including foreigners, can buy his family’s coins, effectively transferring money to the Trumps, and the deals are often secret. One that has become public: A United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm announced plans last year to deposit $2 billion into a Trump firm — two weeks before the president gave the country access to advanced chips.
All told, Mr. Trump has profited from his return to the presidency by an amount of money equal to 16,822 times the median U.S. household income.
[…] This tally focuses on Mr. Trump’s documented gains. The $1.4 billion figure is a minimum, not a full accounting. It is probable that Mr. Trump has collected several hundred million dollars in additional profits from his cryptocurrency ventures over the past year. The Trumps have acknowledged as much. When The Financial Times asked Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, about its estimated value of the family’s crypto gains, he said they were probably even larger than the news organization thought.
Our accounting also does not include other ways in which the president has encouraged influence seekers to make donations that benefit him politically, including to his planned White House renovation. During the government shutdown, Mr. Trump even used a private gift to finance his policy priorities. Other presidents did not behave this way. […]
“From segregated Virginia to global impact, her mathematics quietly changed how the world finds its way.”
Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away Saturday, surrounded by her loving family. She was 95.
Her story began far from satellites and supercomputers. Born into poverty on a Virginia farm during the Jim Crow era, West grew up in a segregated South where opportunity was scarce. Through determination and extraordinary academic talent, she graduated first in her high school class and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College (now Virginia State University). She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1952 and went on to earn a master’s degree in 1955.
In 1956, West began working as a mathematician at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. She was only the second African American woman hired at the base and one of just four African American employees at the time. What followed was a career that would quietly change the world.
At Dahlgren, West devoted herself to solving one of science’s most complex challenges: accurately modeling the shape of the Earth. Her painstaking calculations and programming helped transform raw satellite data into precise geodetic models, enabling reliable satellite-based navigation. That work ultimately became the backbone of the Global Positioning System (GPS) — now essential to aviation, shipping, emergency response, smartphones, and daily life worldwide.
Though her work reshaped modern navigation, West remained largely unknown for decades. Friends and colleagues have often noted that GPS’s remarkable accuracy rests on years of meticulous mathematical labor done behind the scenes by scientists like West, who pursued the work not for recognition, but because it mattered. […]
“He said he had agreed on “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” and the Arctic with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.”
Related video at the link.
[…] Trump on Wednesday said that he would not impose tariffs on eight European countries that were set to go into effect Feb. 1 unless those nations allowed the United States to take control of Greenland.
On Saturday, Trump said he would hit Denmark, the United Kingdom and other countries involved in NATO exercises with a 10% tariff starting next month.
“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st,” he added.
Trump had said that if those countries did not comply with his demands by June, the tariff would rise to 25%.
Trump’s comments over the weekend roiled global markets.
Stocks soared to the highs of the day on his announcement that the tariffs were off.
Further details of the deal Trump described on social media were not immediately available from the White House. But in an interview with CNBC, Trump said the deal was “pretty much the concept of a deal,” and that it would last “forever.”
Hours before Trump’s announcement, the European Union’s parliament halted final approval of a critical trade deal that Trump reached with the bloc last summer.
E.U. leaders were also scheduled to hold an emergency summit Thursday to coordinate a response to Trump’s threats.
On Wednesday morning, Trump told an audience of leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he still wanted the U.S. to control Greenland, but that he would not use force to seize the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Instead, he said, he wanted “immediate negotiations” with Denmark.
“We will not enter into any negotiations on the basis of giving up fundamental principles,” Denmark’s foreign minister told reporters in Copenhagen.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said “additional discussions” related to Greenland would be led by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy for peace, Steve Witkoff.
Those officials are also simultaneously leading discussions with Ukraine and Russia, as well as managing a host of other pressing foreign policy issues.
Rubio is currently serving as the interim national security adviser and the acting national archivist, in addition to leading the State Department.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
“The discussions have taken on new urgency as President Trump escalates his criticism of Europe. Germany and Poland already have suggested France’s nuclear weapons could be expanded to defend their countries.”
Questioning America’s decades-long commitment to guard them against a nuclear-armed Russia, European nations are looking at ways to bolster their own arsenals rather than continue to rely on the U.S., according to six senior European officials.
European leaders are discussing whether to rely more on nuclear-armed France and Britain instead of the U.S. or even develop their own atomic weapons, three of the senior European officials said. […]
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is the only member of the European Union with the bomb, is expected to deliver a major speech on France’s nuclear policy in the coming weeks, the officials said.
[…] The discussions also signal shifting security dynamics in the West that could upend decades of global efforts to reduce, not enhance, nuclear proliferation.
[…] European nations are exploring a range of options, three of the European officials said. They said those include improving France’s nuclear weaponry, redeploying French nuclear-capable bombers outside of France, and beefing up French and other European conventional forces on NATO’s eastern flank.
Another option under discussion is to equip European countries that do not have nuclear weapons programs with the technical abilities to acquire them, these European officials said.
Having the technical ability to potentially build a nuclear weapon would not violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but actually taking concrete steps, such as making highly enriched uranium, would.
[…] The U.S. has approximately 3,700 nuclear warheads. France has about 290, which are capable of being launched from submarines and aircraft, and the United Kingdom has an estimated 225 warheads for its submarine fleet.
[…] Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said in an interview with NBC News that the nuclear deterrence issue is one that can be resolved within the NATO alliance.
“We are, for the time being, very reliant on the United States. And I would say it is also in the U.S. interest to have that umbrella in place and also to engage strongly within NATO,” Valtonen said. […]
Concerns in Europe about countering Russia’s nuclear arsenal also come against the backdrop of a collapse in arms control agreements between the U.S. and Russia.
[…] Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in March that his country “is talking seriously” with French officials about coming under the protection of France’s nuclear weapons. And even before he took office, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last year he was open to the idea of France providing a nuclear umbrella for Germany, a proposal that previous German governments rejected.
[…] Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said in an interview with NBC News that the Netherlands is “not completely closed off” to the idea of France providing nuclear deterrence for European countries.
Other European governments, including Germany, have expressed broad interest in having France play a larger role, but they also have not outlined a definitive position.
[…] Unlike France, Britain is heavily dependent on the U.S. military for nuclear missiles and other support for its arsenal.
Macron’s expected speech on France’s nuclear policy, which could come as soon as February, could clarify what Paris is prepared to do.
[…] Trump‘s renewed demands for Denmark to hand over Greenland have received an icy response from locals on the remote Arctic island […]
There was a chill in the air in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, thousands of miles away from the summit in the Swiss city of Davos, where Trump used a major speech before world leaders Wednesday to up the pressure on Denmark and Europe to hand over what he called a “piece of ice,” though he appeared to rule out using military force to do so.
“It’s crazy. Totally crazy,” Peter Jensen, an office supply store’s owner in Nuuk, said Tuesday, before Trump’s speech. “But many are scared.”
Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Greenland’s parliament, was incensed by Trump’s remarks. “We’re not just a block of ice,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “We are human beings. We have elderly people here who are so afraid right now. We have children that are afraid of the United States.”
She said that some Greenlanders had been so panicked by Trump that were gathering emergency supplies, with hunters “taking out their rifles” and getting them ready to defend against any would-be invaders.
No matter what happens, people who had seen the United States as a friend will now think of it as a possible invader that “can never be trusted again,” she said.
[…] Fears for the future have grown in Greenland in recent days, as Trump has intensified his effort to take control of the vast territory, where around 90% of the population of roughly 57,000 inhabitants are Inuit.
In lengthy remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Trump said he did not plan to “use force” to take Greenland. Referring to NATO spending, he said that the U.S. “probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable, but I won’t do that.”
[Weird. That sounds like a threat nesting inside a statement denying the threat.]
[…] But Trump repeated his claims that acquiring Greenland is vital to “national security,” citing fears of a potential future conflict with Russia or China, though the U.S. military presence there has shrunk drastically since the Cold War, when it was home to critical missile early-warning systems.
In his speech, Trump said controlling the island, which he appeared to erroneously refer to as “Iceland” multiple times, was important “psychologically,” adding: “Who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease, which is a large piece of ice in the middle of the ocean?”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said it was “positive” that Trump appeared to have ruled out the use of force, but said it was “quite clear” he has not given up on hopes to take over.
[…] The U.S. briefly assumed control of the territory during World War II in a bid to prevent it from being used by the Nazis. In the decades since, an agreement has been in place allowing the U.S. to construct and maintain military bases across the island, with the U.S. Pituffik Space Base being the largest in the territory.
In the face of Trump’s growing threats, those in Greenland are left with little choice but to wait, and make their voices heard where they can.
Kjeldsen, the retired carpenter, said: “I’m only a simple, normal person who’s doing whatever I can to protect one of the big things that we have, which is our freedom.”
Jens Erik Kjeldsen, a retired carpenter who has been staging a one-man protest outside the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk since Monday despite the freezing temperatures, expressed fears that Trump is “trying to buy the world or take it with his power.”
“Jeff Bezos’ space company announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space, jumping into a market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Deployment of the satellites is planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network is designed to have “data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth.”
That speed, possible with the satellites’ planned optical communications, is extreme by consumer standards and would make the network key for data processing and large-scale government programs. Blue Origin said the network is meant to serve a maximum of roughly 100,000 customers.
The reveal of the network, called TeraWave, coincides with a space industry rush to build data centers in space that can meet the soaring demand for large-scale AI data processing, which on Earth requires immense energy and resources as adoption of the technology expands.
The planned network adds another satellite constellation linked to Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon, which is in an early phase of deploying Leo — a network formerly called Project Kuiper involving 3,200 satellites providing internet to consumers and businesses.
Musk’s Starlink network of roughly 10,000 satellites is farthest ahead in a global push to put internet infrastructure in space, where swarms of low-orbiting satellites offer more security and higher connection speeds than traditional, unitary satellites farther out in space.
The TACO cycle: Markets want to price in TACO. But TACO only works if Trump sees stocks tank.
So we get a loop: Trump does things → nothing happens (markets already priced in TACO) → that emboldens him to do more → until markets start to think he might not TACO → stocks fall → TACO is restored.
Here’s the really bad part: over time, this dynamic breeds bigger and bigger crises. Markets keep updating their beliefs about TACO, so it takes ever more extreme actions to convince them he might not TACO. Buckle up.
Fundamentally, the problem is TACO undermines itself over time.
Scott Horton (Harper’s): “Bovino and other DHS leaders are touting their success in rounding up serious criminals. But […] the serious criminals had in fact been apprehended by Minnesota police, whom the ICE and CBP leaders mercilessly disparage.”
Every few days since Operation Metro Surge began, DHS has released lists of people it says have been arrested. MPR News examined one of the lists shared by DHS officials on Monday, Jan. 12 and found that most of the people on the list had been immediately transferred to ICE custody at the end of time served in Minnesota prisons. All of those transfers happened before ICE began its surge of operations in Minnesota on Dec. 1, 2025, with some even happening years before.
DHS has also accused Minnesota prisons of not cooperating with immigration enforcement. But the department said it coordinated with ICE on the release of 84 prisoners last year, several of whom have shown up on DHS “worst of the worst” lists.
[…]
one person [on the Jan 12 list] was offered to be released to ICE custody more than a decade ago and ICE declined, according to the DOC.
[…]
Some of the criminals in question have never been in DOC custody. Rather, they’ve been in county jails. That’s where DHS’s bigger issue has been. DHS officials have argued that because some Minnesota county jails refuse to honor [non-judicial] ICE detainers, it means agents have to track them down in the community after their jail sentence is through. County jails are where people are held before trial, or are sent if their sentence is less than a year. Their policies are not set by the DOC, rather by each county.
[…]
ICE has said it has made more than 2,000 arrests in Minnesota so far during this operation, but it is unclear how many of those people have criminal records. A New York Times analysis of ICE arrests in early December found that about a third of the people arrested last year had no criminal record.
“The president was given an opportunity to knock down one of the dumbest ideas about his 2020 defeat. True to form, he did the opposite.”
At the time, it was the most infamous election press conference in American history. A couple of weeks after Donald Trump lost his 2020 re-election bid, his hapless lawyers held a bewildering event at the Republican National Committee headquarters, where they tried to describe a secret plot that only they were aware of.
The legal team pitched a hysterical tale involving George Soros, “communist money,” the Clinton Foundation, antifa, Cuba and possibly China. Rudy Giuliani and his colleagues also pointed the finger at Venezuela and its former president, Hugo Chávez, who’d died seven years earlier.
All of this came to mind anew watching the president’s lengthy White House press conference on Tuesday, when he fielded a related question. [social media post, with video]
Now that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody, someone asked, “has any more information emerged that you could share with us regarding Venezuelan election software and Venezuelan ties to tampering with the 2020 election?”
Trump replied that members of his team had “learned some things” related to the conspiracy theory, though he didn’t elaborate.
Since White House press conferences don’t come with decoder rings, it’s likely that many viewers had no idea what this exchange was about. Let’s take a moment to clarify.
As my MS NOW colleague Brandy Zadrozny recently explained, one of the recurring storylines among far-right conspiracy theorists is that Venezuela somehow played a role in dictating the outcome of the U.S. election in 2020 by controlling voting machines.
It’s all nonsense, of course, but almost immediately after U.S. bombs started dropping on Venezuela and Maduro was taken into custody, conspiratorial pillow executive Mike Lindell celebrated, telling The Atlantic, “I’m hoping now that Maduro will actually come clean and tell us everything about the machines and how they steal the elections.” [JFC]
Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Infowars propagandist Alex Jones have pushed similar lines. And after conservative media personality Sean Davis wrote on social media that “it’s gonna be wild when Maduro tries to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen,” Ed Martin, Trump’s “weaponization” czar at the Justice Department, responded with a tweet of his own that consisted entirely of an exclamation point.
Given a chance to reject all of this nonsense, the president did the opposite, adding fresh fuel to a ridiculous fire that should have petered out years ago.
Back on Jan. 9, Mad King Donald Trump promised credit card interest rates would be slashed by Tuesday, Jan. 20.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” the addled president wrote on Truth Social. “AFFORDABILITY! Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%.”
That Trumpian promise, like so many others, immediately ran into reality. As expected, the banking industry ignored him, either expecting a TACO moment—because Trump Always Chickens Out—or assuming his attention would drift elsewhere, as it so often does (Greenland!).
[…] If Trump was serious, he could work through Congress, potentially even with Democratic support, to turn that demand to cut credit card interest rates into reality. Instead, this latest instance of Trump’s random ramblings appears, at least for now, to have been discarded.
It joins the pile of Trump’s other forgotten populist promises, including $5,000 DOGE checks, $2,000 tariff checks, and the vow to eliminate taxes on tips, Social Security benefits, and overtime pay.
“‘Europe is at a total loss’: Russia gloats over Greenland tensions”
Listen to Donald Trump and you would think Moscow and Beijing were lying in wait off the coast of Greenland, ready to pounce to boost their power in the Arctic.
“There are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place,” President Trump said recently.
That is why, according to America’s president, US control of Greenland is essential.
So how do you think Moscow has reacted to its alleged plot being uncovered and potentially thwarted by a US takeover of Greenland?
The Russians can’t be pleased. Right?
Wrong.
In an astonishing article, the Russian government paper is full of praise for Trump and critical of European leaders who oppose a US annexation of Greenland.
“Standing in the way of the US president’s historic breakthrough is the stubbornness of Copenhagen and the mock solidarity of intransigent European countries, including so-called friends of America, Britain and France,” writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“Europe does not need the American greatness that Trump is promoting. Brussels is counting on ‘drowning’ the US president in the midterm congressional elections, on preventing him from concluding the greatest deal of his life.”
“Greatest deal”? The reporter explains what he means. I have to keep reminding myself I am reading the Russian government newspaper, not a pro-Trump publication in America.
“If Trump annexes Greenland by July 4 2026, when America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he will go down in history as a figure who asserted the greatness of the United States,” writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta. [Major fluffing of Trump is going on in the Russian press.]
“With Greenland, the US becomes the second largest country in the world after Russia, surpassing Canada in area. For Americans, that’s on par with such planetary events as the abolition of slavery by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 or the territorial conquests of the Napoleonic Wars.
“If, thanks to Trump, Greenland becomes part of America…for sure the American people will not forget such an achievement.”
And the Russian reporter has this message for America’s president: don’t U-turn.
“It is dangerous for the American president to back down over Greenland. This would weaken the position of the Republican Party in the midterm elections and likely result in a Democrat majority on Capitol Hill with the ensuing consequences for Trump. Whereas a rapid annexation of Greenland before the elections can change this political trend.” [Intense manipulation of Trump’s fear is going on in the Russian press.]
In other words, it’s in Trump’s interest to push ahead with his plans to take over Greenland: according to the Russian government paper.
Let that sink in.
But why the praise from Moscow? Why the apparent encouragement?
It’s because Russia has much to gain from the current situation.
Trump’s fixation with Greenland, his determination to take over the island and impose tariffs on European countries that oppose his plan have put a huge strain on the transatlantic alliance: both on America’s relations with Europe, and within Nato.
Anything that weakens – or threatens to split – the Western alliance is viewed by Moscow as a huge positive for Russia. [True!]
“Europe is at a total loss and, to be honest, it’s a pleasure to watch this,” gloated the Russian tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets in one of its articles about Greenland.
What’s more, American threats to annex Greenland are being used by pro-Kremlin commentators to try to justify Russia’s war on Ukraine. [head/desk]
Victory in Ukraine remains the Kremlin’s priority.
Moscow believes that maintaining a positive relationship with the Trump administration will help achieve this.
Hence Russia’s criticism of Europe. But not of Donald Trump.
birgerjohanssonsays
According to a source at Youtube a Russian retired general named Kovalchuk has defected to Ukraine.
[…] Lindsey Halligan has “quit” her non-job as non-US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia IN A HUFF, and Pam Bondi is IN A HUFF about it, and Halligan will now have to go cosplay at another job she’s wildly unqualified for […]
Bondi announced last night on Twitter that Halligan was leaving to go find a job that will appreciate her brilliance. We’re all supposed to play along like this is some big loss for the Justice Department that this insurance lawyer who had never tried a criminal case won’t get to fuck up any more fake cases against Donald Trump’s political enemies. [social media post]
In other words, while real lawyers are clearly making fun of all of this, Lindsey Halligan was literally the best incompetent partisan hack the Trump Department of Justice was able to get, and they will miss her very much. Sure, Pam Bondi.
[…] You may read Novak’s entire order, dated yesterday, January 20, 2026, but here is a particularly delicious piece:
Ms. Halligan’s response, in which she was joined by both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice. The Court will not engage in a similar tit-for-tat and will instead analyze the few points that Ms. Halligan offers to justify her continued identification of her position as United States Attorney before the Court. Ultimately, the Court concludes for the reasons that follow that Ms. Halligan’s continued identification of herself as the United States Attorney for this District ignores a binding court order and may not continue; otherwise, Ms. Halligan and anyone who joins her on a pleading containing the improper moniker subjects themselves to potential disciplinary action in this Court pursuant to the Court’s Local Rules.
And so, for 18 pages, Novak tears Halligan a new one, both for her attempts at real arguments and for the ones Novak considers too stupid to even consider. For example, dispensing with Halligan’s complaining that it’s not fair to say she can’t keep being US attorney after a mean judge said she couldn’t, not when Jack Smith got to keep being special counsel after a drooling MAGA judge said his appointment was illegal, Novak explains, in a footnote, that she may fuck off:
Ms. Halligan’s references to former Special Counsel Jack Smith do not merit serious consideration, given the inapposite context. Ms. Halligan appears to share the current administration’s unhealthy obsession with the former Special Counsel. But Mr. Smith’s decision to leave intact his signature block following a court order asserting the illegality of his appointment lacks legal significance here. As such, the Court will not be diverted from addressing the issues related to the lawfulness of Ms. Halligan’s assertions.
Lacks merit, lacks merit, lacks merit, does not merit serious consideration, lacks merit. It just says that throughout.
Novak’s conclusion begins, “The Eastern District of Virginia has long enjoyed the service of experienced prosecutors with unquestioned integrity from both political parties serving as the United States Attorney,” which is just an absolutely vicious way to work your way up to a great big “BUT.” Here’s what follows:
Despite coming from different political backgrounds and holding very different ideological views, they all shared an unwavering commitment to the Rule of Law, putting the interests of the citizens of the District before their own personal ambitions, as true public servants do. Unfortunately, it appears that this ethos has come to an end.
Novak ruled that “this charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end.” […]
And she quit the whole DOJ. Can’t fire her, she quits!
Don’t worry, she’ll show up on the wingnut welfare circuit soon enough. They always do.
HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS’s own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!
ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
[…]
The memo cites no legal authority, only a further secret DHS’s General Counsel (replaced in the early days with a Trump loyalist) opinion saying administrative warrants filled out by an ICE officer are sufficient to break into homes of people ordered removed.
[…]
Worse, a footnote to this memo suggest they won’t even rule out authorizing home invasions with no judicial warrant for people not even ordered removed!
[…]
In a sign of how explosive ICE knew this secret memo would be, one whistleblower says he was only allowed to read the memo and was barred from taking written notes, and warned that employees had been punished for disagreeing. At least one ICE instructor resigned rather than teach the illegal memo!
[…] It’s the federal government conspiring in secret to subvert the Fourth Amendment. […] Senator Blumenthal’s office worked with the whistleblowers, and has already put out a letter to the Trump admin demanding answers. Congress MUST act. This is a five alarm fire for our basic rights under the law.
The memo itself has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ICE officers who are being deployed into cities […] New ICE hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo’s guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo
[…]
The memo, signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and dated May 12
“Federal officials launch ICE operation in Maine and begin arrests”
“Everyone is on high alert,” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said. His city and nearby Lewiston have seen an influx of migrants and asylum seekers in recent years.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that immigration agents had launched “Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine, the latest state to be targeted as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation push. [“Operation Catch of the Day” is an offensive name.]
Even as Immigration and Customs Enforcement starts to surge officers there, federal officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the widespread resistance that ICE’s heavy presence has triggered in Minneapolis, according to several officials familiar with the preparations.
The top prosecutor in Maine issued a statement Monday hinting at the surge and telling residents that “in the coming days, if Maine citizens seek to exercise their rights to assemble and protest, it is vital that these protests remain peaceful.”
[…] The mayors of Portland and Lewiston, Maine’s two biggest cities, had warned residents that ICE might be about to ramp up its enforcement operations in the coming days. Both cities, located about 30 miles apart, are home to sizable communities of Somali immigrants, as well as asylum seekers from several other African countries.
In Portland, volunteers were delivering groceries to families too afraid to venture outside and some local schools reported students staying home, Mayor Mark Dion said Tuesday. “Everyone is on high alert,” he added.
Two local schools briefly stopped people from entering or leaving on Tuesday morning after learning of potential ICE activity nearby. “This is an understandably tense time in our community, as reports and rumors of immigration enforcement actions grow,” Portland Public Schools said in a statement.
[…] Carl Sheline, Lewiston’s mayor, condemned the latest ICE action. “These masked men with no regard for the rule of law are causing long-term damage to our state and to our country,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “Lewiston stands for the dignity of all people who call Maine home.”
[…] “Maine knows what good law enforcement looks like,” Mills [Gov. Janet Mills] continued. “They don’t wear a mask to shield their identities, and they don’t arrest people to fill quotas.”
Somali immigrants began arriving in Maine more than 20 years ago. Many have become U.S. citizens, and some have been elected to city councils and school boards in both Lewiston and Portland. Three Somali Americans serve in the Maine House of Representatives.
In recent years, Portland also saw an influx of migrants and asylum seekers from Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere. Each city has been home to robust refugee resettlement programs, welcoming people fleeing war-torn Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Under the Trump administration, nearly all refugee admissions were suspended. Its only exception was for members of the Afrikaner community, White South Africans who Trump has claimed without evidence are the victims of genocide. A handful of Afrikaners have already arrived in Maine, with a total of 50 expected to settle there over the coming year, refugee advocates say.
Sky Captain @117, in a week with tons of shocking news, that is even more shocking. From text you quoted: “authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS’s own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!” Unbelievably bad. Good to see the Associated Press and others providing coverage.
In other news: “Judge blocks government from searching data seized from Post reporter” [Good]
The seizure “chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm,” The Post said in statement. [True]
Government officials may not examine electronic devices seized from a Washington Post reporter until litigation stemming from the search of her home is settled, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Wednesday.
The ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Porter was issued hours after The Post demanded in a court filing that federal law enforcement officials return the electronic devices the government seized from staff reporter Hannah Natanson’s home last week. The extraordinary search “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists,” The Post told the court.
Federal agents executed a search warrant on Jan. 14 at Natanson’s home in Virginia, seizing a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch. Law enforcement officials said the search was part of an investigation into a government contractor who is accused of unlawfully obtaining classified materials.
In his brief order, Porter wrote that The Post and Natanson had “demonstrated good cause in their filings to maintain the status quo” and would not allow the government to access Natanson’s data until he is able to fully review and rule on the matter. He ordered the government to respond to The Post’s filing by Jan. 28 and scheduled a hearing early next month. […]
The Supreme Court checks Donald Trump every now and then. The latest example of this sporadic phenomenon was seemingly on display at Wednesday’s hearing in Trump v. Cook, over the president’s bid to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors long before her Senate-confirmed term is up in 2038.
Greenland’s government unveiled a new brochure on Wednesday offering advice to the population in the event of a ‘crisis’ in the territory, which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to seize from ally Denmark. Guidance includes stockpiling food and water, hunting weapons and ammunition.
Jeffries and his leadership team were “recommending” a no vote, but that is different from a whip operation where Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark and her deputies push members to support the leadership position on the bill. Several frontline Democrats in swing seats are expected to vote in favor of the appropriation.
“They’re terrified of being labeled anti–law enforcement,” said a Hill source tracking the legislation. “They want this to go away so they can talk about the cost of living more. Problem is, it’s not going away.” […] “They’ll just yell at Trump as he escalates and hope people forget and don’t punish them for failing to use what little power they had when it mattered,”
[…]
It is true that ICE has a reserve of $75 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, over seven times its annual budget, and that even if DHS were not funded, ICE agents would still be on the streets and paid in full through drawing from that reserve. Some might argue that this is all the more reason to vote against an inadequate package, because if the concern is to be seen as shutting down law enforcement, that won’t happen in this case.
DAVOS (The Borowitz Report)—In a much-praised resolution to a roiling diplomatic crisis, on Wednesday Denmark offered Donald J. Trump “full ownership” of a room in an assisted living facility in Greenland.
The deal was orchestrated by French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who were seen high-fiving moments after Trump signed the admission form.
Speaking to reporters, Carney said that Trump’s new home was actually located in Iceland, not Greenland, but added, “We’re pretty sure he doesn’t know the difference.”
For his part, President Macron acknowledged that the agreement represented a compromise, noting, “Our first choice was an ice floe.”
States are bracing for what’s projected to be “one of the most extreme” winter storms across nearly half of the United States this weekend. But the potential devastation could be amplified by the lack of federal disaster relief.
In North Carolina, the impacts of 2024’s Hurricane Helene can still be felt across the state. Now, freezing rain threatens dayslong power outages and arctic temperatures for residents who—in some cases—don’t even have a home to shelter in.
And thanks to President Donald Trump’s overhauling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, help is likely not on its way.
According to local reports, Carolinians who were placed in temporary housing by FEMA were evicted earlier than designated—some as recently as this week—despite having no other housing options. […]
Unhoused locals have been sitting in limbo waiting for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, to dole out funds for those affected. Even though there’s plenty of money—a whopping $1.5 billion, in fact—set aside to buy out the homes of Carolina residents, nothing has moved forward.
[…] Trump has been doing everything in his power to destroy FEMA—though sometimes unsuccessfully. Last month, a judge ruled that the Trump administration acted unlawfully by ending a program that helps communities prepare for natural disasters.
Still, FEMA’s ineffectiveness under Trump and Noem has already cost many lives. In July 2025, approximately 120 Texans died during a catastrophic flood when, instead of being able to provide immediate disaster relief, FEMA agents had to wait 72 hours for Noem to sign off on the budget.
Now, as dozens of states prepare for another potential natural disaster, the extreme damage that Trump has done to FEMA might be felt again by those who have already been left vulnerable.
Trickster Goddesssays
Re Lynna’s post @93:
I highly recommend listening to Prime Minister Carney’s full speech (video[17 min] and transcript here)
It historically marks the end of the international rules based system of the past 80 years and the start of the new world order.
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Justice Department’s disclosure of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, while conceding the lawmakers have raised “legitimate concerns” about the department’s compliance with the law.
In a 7-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote that his supervision of the criminal case against Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell doesn’t grant him “any charter to supervise” whether the Justice Department meets its legal obligation to disclose the files.
But he noted that his order didn’t foreclose the lawmakers’ right to sue over the matter. And Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, added that both the lawmakers and victims “raise legitimate concerns about whether DOJ is faithfully complying with federal law.”
The judge is more or less saying that a special master should be appointed but he doesn’t have the power. It would have to be a judge in a case over that specific law, not an unrelated Maxwell case. The judge even points out that the lawmakers clearly have the right to sue.
birgerjohanssonsays
Let’s Talk Elections
“BREAKING: Republicans LOSE House Seat in New York”
One of the things I’m really struggling with about what’s going on in Minnesota is that if you describe what’s going on in plain, factual ways to someone who’s not paying close attention you sound completely, bugfuck crazy.
“The federal government abducted a kid and used him as bait to try to lure out his parents, who are in the country legally, so they can be detained without charges and sent to Texas”. Think about how ridiculous that sounds to someone who hasn’t been paying attention. It sounds like I made it up!
“Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let him take care of the small child, and was refused,” […] still not sure of the exact current whereabouts of Liam and his dad. [The lawyer] believes, based on the experience of other clients […] they are currently in Texas in a family holding cell.
[…]
Asked if the 5-year-old’s detainment was illegal, Prokosch said, “Probably not, and that’s what’s going to make my job really difficult. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s moral. You know, yes, they may have the legal authority to detain a 5-year-old, but why?”
Rando 2: “Stop saying ‘Bait’. The correct word is ‘Hostage’.”
On Monday (Jan. 19), Earth experienced its strongest solar radiation storm since October 2003, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, surpassing the intensity of the notorious October 2003 “Halloween” space weather storms.
…(Snip)..
,,NOAA classifies solar radiation storms on a scale from S1 (minor) to S5 (extreme) based on GOES satellite measurements of incoming high-energy protons. The Jan. 19 event reached S4 (severe) levels.
While it may sound dramatic, this type of storm poses no threat to people on the ground, thanks to Earth’s thick atmosphere and magnetic field, which absorb the radiation before it reaches the surface.
Notably, this was not a “ground-level event,” in which particles are energetic enough to be detected at Earth’s surface. As space weather physicist Tamitha Skov explained, this storm had a relatively “soft” particle spectrum — historic in strength, but lacking the extreme energies needed to reach the ground.
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has revealed that some of those involved behind the scenes of the March for Australia (MFA) anti-immigration protests previously tried to recruit people to the now disbanded Neo-Nazi White Australia Party.
March for Australia is planning a fresh round of mass demonstrations across the country on January 26.
White Australia had been the political arm of the Neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network (NSN) but shut down earlier this week due to the federal government’s new hate speech laws.
Jordan McSwiney, who researches the far-right at the University of Canberra’s Centre for Deliberative Democracy, told ABC NEWS Verify that less overt activism would likely become more commonplace among NSN white supremacists following the public disbandment of the group. <//Blockquote>
This form is for reporting incidents or effects related to or caused by recent federal actions in Minnesota, including but not limited to: violations of constitutional rights [and] other administrative actions by Federal agencies [like funding cuts or restricted access to programs].
Katy Tur: A US court of appeals has temporarily lifted the restrictions on use of force against proesters […] pending another appeal
[…]
Jacob Soboroff: Let’s be realistic. We have SEEN uses of force by these very agents irrespective of the ruling […] ostensibly perhaps they would be permitted
I witnessed federal agents with ICE and CBP arresting a US citizen after hitting her car from behind, and then kneeling on the head of a legal observer in the snow, preventing breathing and bloodying their face.
I arrived on scene shortly after the accident happened, and the driver was still in the car. I walked up to the driver’s side to get her name and info, as a legal observer & an agent got out of an SUV behind her to scream at me. I told them to fuck off, I’m a legal observer helping a person. Another agent came around from the other side of the car and forcibly shoved me backward
[…]
they took her passport […] arrested her and put her in their SUV. At that point, there was a scuffle where another agent knocked down an observer into a snowbank […] they were kneeling on the person’s head […] then arrested them and put them in another SUV.
I shouted, “We have medics, let us take care of them,” and the agent in front of me went, “We have medics too,” and I replied, “Oh like you did for Renee?” and his face visibly fell.
As agents were attempting to leave—taking the detained person’s car with them, leaving the scene of an accident—another person stepped out to try to block them and got pepper-sprayed point blank in the face. I stayed to help the pepper spray victim, and down the block, ICE set off tear gas.
I say all this to have a publicly available record. I have also submitted this to AG Ellison’s reporting forms of violations federal agents are doing.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Matt Novak (Gizmodo): “Border Patrol agents are very sad that everyone in Minnesota hates them. [Screenshot]”
DHS tweet: At each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions. At one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowed tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd.
Rando 1: “So many questions. 1. Did this even happen? 2. Were they actually spit on? 3. Did they piss themselves? 4. How doctored is the ice footage gonna be? 5. Where’s all the protestor vids at? 6. What the fuck did they expect?”
Bovino has gone to multiple gas stations, with a massive convoy, gotten out of the car, and strolled into the street and posed for ten minutes at a time. No gas, no food, no bathroom. Just over and over in sequence. They are trying to whip people into a frenzy, in the hopes that someone will do something violent
[…]
JD Vance is coming tomorrow.
dozens of Minneapolitans photographing and chanting at the agents, yelling at them to “get out.” […] Bovino appeared to be icily booted from the Speedway’s convenience store, with a man following steps behind him. “ICE does not belong on this property at all, we do not support ICE,” the man said. “Get off our property. Bye, bye, bye.”
This afternoon Bovino & crew were a few houses down from my home and I learned about it via my block chat before I could even make sense of the noises I was hearing from outside […]
I watched from my backyard as over 100 neighbors quickly surrounded the federal agents, blowing whistles, honking horns & yelling at the agents to leave. They successfully shooed them away in minutes. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
I think this may be the oldest kind of human-animal cooperation, potentially long predating the domestication of dogs in Eurasia.
Follow-up to comments 415, 424 on the broomstick / leg shooting incident.
This article is mostly an FBI agent’s narrative synthesizing interviews, I guess.
It contradicts DHS in major ways. Sosa-Celis, the guy who was shot, wasn’t who ICE was after. ICE wasn’t even after Aljorna, the friend, who was chased on wheels then on foot into their shared duplex. ICE had looked up the friend’s car’s license plate, and the previous owner had been flagged as being in the US illegally (though that owner had no serious criminal history or federal cases), which kicked off a traffic stop, the friend fleeing, and the pursuit. The friend almost made it to the duplex but fell, and the ICE agent tussled with him. Sosa-Celis came out to rescue the friend and bring him inside.
There’s disagreement between the FBI and the two immigrants. About whether the broomstick was wielded to bludgeon the agent or was picked up and tossed as chaff in passing. And about whether the door was closed just before or after the agent shot Sosa-Celis. The door was boarded up before a reporter could check.
There was another man whose mugshot DHS waved around as someone allegedly arrested in all this. However, he didn’t appear in the affidavit, and the Tribune couldn’t find any involvement. He had no criminal record in Minnesota. Currently in Texas detention, not charged with any crime.
MAGA influencer Cam Higby captured Bovino on video as a bag of chips was dumped on him […] His agents quickly departed after protesters surrounded them and yelled “Nazi! Nazi!”
birgerjohanssonsays
Gramscini writing about cultural hegemony predated Noam Chomsky by half a century.
Whether to use “a” (before a consonant or /j/) or “an” (before a vowel or silent H) depends on the word immediately following the indefinite article. It’s all about euphony.
Bluerizlagirl @ 143
Thanks.
It is probably the silent H that trips me up most.
birgerjohanssonsays
A Republican claims USA “owns” the Moon.
Meh. Myself I own the sub-glacial parts of Antarctica, the mid- Pacific abyssal plain and rule a grand duchy on Mars.
.
Immigration Officers Assert Sweeping Power To Enter Homes Without A Judge’s Warrant, Memo Says
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
‘They’re following us’: MS Now report on violent ICE car chase. In an MS NOW exclusive, Antonia Hylton reports on a violent ICE chase in Houston that ended with an injured teen and a deported dad.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
TACO returns: Trump ‘isolated and humiliated’ by Greenland saga, says Hayes. “What we know from experience is Trump will push as far and as hard as he can until he meets resistance. To be clear, that is a toxic, dangerous cycle,” says Chris Hayes.
“The crusade had been largely driven by the Republican fringe — until the House speaker endorsed the radical campaign.”
Related video at the link.
At last count, House Republicans have filed impeachment resolutions against eight federal judges, though these radical efforts have been largely relegated to the party’s fringe. This week, that changed suddenly and unexpectedly. Politico reported:
Speaker Mike Johnson now supports the push inside his party to bring impeachment articles against judges perceived as antagonistic of President Donald Trump’s agenda — a notable shift for the Louisiana Republican who over the summer sought to squelch such effort.
‘I’m for it,’ Johnson told reporters at his weekly news conference Wednesday, responding to the question of whether he would endorse impeaching judges who have ruled against the administration.
He did not appear to be kidding. [video, with Mike Johnson also laughing.]
The trouble began in earnest in March, when Donald Trump took a new step, publicly and explicitly calling for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ruled in a way the White House didn’t like in an Alien Enemies Act case. Hours later, the president sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and kept the offensive going.
“We have bad judges, we have very bad judges,” Trump said. “These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point you have to start looking at — what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”
A group of congressional Republicans apparently interpreted Trump’s appeal as a directive and got to work introducing impeachment resolutions against judges who ruled against the White House’s preferences.
[I snipped the list of judges]
Republican megadonor Elon Musk soon joined the crusade, sending campaign donations to members of Congress who have supported impeaching federal judges. [head/desk]
[Now] Congress’ top Republican declaring at a Capitol Hill press conference that the crusade has merit.
[…] even if the House were to impeach any or all of these jurists, it would take 67 votes in the Senate to remove them from the federal bench, which is effectively an impossibility.
These obvious attempts at intimidating the judiciary, in other words, almost certainly won’t work.
But for Johnson to endorse publicly such a radical effort speaks volumes about how radical his politics have become.
Last year, a Marquette University Law School poll found that 70% of Americans opposed impeaching federal judges over anti-Trump rulings. […]
This counts as attempting to intimidate federal judges.
“So many Republicans see the president as infallible that even inconsequential slip-ups must be denied in Orwellian fashion.”
Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was an embarrassing mess. The American president peddled a series of absurd falsehoods, he needlessly targeted U.S. allies with baseless whining, and he reminded much of the Western world over the course of an hour and a half why the Trump-led United States has seen its international standing collapse.
But one part of the Republican’s weird, meandering remarks generated attention for an unexpected reason. [video]
Roughly halfway through the speech, Trump claimed that he was popular with NATO leaders, “until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland.” About a minute later, again referring to ostensible U.S. allies, the American president added, “They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money.”
In context, Trump clearly misspoke, referring to Iceland when he meant Greenland. The timing of the mistake was far from ideal — just last week, his spectacularly unqualified nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Iceland, Billy Long, “joked” about Iceland becoming the 52nd state — but accidents happen.
It would have been easy for the White House simply to acknowledge that the president had misspoken. Since everyone misspeaks from time to time, this likely would have generated very little attention.
But that’s not what happened. The New York Times reported:
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, denied that Mr. Trump had misspoken, responding in a social media post to a reporter who wrote that he had appeared to mix the countries up multiple times.
‘No he didn’t,’ she wrote to the reporter. ‘His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here.’
In other words, Leavitt would have us believe that when Trump said “Iceland” four times, he was really commenting on “ice land.” As in a land of ice.
In context, that is obviously preposterous. The Orwellian pushback, however, was oddly familiar.
Ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary during the 2024 election cycle, Trump spoke at a campaign rally and accidentally referred to former Ambassador Nikki Haley, his principal intraparty rival at the time, when he meant to talk about House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
There was no great mystery behind the slip-up. Haley was obviously on his mind days ahead of a closely watched primary, so he mentioned her name in error.
Soon after, then-House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, desperate to impress Trump, told a national television audience that this wasn’t “a mix-up,” despite what everyone heard him say.
Something similar happened in 2019. As Hurricane Dorian approached the United States, Trump published a tweet that included Alabama among the states “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.” Soon after, the National Weather Service told the public the opposite: The region was in danger, but Alabama wasn’t among the states likely to be affected.
When news outlets noted the president’s error, Trump took great offense, insisting he was right, despite the obvious fact that he was mistaken. It set in motion a series of increasingly ridiculous events, culminating in Trump displaying a map to which he literally took a pen, drawing a bump onto the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast so he could make the scientific prediction conform retroactively to his mistake. (The mess became known as “Sharpiegate.”)
Leavitt’s line on the president’s “Iceland” reference is a page from the same book. Since Trump’s loyalists insist he is incapable of being wrong, even minor, inconsequential slip-ups have to be rejected and denied.
The tactics make the White House and its allies look worse. […]
[…] The memo acknowledged that it was offering different legal guidance than DHS had given in the past:
Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.
Administrative warrants are barely worth the paper they’re printed on. In contrast to arrest warrants issued by a judge based on finding of probable cause that a crime has been committed, administrative warrants are a product of the executive branch and not subject to judicial review.
Legal experts were aghast at the ICE memo and its implications.
“An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS’s own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, posted.
“I try to avoid hyperbole when it comes to Trump policies, but this is absolutely frickin’ insane—on about eleventy different levels,” Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck said. “Massive, systemic Fourth Amendment violations because … reasons.”
In a sign that ICE knew how controversial and potentially illegal the new guidance was, the memo was not widely distributed within ICE, according to Whistleblower Aid, the group representing the whistleblowers:
While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
Excerpt from the analysis by Stanford University law professor Orin Kerr:
[…] if you accept the unitary executive theory, in which what various immigration officials do in the executive branch is all ultimately part of the “executive Power. . . vested in a President of the United States of America” and should not be thought of as independent decisions of immigration judges or other immigration officials.
Given the focus in Coolidge, Shadwick, and Payton on the fundamental role of warrants in inserting a judicial check on the executive, it seems out of place to say that this can be satisfied by the executive checking itself. Even if the I-205 Warrant was signed by the immigration official based on an immigration judge’s removal order, that removal order is an order from the President’s executive branch. From that perspective, the traditional thinking that executive-branch warrants cannot satisfy the Fourth Amendment judicial warrant Payton test seems persuasive.
[…] this is another place where the Supreme Court’s gradual cutting back on the scope of the Bivens remedy—the civil action against federal agents for violating the Constitution, including the Fourth Amendment—may make the most obvious form of judicial review unavailable. Even if the policy is unconstitutional, as it seems to be, a person who is illegally searched probably can’t sue ICE for violating their constitutional rights.
[…] the basic idea is that the federal government generally can’t be sued for damages for violating the Fourth Amendment. […]
The weaponized Federal Communications Commission is now targeting network talk shows, contending that they no longer enjoy a carveout for news programs and must provide equal airtime to political candidates
The Trump administration is opening a new front against late-night comedy, announcing plans to enforce long-dormant rules on appearances by political candidates on network talk shows.
Under new guidance released on Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission warned that entertainment-oriented talk shows carried on local television stations were required to offer candidates vying for the same office equal airtime.
The guidance was clearly aimed at the late-night hosts who frequently anger President Trump — Jimmy Kimmel of ABC, Stephen Colbert of CBS and Seth Meyers of NBC — and have in turn drawn scrutiny from the F.C.C. chairman, Brendan Carr. But it would also cover daytime talk shows including another Trump target, “The View.”
[…] Talk shows that want to have political candidates on as guests in an election year would have to petition the F.C.C. for an exemption — or give an equivalent amount of free airtime to the candidates’ opponents. And, it indicated, it would not grant exemptions lightly, basing decisions on whether it determined that the show in question was motivated “by partisan purposes.”
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest lawyer, said the intent seemed to be to “trim the sails of certain talk shows” and induce a chilling effect; talk shows may be inclined to think twice before booking political candidates in election years altogether.
But he also said there could be an unintended consequence — by raising the question of whether conservative talk show hosts on radio, which falls under the same law, would have to provide equal time to political candidates, too.
The point of the word an is to avoid the awkward silent pause between words when saying something like “a apple.” So, you should put an before any word that begins with a vowel sound, not just a vowel letter. […]
a historian, an honor, a xylophone, an X-ray, a user (begins with y sound), an umbrella, a one-eyed pirate (begins with w sound), an owl.
This will vary somewhat with accents of the region and era.
The same rule applies to acronyms and initialisms […] if one were to write about a memo sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (in its initialized form) it would be “an FBI memo”; even though the word following an clearly begins with a consonant, it is voiced as a vowel (“eff-bee-eye”).
[…]
once one accepts that we are applying a rule for the spoken form of English to the printed page it is generally not so hard […] If in doubt, simply say the word which will follow the a or an out loud, and decide accordingly.
[…]
If you begin to dig into written English use from more than a few decades ago it is very easy to find a large number of words which were apparently pronounced differently than they are today, as evidenced by the author’s choice of a or an before them.
There are very few people today who still put an before the words hundred or history, for the simple reason that it would sound funny. Yet some have held onto the notion that historic requires an an before it.
The Trump administration has ordered a review of federal funding sent to more than a dozen Democratic-led states, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The sweeping scale of the review is outlined in a budget data request that was sent Tuesday to all federal departments and agencies except for the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Office of Management and Budget memo, which was reviewed by CNN, requests detailed spending data as part of a review to “facilitate efforts to reduce the improper and fraudulent use of those funds.”
The request signals a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive strategy to target federal funding in blue states – an unprecedented policy approach triggered during last year’s government shutdown that has rapidly accelerated in the wake of sweeping fraud allegations in Minnesota.
OMB Director Russel Vought has run point on the effort after spending President Donald Trump’s past year in office re-engineering tools used by the agency, known as the federal government’s “nerve center,” to exert new authority and power over the federal spending process. […]
Republicans are set to lose another House seat in the gerrymandering war that President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started. On Wednesday, a New York state Supreme Court judge ruled that the state’s 11th Congressional District illegally disenfranchises Black and Latino voters.
The 11th District, centered on Staten Island, is currently held by GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who—if this ruling holds on appeal—would see her district redrawn in a way that would likely peel off yet another Republican lawmaker.
If Democrats indeed net another seat out of New York, it would give Democrats a needed boost as they seek to offset gerrymanders that have been passed in Republican-led states.
With Democrats netting five seats out of California, one seat out of Utah, and potentially one seat from New York, they are expected to squeeze seven seats from map redraws. And that number could grow further if Virginia voters pass a referendum to suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission and allow the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw their maps—a move that would give Democrats as many as four more seats. […]
We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. You can say yes and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.
Mobster.
Trump in Davos:
Without us, right now you’d all be speaking German.
German is the main language of Switzerland.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein all speak German.
Former special counsel Jack Smith is testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday, in his first public testimony about his investigations into President Trump.
Smith stood by his decision to probe Trump over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents
“No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that [Trump] be held to account. So that is what I did,” Smith said in his opening remarks.
Trump is on his way back to the U.S. from Davos, Switzerland, where he met with world leaders and unveiled his new Board of Peace in Gaza at the annual World Economic Forum.
No major European allies attended a Thursday signing ceremony for the peace board initiative, however, as tensions flare with NATO amid Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland […]
Smith expressed concern that a lack of accountability for Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election could result in a diminished democracy.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) recalled an exchange with Smith during his closed-door deposition last month, where they discussed the lack of consequences over the president’s bid to stay in power.
“How would you describe the toll on our democracy if we do not hold a president accountable attempting to steal an election?” Jayapal asked.
Smith said it can be “catastrophic” if the “most powerful people in our society” aren’t held to the same standards of the rule of law.
“Because if they don’t have to follow the law, it’s easy to understand why people would think they don’t have to follow the law as well,” he continued.
He added that, if people aren’t held to account when they commit crimes, it “sends a message that those crimes are okay, that our society accepts that.”
“I believe that if we don’t call people to account when they commit crimes in this context, it can endanger our election process,” Smith said. “It can endanger election workers and ultimately, democracy.”
“The attack on this Capitol on Jan. 6 was — and, the Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., said this — it was an attack on the structure of our democracy,” he continued. “And we could experience much worse results down the road if this happens again.”
[…] In a series of matter-of-fact responses, Smith denied that former President Biden or anyone in his administration had any improper involvement in his investigations of Trump.
Asked repeatedly by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) about undue pressure or participation, Smith said several times that the former president played no role in pushing him to pursue the prosecution.
Smith responded “no” to questions about whether Biden or anyone in his White House sought retribution against Biden’s political opponents, wrote social media posts directing Smith to seek retribution or directed him to take any prosecutorial steps.
He also answered “no” to a question about whether he faced threats of termination over any actions he took or did not take while special counsel.
[…] President Trump on Thursday called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Jack Smith as the former special counsel testified before the House Judiciary Committee.
“Deranged Jack Smith is being DECIMATED before Congress,” Trump wrote on social media, calling the prosecutor who investigated the president “a deranged animal.”
“Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me,” he added. “The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM — A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!”
Smith rejected the notion that his prosecution was politically driven by noting his own political allegiance lies neither with Democrats nor Republicans.
“I have no partisan loyalties,” Smith said. “I don’t know if I’m registered as independent or not registered at all.”
He doubled down on his prosecutors’ assessment of the evidence that Trump was the person “most responsible” for what happened on Jan. 6.
“He caused what happened,” Smith said. “It was foreseeable to him, and then when it happened, he tried to exploit it.”
[…] Smith recounted that election workers received death threats due to rhetoric from President Trump and his allies in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“During the course of the conspiracy itself, there were election workers who had their lives turned upside down, and received vile death threats, because they were targeted by Donald Trump and his co-conspirators,” Smith said in response to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).
The former special counsel said he had a “duty” to protect witnesses during his investigation into the president over concerns that Trump would obstruct justice.
He specifically recalled the president writing, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” on Truth Social in August 2023, shortly after he pled not guilty to charges stemming from Smith’s investigation into his efforts to overturn the election.
“In my mind, I can’t think of a more direct threat to witnesses and individuals involved in that proceeding,” Smith said of the post. […]
Heading into Thursday’s hearing, Republicans have defended Trump’s rhetoric and actions surrounding Jan. 6, saying his false claims that he won the 2020 election are protected by the First Amendment.
Smith dismissed that argument, saying that Americans’ free speech rights do not extend to cases when laws are broken, as his investigation alleged Trump did in trying to overturn the election results.
“The First Amendment does not protect speech that facilitates a crime,” Smith testified.
The line of questioning came from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel and a former constitutional law professor, who noted that, by the Republicans’ broad definition, even inciting violence would be protected by the First Amendment. […]
Justin Baragona (The Independent): For the second time in two days, Trump appears to confuse Iceland and Greenland. [Video clip]
I like how the rules of media sanewashing have a paradoxical effect. Trump doesn’t simply fuck up his speech; he only “appears to” because the rules dictate we have to leave room for the possibility he’s announcing a campaign to acquire the sovereign nation of Iceland—another NATO ally—as well.
birgerjohanssonsays
David Frum talks with Fiona Hill
The David Frum Show Jan 21 |
Why Trump Sides With Putin
The “framework for a future deal” that Trump and Rutte cooked up was formulated without input from Greenland and possibly without input from Denmark. [Video clip]
LOL, Rutte said they didn’t even discuss Greenland. [Video clip]
Take a maximalist position, alienate everyone, accept less than you could have had by asking nicely, declare historic victory.
[…]
Trump’s lying that he got any kind of “deal framework” on Greenland out of Mark Rutte, who as head of NATO wouldn’t be empowered to strike a deal about Greenland even if he wanted to. Rutte said they didn’t even discuss Greenland.
And even if you accept that the “framework to make a deal” is a real thing and not a pathetic cope from Trump, he got it AFTER he relented about using force, not before. Which would undercut the theory that the threat got the concession.
It sounds like Rutte had a chat with Trump about what NATO would like to do to secure the whole Arctic. And Trump came out and implied it was some kind of “framework to make a deal” about the ownership of Greenland. “An infinity deal,” Trump called it, promising this as-yet-unmade deal would last forever.
NATO officials have discussed expanding the 1951 pact with a new agreement that would effectively create pockets of American soil in the territory. Such an agreement would likely be modeled on a “sovereign base area” agreement in Cyprus, where Britain’s military bases are regarded as British territory.
[…]
Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Thursday he was not in favor of giving the United States sovereignty over military bases […] Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark [posted on social media] “We can negotiate on everything political; security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty,”
Rando: “Okay. So we self immolated ourselves on the international stage so we could keep the defense framework we established with Greenland 70 years ago.”
JMsays
@162 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain:
Lindsay Beyerstein:
Take a maximalist position, alienate everyone, accept less than you could have had by asking nicely, declare historic victory.
This makes the mistake of assigning a coherent rational motivation to Trump. It’s likely that whoever suggested taking Greenland to Trump had some rational idea but Trump may not. I get the impression Trump has taken the idea and run in some weird direction of his own. He may be obsessed with owning Greenland because he is thinking about his place in history if makes a historically large expansion of the US, or he may have a property developers obsessions with clear ownership of the land, or he may think he is banking against global warming by providing the US with land that will be critical down the road and the ice melts.
You see the same thing with Venzula, where he is talking about oil market dynamics that date back to the 80s and drug cartel stuff that is just wrong. His obsession with getting a Nobel Peace Prize that is obviously jealousy that Obama got one has led him all kinds of weird directions.
Trump’s Board of Peace logo is basically the UN logo, except dipped in gold and edited so the world only includes America. Charging $1 billion to join a committee with a recycled AI slop logo is phenomenally on brand for Trump.
[…]
Mixing a clip-art wreath with a pseudo-realistic, geo-textured map is a graphic design atrocity. Big Microsoft Paint energy.
* I couldn’t source the the hi-res image at the link. It has extra distortions that didn’t appear in other renderings: missing California, wavy latitude lines.
Daily Beast has photos of two versions used on stage. The gold-on-white version was also tweeted by the White House, currently on Wikipedia. All have messy laurel leaves.
Commentary
Not beating the temu United Nations allegations.
Kinda crazy to pick a map that doesn’t even include the region this org was initially formed to work in.
“Deputy Director Ralph Abraham appears unconcerned that the U.S. is losing its measles elimination status. Public health experts aren’t pleased.”
Related video at the link.
As the 21st century got underway, Americans had reason to celebrate a public health breakthrough: Measles had been eliminated in the United States.
The good news, however, did not last, and there were multiple measles outbreaks in U.S. communities in 2025. In fact, The Hill reported, “The U.S. on Tuesday met one of the key conditions for losing its measles elimination status, more than 25 years after it achieved this distinction and one year into a second Trump administration that has deprioritized the prevention of infectious diseases.”
One might expect the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to react to these developments with great concern. But the Trumpified CDC is apparently content to shrug with relative indifference. STAT News reported:
With measles transmission in the United States at levels that haven’t been seen in decades, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that he would not view the loss of the country’s measles elimination status as a significant event.
‘Not really,’ said Ralph Abraham, a physician who formerly served as Louisiana’s surgeon general. ‘You know, it’s just the cost of doing business, with our borders being somewhat porous [and] global and international travel.’ [Doofus! That’s not the right attitude.]
Of course, international travel was also common between 2001 and 2024, and according to Republicans, our domestic borders were plenty “porous.”
Abraham added, “We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated. That’s their personal freedom.”
As The San Francisco Chronicle noted, public health advocates responded to the CDC deputy director’s comments with disgust. Pediatrician and vaccine specialist Paul Offit said in an online discussion hosted by the health blog Inside Medicine this week, “When you hear somebody like Abraham say ‘the cost of doing business,’ how can you be more callous? Three people died of measles last year in this country.”
If Abraham’s name sounds at all familiar, it’s probably because Republican Gov. Jeff Landry tapped the former GOP congressman to serve as Louisiana’s surgeon general two years ago, where his tenure was not without controversy.
The Washington Post reported, “Abraham drew intense criticism in office for instructing health officials to stop promoting vaccines including flu shots and instead emphasize personal choice and consulting with doctors. In a December legislative hearing, Abraham said he regularly sees patients injured by coronavirus vaccines and alleged adverse reactions were being covered up, NPR reported. He has also supported research into an extensively debunked connection between vaccines and autism.” [Abraham is a conspiracy theorist. And, his brain is not working properly. The man is a danger to us all.]
Abraham has gone so far as to describe Covid shots as “dangerous” (they are not) and touted ivermectin during the 2020 pandemic, despite science showing the drug was an ineffective treatment. [That figures.]
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nevertheless brought the Louisiana Republican in to serve as principal deputy director at the CDC, effectively the agency’s No. 2. [!]
Three months later, Abraham appears wholly unconcerned about the United States losing its measles elimination status.
While many observers were repulsed by Donald Trump’s ridiculous speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the president boasted after he left the podium that “we got great reviews.” [Delusion!] He did not say from whom.
But Trump didn’t stop there, going on to suggest that he’d somehow managed to subvert the audience’s expectations. [video]
“Usually they say, ‘He’s a horrible dictator-type person,’ I’m a dictator,” Trump said, reflecting on the criticisms he’s accustomed to. “But sometimes you need a dictator.”
He did not elaborate on when, exactly, dictatorships are needed.
Up until very recently, it would’ve been considered a political story of dramatic significance for a sitting American president to say — out loud, in public, on the record — that he believes dictators are ever preferable to self-rule. But Trump’s comment went largely overlooked, in part because the rhetoric was overshadowed by other developments and in part because much of the political world is simply accustomed to Trump’s overt hostility to democracy.
That said, I remain convinced that it’s best not to brush past these declarations too quickly. [I agree.] The president’s comment offered a fresh peek into a political philosophy he appears to embrace without embarrassment: By his own admission, Trump believes there are some conditions in which freedom should be discarded and replaced by something a bit more totalitarian.
This is the same Republican who has more than once talked about creating a temporary American “dictatorship” that he expects to lead. He has promoted images of himself in a crown. He has made Napoleonic declarations such as “he who saves his country violates no law.” He’s talked about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions. He’s “joked” about canceling elections. He’s freely admitted that he believes (what passes for) his alleged conscience is “the only thing that can stop me.” He’s expressed admiration for foreign authoritarians — not despite their despotism, but because of their despotism.
To the extent that there was ever a serious debate about Trump’s authoritarian impulses, the president keeps offering unambiguous answers to the question.
A federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against journalist Don Lemon for appearing alongside protesters who breached a Minnesota church over the weekend, a source told CNN.
“The Attorney General is enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision,” a person familiar with the matter said. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been on the ground in Minnesota for two days meeting with federal prosecutors from the state.
Lemon, who is a former CNN host who now makes content independently, was with dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters as they rushed into Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday morning, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations, CNN has reported. [Lemon works independently!]
Lemon has said that he was present at the demonstration as a journalist and not as a protester. In a video of the episode that he posted on YouTube, Lemon says “I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group… I’m a journalist.”
The Justice Department has arrested two people involved in the protests, CNN has reported.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Lemon. The Department of Justice could always try again to bring charges against him.
A ragtag group of over 400 (and counting!) millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries across the globe have signed a letter to the world leaders gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos, asking them to please (pretty please!) tax them and their brethren more, so that everyone can live a better life.
[I don’t know if you can ever call a group of millionaires and billionaires “ragtag,” but I do appreciate the emphasis on the fact that this a diverse group asking for their taxes to be increased. They are, generally speaking, not untidy, but they are often disreputable.]
Now, granted, I do not think billionaires should exist, but if they have to exist, I guess I’d prefer that they not want to be billionaires, either.
The letter — signed by the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno, and Abigail Disney — is a project of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of rich folks with the goal of “taxing the rich, paying the people, and spreading the power.”
They wrote:
Today, we are more connected than ever—but at the same time, we have never been more divided. Decades of innovation have gone hand in hand with decades of inequality, environmental destruction, and wasted opportunity. The richest 1% now own more than 95% of the world’s population put together.
The gap between the super rich and everyone else grows larger every day, stretching across neighbourhoods, nations, and, perhaps most of all, generations. A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet. What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else.
We all know this. When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice.
We are worn out watching this happen. We want our democracies back. We want our communities back. We want our future back.
Millionaires! They’re just like us! At least in the way that we would like to have all of those things back as well. Not so much in the other ways, probably.
You’d think this would be an unpopular sentiment among the very wealthy, but it turns out that it’s a lot more common than you might think.
Via The Guardian:
The survey, of 3,900 people in G20 countries with more than $1m in assets, excluding their homes, also found that three-fifths think Trump has had a negative impact on global economic stability (the poll was conducted before the US president threatened new tariffs at the weekend against European countries if a deal to acquire Greenland was not reached).
More than 60% of those surveyed were concerned that extreme wealth was a threat to democracy. Two-thirds supported higher taxes on the super-rich to invest in public services, with only 17% opposed.
Public services are pretty great.
It’s not even entirely unselfish of them, frankly. The whole point, I suppose, of being wealthy is living a nice, pleasant life and the whole point of taxes is to make life more pleasant for everyone. Including them. […]
Life also isn’t so pleasant when other people in your tax bracket are buying up politicians, buying up all the news media and producing their own, buying up social media sites and turning them into Nazi hellholes, when people around you are living in poverty.
The fact is, the wealthy rely on the non-wealthy to provide them with the standard of living to which they have become accustomed. If you live in an area where only rich people can afford to live, then you don’t have restaurants, you don’t have salons, you don’t have shops, you don’t have entertainment, you don’t have transportation beyond your own car, you don’t have childcare, you don’t have schools, you don’t really have anything to do … so what the hell are you going to do with all that money? Swim around in it like Scrooge McDuck? […]
It’s already becoming a problem in places like the Hamptons and New York City. Stores and restaurants are experiencing serious staffing shortages in these areas because restaurant workers and retail workers cannot afford to live there. This also obviously hurts business owners and the middle class. There’s a reason they say “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and that reason is that it is both literally and figuratively true.
Right now, in New York City, nurses are on strike because they’re not being paid enough, and because the hospitals where they work are understaffed and undersecured — and that means that people can’t get the care they need, regardless of how much money they have (unless they’re able to fly somewhere else to get it).
Obviously, extreme wealth inequality harms those on the bottom a hell of a lot more, and in more serious ways than not being able to get a nail appointment anywhere, but it’s not actually good for anyone. […]
What would be really helpful is if they could also use some of their money to fund left-wing media (like us, obviously! but also other people and entities!) because it’s really not great that practically all media that isn’t right-leaning is paywalled and siloed. (Exception, as always, for Wonkette, which frankly could use more subscribers at the moment as many of our stalwarts have had to give us up recently for reasons of “so they don’t starve.” We will never have a paywall, because how can you educate The People from behind a block? Be the funder you want to see in the world! Only if you are able.)
Fund media, fund conferences and speaking tours and youth outreach and all of the intellectual infrastructure the Right has, or we have no chance at all of heading towards a more equitable society.
I mean, it’s just a suggestion, but if they could just get on that one sooner rather than later, I think we’d have a far better chance of making their dream of higher taxation a reality.
“The House voted separately on DHS funding and another package of bills to avoid a partial shutdown and repeal a law that allows certain GOP senators to sue DOJ for $500,000.”
A small band of moderate House Democrats teamed with Republicans on Thursday to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, overcoming a revolt by most Democrats furious about ICE’s aggressive operations in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.
The vote was 220-207, with seven Democrats breaking with their party and voting yes. The House also passed a separate package of bills funding other federal agencies in a broad, bipartisan vote, in a bid to avert a partial government shutdown on Jan. 31.
In an unexpected twist, the House unanimously voted to add an amendment to the package repealing a law crafted by the Senate that allows eight particular Republican senators to sue the government for a minimum of $500,000 in damages after their phone records were collected as part of a Jan. 6 investigation. [Tiny bit of good news.]
[…] The House has combined the repeal amendment and six of its approved spending bills into one package. It now heads to the Senate, where Appropriations Committee leaders have signed off on the funding deal. The package represents the final tranche of the 12 spending bills Congress needs to pass each year to keep the government open and will fund it through the end of September.
[…] “ICE is out of control and operating, in far too many ways, in a lawless fashion,” Jeffries told reporters, accusing the agency of “using taxpayer dollars to inflict brutality on the American people,” including by killing Good “in cold blood.”
[…] The seven Democrats who voted in favor were: Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state; Don Davis of North Carolina; and Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, both of New York.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote no.
Some Democrats lamented that their party had not fought as hard for ICE guardrails as they had for an extension of Affordable Care Act funds, when they forced a 43-day shutdown last fall. (A group of eight Senate Democrats ultimately relented without ACA concessions.)
[…] DeLauro and Murray have pointed out that Democrats did secure $20 million for body cameras for ICE personnel, as well as cuts to ICE funding for enforcement and removal operations and the number of detention beds. [Tiny bit of good news.]
[…] Meanwhile, Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., this week introduced the MELT ICE Act, which would end DHS’s funding to detain or monitor immigrants, and redirect that money to health care, housing and other social services in local communities.
Neither stand a chance of passage under Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
Murray, instead, focused on a series of victories she said Democrats scored in the wider government funding package, including funding for child care, housing assistance, mental health and Pell Grants — in many cases defeating Trump’s proposed cuts. [More bits of good news.]
“There is much more we must do to rein in DHS, which I will continue to press for,” Murray added. “But the hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.” [True]
In just nine days, Grok posted more than 4.4 million images [compared with 311,762 in the nine days before Musk announced the feature]. A review by The Times conservatively estimated that at least 41 percent of posts, or 1.8 million, most likely contained sexualized imagery of women. A broader analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate […] estimated that 65 percent, or just over three million, contained sexualized imagery of men, women or children. […] “This is industrial-scale abuse of women and girls,”
[…]
Last week, X [said] it would no longer allow anyone to prompt Grok’s X account for “images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” […] Since then, Grok has largely ignored requests to dress women in bikinis, but has created images of them in leotards and one-piece bathing suits. The restrictions did not extend to Grok’s app or website, which continue to allow users to generate sexual content in private.
Like many punters who have tried to do business with Donald Trump in the past, the UN has found itself a victim of a classic bait-and-switch […] When they voted to endorse the board of peace in November, other members of the UN security council hoped they were binding Trump into a Gaza peace process, but it now appears they were hoodwinked into backing a Trump-dominated pay-to-play club: a global version of his Mar-a-Lago court aimed at supplanting the UN itself.
[…]
Two months on, there is not a single mention of Gaza in the “board of peace” charter sent out to national capitals. That document instead portrays the board as a permanent fixture to promote peace and good governance around the world. […] The document does not name the “failed institutions” that the board will apparently be more nimble and effective than, but there is little doubt that these derogatory references are aimed at the UN.
[…]
the UN Charter […] was anchored in a set of principles which were hard-earned lessons of the second world war: the primacy of non-aggression, self-determination, fundamental human rights, and the “equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”. The Trump board charter uses no such language. Most of the text is devoted to the club rules, which make the chairman (Trump himself—the only person mentioned by name) all-powerful. […] All other members come and go under the rules, unless they buy a life-membership for $1bn “in cash funds”, and even that does not appear to offer a guarantee against being ejected by Trump.
[…]
While the charter has nothing to say about Gaza, the board will oversee a general executive board, and a Gaza executive board […] It is anyway unlikely that the Gaza arm of the board […] will have much to do in the foreseeable future. The Israeli government is resolutely opposed to moving forward with any element of the second phase of the Trump ceasefire that would bring Palestinian governance back to Gaza or give any other nation a stake or a role in the territory.
Trump’s Board of Peace has now officially been recognized as an international organization, according to the White House.
US law requires 2/3 Senate approval for international treaties.
I think the Board of Peace is one of those things that’s not unconstitutional, but anti-constitutional.
It is not clear to me this org obligates the United States to do anything like a treaty. But, entering a multi-national working group where Trump is chairman for life violates enduring values.
That status might well transition, but I think it really is just a corrupt NGO that Trump controls in a capacity independent of the presidency. It is unhinged, probably impeachable… but [shrug].
Rando: “It’s like a family foundation, but for someone whose family is barred by New York State law from being on the board of any charity.”
Southpaw (lawyer): “I think any straightforward reading of the foreign emoluments clause forbids the president from personally taking a lifetime office and title like this without Congress’s consent fwiw.”
Sky Captain @172, I agree with this text you quoted identifying the so-called “Board of Peace” as “a corrupt NGO that Trump controls in a capacity independent of the presidency.” It’s a scam that Trump is using to put money in his pockets … and, as The Guardian noted, to weaken the United Nations.
A law firm representing the family of Renee Good, the 37-year-old shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, released preliminary findings from an independent autopsy commissioned by her family. The report, released by the law firm of Romanucci & Blandin, found that Good suffered ‘three clear gunshot wound paths,’ including one to her head.
Emboldened by the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said.
Marco Rubio is also undoubtedly pushing hard for this.
Moderna does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from U.S. officials, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
[…] “Conservative women are just factually more attractive than liberal women. It’s why more conservatives than liberals are having babies,” Katie Miller, the wife of White House chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, said via X Wednesday.
Her claims were paired with an equally strange Fox News segment between Jesse Watters and Kid Rock in which the former dad rock singer shared his sexist epiphany on live television. [social media post, with video]
“We have this low birth rate in America,” Rock began. “It just hit me right now, because who is going to sleep with these ugly-ass, broke, crazy, [Trump Deranged Syndrome], liberal women? You look at these rallies, it’s like a bunch of women that no guy wants to sleep with and a bunch of dudes that want to sleep with each other.”
There are so many problems with Rock’s argument. And it’s a lot to assume any of these hypothetical women would be interested in sleeping with Rock [Yuck, yuck … and more yuck. Heebie-jeebies.]
[…] The thing is, studies suggest that conservative women are indeed having more children than liberals. However, it probably has nothing to do with how badly men want to sleep with them.
Per the Institute for Family Studies:
In the 2020s, just 40% of liberal women between ages 25 and 35 report being parents, down from 51% in the 2010s. By comparison, conservative women in this age range saw no statistically significant change: in the 2020s, 71% report being parents. This means there is a 31-percentage point gap between young conservative women and their liberal peers today.
And it also probably doesn’t have to do with the allegedly radical, leftist, […] women that Watters and the majority of MAGA seem to use as a bogeyman for women’s rights.
While MAGA points to women’s looks as the reason for plummeting birth rates among more left-leaning families, they’re ignoring the policies in place that are keeping women (who want children) from taking that step.
Conservatives are diving toward an ideology that promotes godliness and duty to provide offspring over the practicality of raising children in today’s world altogether. And that concern is what has many liberal families holding off.
Things like extreme costs for day care or childcare when parents go to work have come into the public conversation. Despite the desire, in some households, for one parent to be the breadwinner, affordability in Trump’s America makes that reality out of reach for many. Many mothers were able to join the workforce again when working from home was more accessible, but that has steadily declined as they’ve been forced back into the office.
Once a pregnant person does give birth, however, there is the fear of exorbitant hospital bills and Trump doesn’t care if that medical debt goes on people’s credit reports.
[…] With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortion has become less accessible—and continues to become less so. On the bright side, should you have a child before 2028, Trump will start a $1,000 savings account for them.
While women on the left are looking at the logistics, MAGA women seem to be pushing the message of faith that, somehow, it will all work out for them.
However, no amount of hair extensions and lip filler will make better policies for mothers.
Continuing to make this year’s World Economic Forum the weirdest and the worst, President Donald Trump’s nepo baby son-in-law and Slenderman stand-in, Jared Kushner, just unveiled the administration’s plans for a “new Gaza.”
It’s gonna be so elite, guys. Data centers, luxury apartments, “coastal tourism,” you name it.
The plans Kushner is touting are just some AI-generated slop of futuristic, fancy-looking buildings, rather than any actual proposal or architectural renderings. […]
Let’s not forget when Trump bragged about his big, dumb ballroom by showing off his so-called plans, which were also AI slop that featured such niceties as stairways to nowhere and overlapping windows. [!]
[…] Kushner’s plans raise more questions than they answer, and not just because they’re a bunch of vague nonsense.
For one, does the United States have official permission to take over and develop the whole of the Gaza Strip? Sure, the United Nations resolution talks about Trump’s Board of Peace as “a transitional administration with international legal personality that will set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza,” but that doesn’t seem to mean that Trump and his corrupt family can run wild, turning the Gaza Strip into Mar-a-Lago on the sea.
There’s also the question of what, exactly, Kushner’s role is here. Yes, he was named to the so-called Board of Peace by his father-in-law, but that, too, doesn’t seem quite the same as getting the nod to develop Gaza.
And I’d be remiss not to mention that this also seems wildly corrupt, with a member of Trump’s family set to benefit from Trump’s official actions—but by this point, his corruption is so vast and so commonplace that this isn’t even shocking.
Next, there’s the whole thing about who will live in this glittering seaside resort. The plans call for 100,000 new housing units amidst all of the data centers and fancy hotels, but who gets to live there? Nearly the entire Gaza population of 2.1 million has been displaced and lacks access to the most basic services. Do those folks get first dibs? How will they afford to live in this lap of luxury? [!!]
On top of that, how much will all of this cost? Though Kushner couldn’t be bothered to present any plans beyond basically asking ChatGPT to draw a futuristic city, he already has a number in mind: an investment of at least $25 billion. In true Trump 2.0 fashion, raising that money is going to be another spectacular opportunity for big companies and oligarchs to bribe the president.
Kushner also announced that the United States would be hosting an event for private investors, saying that the investment could be a little risky but would also provide “amazing investment opportunities.” [aiyiyiyi, run the other way!]
All of those billionaires who missed the chance to bribe Trump by helping pay for his gaudy ballroom will apparently get another shot. After all, it’s nice to have a diversified real-estate portfolio of ways to bribe the president.
One more tiny issue here—hardly worth mentioning, really—is that the whole development effort can only proceed if there’s an actual ceasefire. Trump bragged at the World Economic Summit that “we have maintained the Gaza ceasefire and delivered record levels of humanitarian aid,” but that would be news to Gazans, given that Israel keeps killing people in Gaza and Hamas has not been disarmed. [!!!]
But, of course, Trump doesn’t care about answering these questions. He cares about living out his developer fantasy with other people’s money.
“I’m a real estate person at heart, and it’s all about location, and I said, ‘Look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property, what it could be for so many people.’ It’ll be so, so great. People that are living so poorly are going to be living so well. But it all began with the location,” he said.
Ah, yes—the location that has been bombed to rubble by Israel. But all Trump sees is the possibility of more gold-plated grift. […]
Trump says the destruction in Gaza means “no one can live there.” […] “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings,” Trump said.
[…]
deadly items include grenades, artillery shells and large aerial bombs—and their identification and disposal is a necessary first step before rubble can be cleared and the rebuilding can begin. […] The number of pieces of ordnance would be in the “tens of thousands,” [an explosives expert] said. “My estimation is 25 to 30 years to get the priority [clearance] done.”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
^ DailyKos quoted at @178.
birgerjohanssonsays
Svante Pääbo and his disciples keep delivering.
“Ancient DNA Finally Solves the Mystery of the Teotihuacan People”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cxQoj2sutzM
The heritage of the original Americans gets less mysterious.
The premier federal prosecutors’ office in the country is consumed by the task of reviewing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to four people familiar with the matter and internal memos obtained by POLITICO.
Virtually every prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who isn’t handling an imminent or ongoing trial — including some who are working on other major cases — has been tasked with helping to review more than two million files to redact information about Epstein’s sex-trafficking victims. Even the high-ranking executive staff and unit chiefs are poring over the documents, often working weekends.
I think the original Dec 19th date was impossible given the number of files that turned up but the DOJ is also stalling release. They are not releasing files at a reasonable rate and the files that have been released are over redacted. The DOJ is not providing useful information such as how many files have been redacted, released, unprocessed.
The DOJ is presenting itself as disorganized, with a big pile of documents to redact and no specific information on how many have been dealt with. I find this unlikely but possible given how badly the DOJ is managed right now.
birgerjohanssonsays
The correct analog for ICE is not a foreign organisation like Gestapo. The most apt one is the slave patrols that were everywhere in the South until 1865.
While U.S. District Judge Richard Leon did not rule from the bench Thursday, promising a decision next month, his comments during arguments left little doubt about what way he was leaning.
here was a great deal of discussion about the funding mechanism for the project. Leon compared it several times to a “Rube Goldberg Contraption,” because of the novel way the Trump administration is avoiding direct congressional authorization for the project.
Roth claimed the Trump administration would be “irreparably harmed” if Leon were to order construction paused.
“Are we going to suspend construction in the middle?” Roth asked. He said a pause would expose the existing building to the elements and create national security concerns.
Roth is DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth. The Trump administration suddenly likes that irreparable harm issue. It’s really BS in this case because the government did the demolition without approval and is now trying to claim they can’t stop as a way to try and get around review.
I don’t expect the judge will block construction forever but there are other things he could do. Hopefully the judge at least forces some sort of real review rather then the planning committee that Trump has stacked with his yes men.
The White House posted a photo on social media that was digitally altered to make it look like a protester was sobbing as she was arrested in connection with a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Minnesota church.
A photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong’s arrest — showing Armstrong with a neutral expression — was first posted on X by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday morning. The image the White House posted appears the same except Armstrong’s altered facial expression shows her distressed, with tears running down her face.
In response to CBS News’ request for comment on whether the photo was altered, the White House press office sent a link to an X post by White House spokesman Kaelan Dorr referring to the post as a “meme.”
“Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Dorr said on X.
Scum. This is excessively tacky in general, posting it from the official White House account is terrible.
johnson catmansays
re JM @189: I have a great idea for a meme. The Orange Turd in an orange jumpsuit with shackles and chains on his arms and legs being led off to the El Salvadoran torture prison.
“Republicans offered prepared speeches and hostile questions that not only ignored Smith’s prior testimony, but often ignored his presence altogether.”
Good videos at the link.
Former special counsel Jack Smith’s public testimony Thursday should have been a sober accounting of the criminal investigations into President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Instead, the hearing predictably devolved into a scripted parody of reality TV.
The session began with a grandstanding opening statement from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, followed by prepared speeches and hostile questions that not only ignored Smith’s prior testimony, but often ignored his presence altogether. For example, Jordan declared that Smith’s investigation was “always about politics” without offering a shred of evidence.
Over the course of five hours, Republicans meticulously avoided discussing the substance of what Smith described as Trump’s “criminal scheme” to overturn the 2020 election. Rather than engaging with the evidence, they retreated into well-worn political grievances and attempts to impugn Smith’s character. [video]
Smith’s multi-year investigations resulted in two federal indictments against Trump, convictions of nearly 1,300 Jan. 6 rioters and incalculable controversy. […]
Smith had long volunteered to testify publicly, but Republican leadership initially resisted. The committee chose instead to have him testify behind closed doors, focusing on the alleged “weaponization” of the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.
During last month’s eight-hour deposition, Smith provided candid and detailed answers about the evidence against Trump for obstructing the certification of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, and for Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Because the Republican-led committee already released the full transcript and video of Smith’s Dec. 17 deposition, the motivation for Thursday’s public encore was obviously political.
Both parties saw value in having Smith repeat his earlier testimony in a televised setting: Democrats aimed to showcase a methodical, evidence-based investigation, while Republicans sought to discredit Smith’s methods and rewrite the history of that day. […]
On Thursday, Republicans continued the misdirection-driven circus. Republican committee members questioned Smith about subpoenaing phone records of certain Congressman, characterizing the tactic as illegal “spying.” However, Smith testified that the records were evidence of Trump’s attempt to reach lawmakers to delay certification. Furthermore, the subpoenas were approved by a judge and complied with then-existing Justice Department policy. [!]
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. — who is not a lawyer — argued that there was no criminal conduct if Trump believed he actually won the election, then didn’t allow Smith to respond and disregarded his detailed deposition testimony as to why this argument was not a legal defense to the charges. [head/desk]
Steering clear of any substantive evidence, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas — who is also not a lawyer — advanced a fallacious argument that Smith’s appointment was invalid due to technicalities with his swearing-in. [video]
All of this distracts from the fundamental principle at the heart of this: if a president commits a crime while in office, should they be prosecuted?
[…] the independence of the prosecution, the normalcy of the process and the weight of the evidence — matter. They are the tools we have to distinguish between a righteous prosecution and partisan retribution.
Smith’s use of those tools was not problematic or unprecedented. He was appointed as an independent special counsel — a customary practice since Watergate, even though U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon later issued a controversial and legally dubious ruling that the appointment was unconstitutional. And President Biden never directed Smith or anyone at the Department of Justice to prosecute Trump. In fact, Smith testified he never communicated with or received any guidance from President Biden related to the Trump investigations. [!]
This all looks even more benign when contrasted with Trump’s own political prosecutions.
Trump publicly demanded the prosecution of his perceived political enemies, effectively ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to target former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. He removed the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a career prosecutor who Trump had appointed, for failing to bring charges against Comey and James. In his place, Trump installed Lindsey Halligan — one of his former personal attorneys who had no prosecutorial experience — to make sure charges were filed. In November, a federal judge dismissed the Comey and James cases after finding Halligan’s appointment was illegal. (Earlier this week, a different federal judge issued a scathing opinion reprimanding Halligan for “masquerading” as the U.S. Attorney in violation of the November ruling. She finally resigned later that day.)
The Comey and James cases are only pieces of a broader campaign against the President’s critics. Trump’s Justice Department has reportedly launched criminal investigations of several political adversaries, including Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The DOJ has even targeted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Governor Lisa Cook, apparently because Trump disagrees with their monetary policy.
Against the backdrop of these perversions of our justice system, Trump’s vitriol towards Smith — he has called him “deranged,” “a criminal” and “a disgrace to humanity” — is the ultimate projection: a man accused of breaking the law attacking the man responsible for upholding it. [True!]
Any objective observer knows which administration has weaponized the DOJ for political gain. Yet Republicans spent much of Thursday accusing Smith of disregarding prosecutorial norms, while ignoring the Trump administration’s flagrant violations of constitutional guardrails. [video]
The hypocrisy is suffocating. It is unclear whether congressional Republicans are intentionally misleading the public to rile their base and appease Trump, or whether they somehow actually believe their own narrative, which has become nearly incomprehensible. […]
This hallucinatory spectacle raises a jarring question: are we still living in a reality rooted in objective facts, hard truths, and legitimate concerns about our republic? Or have we already succumbed to existing in a world where facts are elective, nuance is dead and 250 years of constitutional values are subordinated to Trump’s demands for political revenge?
[…] Shifting how we view facts based only on what the president wants to be true makes progress impossible and provides an instrument for autocracy and repression. […]
[…] “The Democrats talk a lot about the affordability crisis in the United States of America. And yes, there is an affordability crisis — one created by Joe Biden’s policies,” Vance said. “You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight.” [video at the link]
For now, let’s not dwell on the obvious fact that blaming Biden for the Trump administration’s failures to address cost-of-living concerns is difficult to take seriously. Instead, let’s consider two related points.
First, as Vance sees it, the United States as led by Donald Trump is the Titanic — a ship once thought to be unsinkable, before those at its helm made catastrophic misjudgments. (I don’t want to spoil the story for the vice president, but things didn’t work out well for the boat after an unfortunate confrontation with an iceberg.)
In the fall of 2024, a Wall Street Journal analysis described the state of the Biden-era economy as “remarkable,” which coincided with a Bloomberg analysis that said, “The nation is experiencing a dream combination of strong growth and low inflation.”
There is more where that came from. A month before Election Day 2024, The New York Times reported that the U.S. job market was “as healthy as it has ever been” — meaning in the history of the country — and described economic growth as “robust.” A few days later, The Washington Post’s Heather Long explained in a column, “We are living through one of the best economic years of many people’s lifetimes.” The same day, Politico described the status quo as “a dream economy.”
The Economist, a leading British publication, also described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world,” adding that the American economy “has left other rich countries in the dust.”
Vance and Trump have made extraordinary strides in turning things around. Unfortunately for the country, like the Titanic, the economy is now pointing in the wrong direction: down.
[I snipped details related to past cease-and-desist letters (June 2020), and to past lawsuits.)
[…] As 2026 gets underway, Trump is taking further steps down the same ridiculous path. After The New York Times published the results of its latest national poll, which also showed horrible results for the White House, the president published a tirade to his social media platform:
The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times. Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results. … They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!
The lawsuit he referred to was filed in the fall, when Trump announced that he was seeking $15 billion from The New York Times for coverage he said damaged his reputation. (It was one of several civil suits the president has filed of late against major news organizations.)
Just eight minutes after publishing his online item, he wrote a follow-up post that claimed news organizations are conspiring to hide the results of “REAL Polls,” which he insisted “have been GREAT.”
Ten minutes after that, Trump was still rolling. “Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense,” he wrote online, adding, “Something has to be done about Fraudulent Polling. … I am going to do everything possible to keep this Polling SCAM from moving forward!”
No one in Republican politics has ever even attempted to produce evidence of independent news organizations having secretly conspired with pollsters to generate public opinion data that hurts the president’s feelings. The very idea — even by Trump standards — is ludicrous.
[…] In 2026, however, Americans are not living in a normal and healthy political environment.
I have been highly critical of a lot of aspects of texass recently.
However, the article immediately below is only one example why I consider Jasmine Crockett a 5 star person. https://crooksandliars.com/2026/01/rep-crockett-calls-out-trumps-and-ices
Rep Jasmine Crockett spoke to the events going on in Minneapolis and the overall overt racism and fascism of Trump and his ICEtapo goons as only she can
Just two of the many good (by which I mean bad) nuggets from an exhaustive series of NYT Magazine interviews with current and former FBI officials about the catastrophic leadership of Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino …
On Patel: “There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn’t public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn’t to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that’s possible. They’re fighting with the director’s office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they’re arguing, He wants a picture out.”
On Bongino: “Bongino called the field office in Detroit. In the normal course of business, if the deputy director calls at a moment like that, they’re asking: How can we help? What do you need? They can turn on all the resources of the organization. But Bongino called and asked, What can I tweet about this? The field office has to be careful — this is their boss. But the body was still there. They said, We’ll get back to you. But Bongino kept calling back, asking, What can I tweet?”
The constant urge to tweet — instead of actually running a massive organization with counterintelligence and counterterrorism responsibilities on top of its core crime-fighting duties — is especially stark when paired with a quote attributed to Patel as he waved off briefing materials: “I don’t read.”
“We are in a much better place today than we were at the beginning of this week. But of course, the very fact that we are relieved that a NATO country is not going to attack another NATO country tells us that we are somewhere where we never thought we would be. And that, in itself, will linger.”—Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide
[…] A Minneapolis Star Tribune photographer captured a disturbing image of federal immigration agents spraying a chemical irritant directly into the eyes of a man who was subdued on the ground—an unquestionably excessive use of force.
[Photo is available at the link above, on the Minneapolis Star Tribune site, and on X https://x.com/NickKristof/status/2014507792414212169 “It shows federal immigration agents immobilizing a protester on the ground and spraying chemical irritant directly into his face.” Absolutely alarming. JFC]
[…] Ocasio-Cortez [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] laid out exactly how the “vertical integration” model allows CVS to have complete control over how much consumers pay for every part of their health care, from their premiums to their doctor’s visits to their prescriptions. Complete with a visual aid designed by CVS itself!
Behold, the transcript
AOC: Mr. Joyner, you are the CEO of CVS Health. Correct?
Joyner: Correct.
AOC: I actually don’t know how many Americans know this, but CVS Health owns Aetna, the health insurance company. Correct?
Joyner: Correct.
AOC: And CVS, which owns Aetna, also owns Oak Street Health Medical Clinics. Correct?
Joyner: Yes, it does.
AOC: And in addition to that, they own, of course, CVS pharmacies and CVS Health, and also own CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit manager, which helps negotiate some of these rebates and prescription prices. Correct?
Joyner: That’s correct.
AOC: And CVS Caremark processes nearly 30 percent of all prescriptions in a given year. And so in other words, CVS Caremark helps determine the prices that patients pay for a third of all prescriptions in the US. In fact, I was following one of CVS’s recent investor calls where they really laid out quite clearly what this means if you are a patient.
This is what’s known as a captive strategy. And CVS, in the investor call, used the example themselves of a patient known as Kate. Kate has an Aetna health insurance plan, right here, which is owned by CVS Health. She then goes to a CVS pharmacy. She’s connected to an Oak Street Health medical clinic. She sees a doctor at Oak Street Health who prescribes her medication and then she goes to fill that prescription at a CVS uh pharmacy. So the price Kate pays for that medication is dictated by Aetna, CVS, Caremark and they also own the drug manufacturer Cordivis. Um, Mr. Joyner, this is quite a bit of market concentration. Wouldn’t you agree?
Joyner: Um no, I wouldn’t agree that it’s market concentration. I would suggest it’s a model that works really well for the consumer.
AOC: Yeah. Um, I think it works very well for CVS. I think, in fact, you all said on the call that you all call it “a fully engaged member.” It’s great marketing there. “A fully engaged member unlocks sizable value for payers and CVS Health.”
She pointed to a sign citing this as a direct quote from someone on the investor call. And continued …
AOC: So the health insurance gets a cut, the pharmacy benefit manager gets a cut, the drug manufacturer gets a cut, and the patient gets screwed. I think the Federal Trade Commission has also found that health care conglomerates like CVS Health charge more for medications filled at their pharmacies.
We’re talking about thousand percent markups on medications for cancer and HIV. And, you know, I think this is actually an interesting point of common ground that I may have with some of our Republican colleagues here in this hearing because whether you’re a blue-blooded capitalist or a card-carrying democratic socialist, I think corporate monopolies are a problem and this vertical integration is destroying people’s ability to access care. […]
I saw something that was interesting from the opening statement of Mr. Hemsley from United Health talking about how much United spends, what was it, 85 percent on care, Mr. Hemsley? Approaching 90 percent. But the ACA forces you all to spend a decent amount of that on care. But when you own the care, when the insurer owns the pharmacy, owns the PBM, owns the drug manufacturer, you also own the health care cost. You own a big chunk of the health care cost. [Good points!]
And so, you know, a hundred years ago, we had this type of market concentration in our banks and we did something about it when it crashed the economy and we passed the Glass-Steagall Act. We should be considering that in our healthcare system. And if we believe in competition, I think we should put our votes and our legislation in alignment with that and consider breaking up this industry in order to allow the competition that prevents this kind of vertical integration and abuse of power. [!] And with that, I yield back.
BAM.
[…] Now, the Republicans were deeply incorrect about what they thought was the solution (giving people who are paying $2000 a month for health insurance $2000 for a year in an HSA they can’t spend on their premium to begin with) and much of the cause (the ACA, they very wrongly insisted), but other than that, pretty much everyone was in agreement with the fact that pharmacy benefit managers are the devil and this kind of vertical integration is bullshit that, very obviously, screws the customer.
(A pharmacy benefit manager negotiates the cost of drugs with pharmaceutical companies and also tells the insurance companies which drugs they should cover and which they shouldn’t. They’re hypothetically supposed to be in charge of keeping costs down, but they absolutely do not.)
[…] Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Oregon), whose case for HSAs was that they would allow the consumer to “make money” on them, mentioned interest, although people who are already solvent enough to not actually need to use their HSAs for their actual medical bills sometimes invest them instead, instead of the insurance companies. I looked it up, and $2000 would earn $3 a year in interest in a regular HSA account and $60 in a high-yield HSA account. And that would only be if you don’t actually spend it.
[…] Still, there is something ultimately very heartwarming about seeing all different kinds of people find common ground in hating health insurance companies and the executives who make tens of millions of dollars off of our collective illnesses. You don’t get to see that too often, and it’s a gift.
Also a gift is the idea of a Glass-Steagall Act for health insurance companies, which is an excellent idea and should be the next step here (after reinstating the subsidies). Granted, I’d prefer they not exist at all, but if they have to exist for now, this vertical integration shit needs to be burned to the ground.
You’d think that a dude who was just the centerpiece of a massive New York Times story about how his first year on the job has been “marred by vendettas, mismanagement, and meltdowns” might be engaging in the tiniest bit of self-reflection.
But since that dude is FBI Director Kash Patel, you would be so, so wrong.
Instead, Patel decided to do yet another purge of senior FBI employees for having the gall to investigate President Donald Trump and his supporters for their open, obvious, and well-documented crimes.
Honestly, it’s sort of a surprise that there was anyone left to purge, but apparently Patel had overlooked several Miami-based agents who played a role in the search for classified documents Trump stashed at Mar-a-Lago. […]
Also out are high-ranking agents based in Atlanta and New York. Because the government now operates in secrecy and without accountability, we don’t actually know exactly how many people Patel fired this time around—because the FBI won’t answer any questions about it.
Patel had already telegraphed that he planned more firings, going on Newsmax earlier this month to rail about payments to confidential sources and threatening to fire anyone who authorized payments to help identify Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
It’s not really a surprise that Patel did this not long after former special counsel Jack Smith’s testimony about his investigations into Trump’s crimes, which highlighted the depth and breadth of Smith’s careful work.
[…] When it comes to the actual duties of his job, Patel sucks. He’s botched multiple high-profile investigations. Then there was his boasting about having a suspect in custody for the murder of Charlie Kirk, only to have to walk that back a few hours later.
And let’s not forget his dramatic announcement that the FBI had foiled a terrorism plot in Detroit, except that there may not have ever actually been a plot in the first place. And, of course, there was the touting of the capture of a person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University—a person who turned out to be not connected to the shooting at all. [!]
He’s diverted actual FBI staff to watch over his girlfriend, the fake country star, and her drunk friends. He does not see running the FBI as warranting much of his attention or as something important enough to even live where his job is located.
The Times piece had a cavalcade of other very on-brand Patel antics, including showing up for major top-secret intelligence conferences with U.S. allies and, instead of going to meetings, watching soccer games, going on helicopter rides, jet skiing, and hanging out with his girlfriend.
With this level of disinterest and incompetence, it’s no wonder that Patel keeps resorting to firing people—the one thing he appears to be good at. Well, except for the fact that a bunch of those fired people are already suing Patel because he isn’t smart enough to consistently offer even a fig leaf to justify his purges.
In a normal administration, Patel wouldn’t even be qualified to be an administrative assistant at the FBI, much less run the place. […]
A federal judge ruled Thursday that university association members may seek relief from the court if their immigration status is changed as retribution for challenging an alleged Trump administration policy to single out campus activists critical of Israel’s war in Gaza for immigration enforcement. [Good news]
U.S. District Judge William Young’s order follows a trial last year where he found top Cabinet officials conspired to target noncitizens for deportation on account of their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel.
At a hearing last week, Young said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio operated an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to deport certain people so the university association members would be hesitant to speak out.
“The big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries, and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment,” Young said. “There doesn’t seem to be an understanding of what the First Amendment is by this government.”
The judge, an appointee of President Reagan, described his Thursday order as a “remedial sanction to protect certain of the Plaintiffs’ non-citizen members from any retribution for the free exercise of their constitutional rights.”
For a noncitizen to seek relief for their immigration status change under the order, Young said they would first have to show they were a member of the American Association of University Professors or Middle East Studies Association — the two university associations that sued — between March 25, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2025. Additionally, they would need to prove their immigration status had not expired and that they committed no crimes after Sept. 30, 2025.
If they prove as much, Young ruled the presumption will be that the alteration in their immigration status came “in retribution” for exercising their First Amendment rights during the course of the case.
It would void alteration of the person’s immigration status unless the government can prove their immigration status had expired, they were convicted of a crime […]
Ramya Krishnan, a senior staff attorney with the Knight First Amendment Institute, which represented the challengers, said in a statement the judgment makes “emphatically clear” that the Trump administration’s “campaign of intimidation must end.” […]
TikTok said Thursday that it has established a new U.S. venture as part of an agreement to allow the popular social media platform to continue operating in the U.S.
The deal brings to a close a lengthy saga for the app, which faced a ban if it failed to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
The new venture, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture, is majority owned by U.S. investors. Three American firms — Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX — will serve as managing investors, each holding a 15 percent stake.
ByteDance retains a 19.9 percent stake in the company. The remaining investors include an investment firm tied to Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell and affiliates of Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, among others.
[…] The spin-off aims to comply with a law passed by Congress in April 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores. The measure received widespread bipartisan support in the face of privacy and national security concerns related to the app’s ties to China.
TikTok challenged the divest-or-ban law, but it was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court just days before it was set to take effect. The app briefly went dark […]
Trump repeatedly pushed back the deadline, as he sought to reach a deal with China that would allow the app to continue operating in the U.S. A deal briefly appeared close in April but was scuttled by the president’s announcement of wide-ranging reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries, including China.
After an agreement was reached in September, Trump signed an executive order approving the deal to spin off TikTok’s U.S. business.
“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok!” the president wrote on Truth Social after the finalized deal was announced Thursday. “It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice. Along with other factors, it was responsible for my doing so well with the Youth Vote in the 2024 Presidential Election. I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok.” [JFC, that is an embarrassing statement from Trump.]
[…]
For greater-than, your keyboard might require a combination of a fn key and/or shift?
Thank you! This helped me figure it out.
coffeepottsays
@203 birgerjohansson
‘The California governor has proven himself to be a formidable adversary to Trump, unlike the Dem leadership in DC.’
and he’ll lose a general election. he’s pro-billionaire and anti-trans, he likes clearing out encampments of unhoused people and platforming the worst talking heads the right-wing has to offer.
the trump trolling is cool, his team should just stick to that.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Related to 165’s “the cost of doing business” callousness.
Remember that Mengele scare about RFK Jr funding the African antivaxxer study and the relative sigh of relief when it turned out to be exploitation rather than sadism? Time to suck that sigh back in… while it’s still safe to breathe.
Elizabeth Jacobs (Epidemiologist): “RFK Jr. appointee Kirk Milhoan has just clearly stated, out loud, that he wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread.”
[Kirk Milhoan] The chair of a federal vaccine advisory panel charted a new course for the committee in a podcast released Thursday […] arguing individual freedoms should be a north star of the panel, and pointing to the Covid pandemic as key to his thinking […] downplayed established science on vaccines during an interview for the podcast and suggested policy goals, not new research, were the driving force behind changing recommendations
[…]
“What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health, but individual autonomy to the first order,” […] “I don’t like established science,” he said, adding “science is what I observe.” He pushed back on [the] assertion that vaccines have been proven to reduce the spread of polio and measles viruses. [“]there is an emotion when people use the word proven.” […] Yet, he also said he had no new framework to evaluate vaccine safety, even as he criticized the CDC’s available vaccine safety reporting system.
[…]
Milhoan’s suggestion that both better sanitation and less crowding [compared to the 1960s] could bring [polio and measles] under better control than before the vaccines were introduced is a common talking point of Kennedy’s as well.
[…]
Milhoan also seemed to suggest that the ongoing outbreaks will generate modern estimates of the risks measles poses. “What we’re going to have is a real-world experience of when unvaccinated people get measles,” he said. “What is the new incidence of hospitalization? What’s the incidence of death?”
Boston Levenson (Sci writing prof): “We know what measles does w/o vaccine protection. The vaccine came in 1963, AKA living memory. We’ve seen outbreaks since in unprotected settings. Just as there was no mystery about syphilis solved by the racist Tuskeegee experiment there’s nothing here to be discovered beyond suffering and sorrow.”
Dan Jago (MBBS, MPH): “99 were hospitalised in Texas in 2025. 3 died. Is that enough for him?”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Nope.”
Commentary
By saying this, he’s admitting he knows vaccine works. Truly evil.
“What’s the incidence of death?” Shouldn’t a person at least stop for a moment of reflection as he hears those words coming out of his own mouth?
+ what’s the incidence of life-long disability?
When Trump said he’d bring back manufacturing, I didn’t have iron lungs on my Bingo card.
measles can literally hit the reset button on your entire immune system making you prone to numerous secondary infections and conditions down the line [for 2-3 years thereafter].
Let’s crash a few planes full of passengers and see how many survive! (He says as he boards a plane to Denver).
So, let me make sure I understand. No COVID mask mandates. No vaccination mandates. But the federal government is going to experiment on the national population without our consent. Do I have that right?
Elizabeth Jacobs: Yes.
Really. Just let one of the most contagious viruses in the world run amok? To satisfy someone’s morbid curiosity.
The real-world experience of unvaccinated people getting measles.
[Image: The Wikipedia ‘survivorship bias’ plane covered in red spots.]
This might be an interesting “experiment” if the US wasn’t sacking the experts who might do the stats
“You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” [the CEO said, and] regulatory delays and little support from the authorities make the market size “much smaller.”
One of the things I was most worried about is starting to come to fruition.
RFK Jr. will succeed in eliminating all of our vaccines if allowed to remain in office. His disinformation campaign and the falling demand for vaccines will cause American companies to stop making them.
This story is about the development of new vaccines. However, RFK Jr. is also trying to alter the vaccine injury compensation program in a way that could also bankrupt companies that supply our current vaccines.
Sky Captain @207, thanks for including these points (after chronicling the astounding callousness of Kirk Milhoan):
Wikipedia – Nuremberg Code:
5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur […]
6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.
“How Did Any Democrats Vote To Fund DHS Nazis? Just Asking For Liam, Age Five.” [photo at the link of Liam Ramos, age five, being detained by ICE creeps outside his home Tuesday. He and his father were then flown to an ICE prison in Texas]
As expected, the House of Representatives narrowly voted yesterday to approve a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of fiscal 2026, on a 220-207 vote. Seven Democrats joined all the Republicans but one in supporting the bill, despite a recommendation — but not an actual effort to whip the vote — from Democratic leadership to vote against the bill.
Here, for future reference/primary voting/rotten vegetable distribution, are those seven Democrats: Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (North Carolina), Laura Gillen (New York), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), and Tom Suozzi (New York).
Also, cheers to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) who voted against the DHS funding bill even though she helped negotiate the bipartisan DHS bill, with a few very limited restrictions on ICE, like fewer prison beds, funding for body cameras, and for a bit more training of the goon squads. But nothing to prevent abuses by the stormtroopers or to make them obey the Constitution. She knew it wasn’t sufficient, and voted no.
One Republican, weird Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against the bill, because “online censorship.” (Fuck it, why not.)
In addition to providing $10 billion in funding for ICE operations — roughly the same as last year, separate from the ginormous $175 billion bonanza for ICE in the Big Ugly Bill earlier this year — the $64 billion DHS funding bill provides funding for FEMA, TSA airport security, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and a bunch of other stuff.
The DHS bill was part of a package of 2026 appropriations bills that will fund the government through the end of September, when the new fiscal year begins. Now the whole mess goes to the Senate, which must pass the funding bills by January 31 to avoid a government shutdown.
Is there a ghost of a chance Senate Dems will force changes to DHS funding that could really bring Trump’s deportation Gestapo to heel? There’s that supposed power of the filibuster as a means of forcing concessions, but heavens, we wouldn’t want to trigger a government shutdown again, since then there’d be no constraints on ICE, whereas now the bill contains provisions that DHS will completely ignore. Back in a moment, gotta barf.
[…] we’ll close by reminding you that right now, tens of thousands of people in Minnesota are closing their businesses and walking out of their schools in a general strike. They are loudly, joyfully even, telling the government that they want ICE out of their state. [video]
On a day with subzero temperatures and a wind chill that feels like it’s -40° F, hundreds of clergy members and others knelt in prayer outside the Minneapolis airport [!] and ICE moved in to arrest them [!]; we’re sure DHS will insist they were all terrorists who support violent criminals.
Here’s a nice tip, if you want to follow what’s happening today, from Naomi Kritzer, a Minneapolis resident and author of one of our favorite science fiction short stories, “Cat Pictures Please.” [social media post with images and links to sources]
May some of Minnesotans’ courage rub off on our electeds, the end.
Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
237 PM EST Fri Jan 23 2026
Valid 00Z Sat Jan 24 2026 – 00Z Mon Jan 26 2026
…Major winter storm to begin impacting the Central and Southern Plains
today, before moving into the Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast this
weekend…
…Catastrophic ice accumulations are expected from the Southern Plains to
the Southeast/Mid-Atlantic…
…Dangerously cold temperatures set to expand across much of the eastern
two-thirds of the U.S. through early next week…
A significant winter storm is forecast to begin in the Southern Rockies
and Central/Southern Plains today, progressing eastward through the
Mid-South and into the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast through Monday. This
is expected to produce large swaths of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing
rain, bringing hazardous driving conditions, power outages, and tree
damage. The heaviest snowfall is expected across a large area, including
parts of the Southern Rockies, Plains, and through the Mid-Atlantic and
Northeast. Snowfall totals are expected to exceed one foot in parts of
these areas, and widespread travel disruptions are likely. South of the
snow axis, widespread freezing rain and sleet are expected, affecting the
Southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, Tennessee Valley, and much of
the Mid-Atlantic. Catastrophic impacts are expected where freezing rain
totals exceed half an inch, with over an inch expected in parts of
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and the Southern Appalachians.
After the passing of the winter storm, a strong arctic air mass originated
from Canada will continue to bring frigid temperatures into the eastern
two-thirds of the U.S. into early next week. Sub-zero low temperatures
will spread from through these regions, and will be accompanied by gusty
winds, bringing dangerously low wind chills. The coldest wind chills may
fall below -50F across the Northern Plains, and numerous other record lows
are expected. These wind chills will pose a life-threatening risk of
hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin, and risks could be prolonged
and exacerbated by power outages caused by the aforementioned winter
storm. Cold temperatures are then expected to continue across much of the
eastern two-thirds of the U.S. into early February according to a Key
Message from the Climate Prediction Center.
Meanwhile along the Gulf coast, potentially strong thunderstorms are
forecast in parts of southern Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida
panhandle on Sunday in the wake of a mid-level trough moving into the
Gulf. The progression of the trough will allow for a weak surface front to
remain in place after the passage of the previously mentioned arctic
front. After the front stalls, relative warm moisture advection is
expected from the Gulf, and with present weak instability and mid-level
support, strong to potentially severe thunderstorms are possible. The
Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a Marginal Risk of severe
thunderstorms on Sunday.
U.K., including Prince Harry, voices outrage at Trump’s Afghanistan remarks”
“President Donald Trump’s inaccurate belittling of the British role in Afghanistan recalled previous occasions when he has insulted injured or fallen soldiers.”
Britons including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Prince Harry and grieving parents of soldiers killed in action reacted with fury Friday to President Donald Trump’s inaccurate belittling of the role British troops played in the Afghanistan war.
Harry, a former army helicopter pilot, rebuked Trump for disrespecting fallen soldiers. Starmer called the president’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.”
In an interview with Fox News from Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump repeated his assertion that NATO allies would not defend the United States if called upon, despite the fact that the only time the alliance invoked its mutual-defense provision was in support of the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The president waved away the role that tens of thousands of troops from NATO countries played in Afghanistan, including 457 British personnel who were killed there, second only to U.S. casualties.
“We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them,” Trump said in the interview. “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” [What an arrogant, ignorant, doofus!]
Trump’s dismissiveness echoed his insulting of Gold Star families of fallen soldiers in the U.S. during his first presidential campaign and his chiding of John McCain for being captured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
[…] the inaccurate description of soldiers staying back generated anger across Britain’s political spectrum.
[…] Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called Trump’s remarks “flat-out nonsense,” saying that “British, Canadian, and NATO troops fought and died alongside the US for 20 years. This is a fact, not opinion. Their sacrifice deserves respect, not denigration.” Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and longtime Trump ally, wrote on social media: “Donald Trump is wrong.”
British veterans and military families expressed dismay at Trump’s characterization. Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered catastrophic injuries when his Land Rover struck a mine in Helmand province in 2006, called Trump’s comments “the ultimate insult.”
[…] Lucy Aldridge, mother of 18-year-old Rifleman William Aldridge, who was killed in a 2009 bomb blast, told the BBC she was “deeply disgusted” by the remarks. “[…] This isn’t just misspeaking, he has deeply offended — I can imagine — every NATO member who sent troops to fight in Afghanistan and certainly the families of those who never came home.”
[…] Online forums and social media channels favored by former service members pulsed with a sense of betrayal and frustration. “Has he forgotten the Helmand Province?” one Reddit user wrote, referring to one of the war’s toughest theaters and pointing to Britain’s high casualty rate. “We conducted sustained frontline combat operations alongside the U.S. forces.”
Trump will be excoriated on social media, one of his favorite methods of communication.
[…] Trump has withdrawn his invitation for his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, to join his “Board of Peace” […]
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.” [LOL, scoff]
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” he wrote. […]
“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney responded Thursday, hours before Trump’s disinvitation, that “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
The Canadian government said that it had agreed in principle to accept Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, but made clear it did not plan to spend the voluntary $1 billion fee to ensure permanent participation.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Davos earlier this week that there were “a lot of details to be worked out, but one thing which is clear is that Canada is not going to pay if we were to join the Board of Peace.”
Other key American allies, such as Britain and France, have declined Trump’s invitation to join the board.
Trump launched the body at an event on the sidelines of Davos on Thursday, joined by leaders from some democracies including Argentina and Indonesia.
But many of its members are authoritarian states criticized for their human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Hungary.
French officials have expressed concern that the board may seek to rival and undermine the United Nations, while Britain says it was put off by Trump’s invite of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Spare me. Is there no end to this particular debacle?
Amazon MGM Studios is reportedly spending $35 million to promote the theatrical release of its upcoming documentary on Melania Trump, despite early indications that few people are interested in the film or its subject.
Puck reported on Friday that Amazon has committed to the “insanely high” promotional budget, which comes in addition to the outsized $40 million that the company paid for the rights to the film.
The outlet noted that current tracking in advance of the movie’s Jan. 30 release projects a $5 million weekend at the box office. Puck reporter Matthew Belloni contrasted this with the much smaller promotional budget for the 2023 Taylor Swift documentary film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which brought in more than $93 million during its opening weekend.
Amazon has also purchased expensive ads for the movie that have aired during NFL broadcasts, hyped the film on the Las Vegas Sphere, and is advertising “Melania” on billboards. The documentary will have a glitzy premiere at the Kennedy Center […] and Melania Trump is scheduled to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Amazon is spending lavishly on the first lady’s vanity project while cutting jobs for American workers. According to Reuters, the company plans to lay off 30,000 corporate workers in a second round of firings following a purge of 14,000 employees in October 2025.
Company founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, who is one of the five wealthiest people in the world, is firmly on Team Trump. He donated a reported $1 million to Trump’s inauguration last year, around the same time Amazon made the commitment to distribute the film.
[…] Bezos has also spent the past few years molding The Washington Post, which he owns, into a MAGA safe space. [I would sat that the Washington Post is NOT “a MAGA safe space, not yet anyway. Lots of real and factual news is still presented on that platform. Maybe Bezos failed?] The boot-licking billionaire has directed the editorial board to push a Republican-friendly agenda, leading to an exodus of multiple writers and contributors—but eliciting praise from Donald Trump. [All true, but still not enough to completely neuter The Washington Post.]
Despite the massive expenditure on the movie, Amazon has downplayed a key member of the production: director Brett Rattner. Rattner’s previous projects include the film “Rush Hour,” although he has not been involved in a major Hollywood production since 2019.
This is likely because in 2017 he faced alarming allegations of rape and sexual harassment by multiple actresses. Rattner has denied the allegations but Warner Bros. announced it was severing ties with him when the claims surfaced. […]
A video circulated on X on Friday, reportedly filmed in Maine, where a woman was legally recording Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when a masked agent began photographing her license plate.
It led to an exchange with the masked thug telling the woman he is collecting her information “because we have a nice little database,” before adding, “and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
The woman pointed out correctly that it is legal to photograph and record law enforcement in public spaces—at least in the United States. “Are you crazy?” she asks. [video]
The video surfaced amid reports that masked ICE agents have begun employing their terrorist intimidation tactics across Maine. In a similar incident, the Bangor Daily News reported that ICE agents were seen all over Westbrook this week, warning residents and observers that “we know where you live.” […]
Thousands of protesters shut down parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Friday as hundreds of businesses closed their doors, and workers and students stayed home to demand an end to the sweeping immigration crackdown that has roiled the Twin Cities for weeks.
The Trump administration plans to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals back to Iran as early as Sunday, according to three sources with knowledge of the flight, the first known deportations to the country since President Donald Trump threatened its leaders over their treatment of protesters.
Steve Benen notes that this “sounds like a death sentence.”
Following an emergency summit on the state of the trans-Atlantic relationship, European leaders announced that they would soon propose an investment package for Greenland and would direct part of a surge in security spending toward the Arctic.
New York Times:
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine used a blunt speech before the world’s political and business elites on Thursday to take aim at European countries, denouncing their inability to stop Russia’s aggression and their timid response to President Trump’s threat to seize Greenland.
The House on Thursday just barely defeated a resolution that would have barred President Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval, weeks after he ordered a raid there without consulting or winning approval from lawmakers. The measure failed in an unusual tie vote of 215 to 215, with two Republicans crossing party lines in favor.
“The VP said that the executive branch should be able to issue its own warrants to enter homes.”
If you read mainstream coverage of Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Minneapolis this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he went there […] asking the city a simple question: How about we just give peace a chance?
CBS News, a network whose bosses have made elaborate contortions to please the president, portrayed Vance as calling on local officials to “lower the temperature.” ABC, NBC, and PBS all had similar headlines. [sigh]
But how did the temperature get so high? Per lawsuits, affidavits, and reporting from the scene, it’s mostly responsive to heavy-handed tactics from DHS officers in the city. Their number, around 3,000, far exceeds the normal civilian law enforcement force there to maintain order in normal times. The flood resulted in the killing of Renee Good earlier this month; a lawsuit from the ACLU accused DHS of detaining people without warning or cause en masse, solely on the basis of their race.
But Vance made another remark while in Minneapolis that has largely escaped attention.
He threw his support behind the idea that the executive branch can enter private homes as part of immigration enforcement without a warrant. It’s an argument that would transform the Fourth Amendment, which mandates that independent judges can issue warrants on the request of law enforcement.
Vance’s remarks came in response to a question about a whistleblower disclosure to the Senate, first reported by the AP. Per the disclosure, ICE issued a memo in May arguing that immigration authorities could enter private residences absent a judicial warrant if they believe that someone with a final deportation order is inside.
It’s a dramatic expansion of how immigration enforcement specifically and law enforcement generally has been expected to operate. ICE, as well as other law enforcement bodies, can only enter a private residence with a judicial warrant: immigration authorities can issue administrative warrants, but those have never been the basis for entry absent the consent of a resident. The ICE memo purports to change that.
What makes Vance’s remarks in Minneapolis somewhat confusing is that he appeared to state things in a way that misdescribed the law, let alone ICE’s attempt to reinterpret it.
Vance tried to dismiss the issue by saying that “nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant. We’re talking about different types of warrants that exist in our system.”
“Typically, in the immigration system, those are handled by administrative law judges. So we’re talking about getting warrants from those administrative law judges,” he said. “And then, of course, with other cases you get judges – or you get warrants from a judge. That’s very consistent with the practice of American law.”
That appears to be a misstatement of the law: Administrative law judges do not issue immigration warrants. Immigration judges, employees of the Justice Department, adjudicate immigration cases, but also do not issue administrative warrants. Those are issued directly by executive branch employees — immigration officers.
“Our understanding is that you can enforce the immigration laws of the country under an administrative order if you have an administrative warrant,” Vance added. “That’s our best faith attempt to understand the law.”
[…] In both the world of the ICE memo and the world Vance described, search or arrest warrants sought by the executive branch would be issued by the executive branch. As Vance described it, they would be issued by administrative law judges, whose independence has been curtailed under recent Supreme Court precedent. As the memo described it, immigration officers would issue warrants. In either case, the executive branch would be seizing power from the judicial branch, infringing on what have long been understood to be fundamental constitutional protections.
Cesar Cuahetemoc Hernandez, a law professor at Ohio State, argued to TPM that the interpretation would grant ICE officers more powers than those available to any other law enforcement official in the U.S.
“What this memo ostensibly does is it permits them to march into people’s homes under the flimsiest of evidentiary standards,” he said. “And that’s why we have the Fourth Amendment, because we want to make sure that there is some independent third party who is reviewing the evidence.”
lumipunasays
Re: 214
I get the impression that most of the US allies are holding out for a polite excuse to not join Trump’s “peace board”, while only few have accepted the invitation and some have openly declined.
Canada was apparently just offered an excuse to not join (hah). Sweden, Norway, UK and France have declined. Germany and Italy are reportedly now saying their constitution does not allow joining international orgs where one country has power over others. Finland is still holding out, hoping that Trump forgets he invited us.
The suspect’s name is Lue Moua, and he’s in a state prison in Faribault, where he has been locked up since Sept. 4, 2024 […] ChongLy Scott Thao, the man ICE agents detained last weekend, is a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record in Minnesota.
Microsoft is handing over Bitlocker keys to law enforcement. […] Bitlocker is the built-in hard drive encryption supplied in Windows. This is supposed to protect the data on your machine from being accessed without authorization. In many configurations, Windows will upload a recovery key to your Microsoft cloud account.
The problem with this is that these recovery keys aren’t encrypted end-to-end in a way that Microsoft can’t access. So if law enforcement wants to access your encrypted drive (even without knowing your password) they can just ask Microsoft for the key. And Microsoft will hand it over. […] this highlights a fundamental weakness of Microsoft’s design. If MS can easily produce this to law enforcement, then anyone who compromises their cloud infrastructure (and customer service infrastructure, or can forge a plausible LE request) can potentially access that data.
It’s 2026 and these concerns have been known for years. Microsoft’s inability to secure critical customer keys is starting to make it an outlier from the rest of the industry.
Rando 1:
a feature in Windows 11 Home edition called “Device encryption” (basically a stripped-down version of BitLocker that only encrypts the main system and any other fixed drives), which is enabled automatically if you sign into a MS account at setup of the device. It does store the recovery key in your MS account by default, and you don’t get access to the usual BitLocker configuration GUI seen in other Windows editions to make further changes.
Rando 2: [Commandline instructions to discover or delete one’s BitLocker recovery key, and how to generate another key if desired, though it should continue to work without one.]
Rob Pegoraro (Tech journo): “This got me to check how Windows 11 Home handles Bitlocker recovey keys. And while it does back them up automatically to your Microsoft account, you can save a copy elsewhere (like in an e2e-encrypted password manager) and then delete the uploaded key.”
Militant Agnosticsays
Lynna @197
regarding pepper spraying directly into the eyes of a person who was pinned on the ground
an unquestionably excessive use of force.
should read “a blatant act of torture”
This act is only done for one or both of 2 reasons
Sadist pleasure or to induce fear in other protestors.
.
Tippy Amundson, 39, and Heather Zemien, 55, were sitting handcuffed in the back seat of a three-row SUV […] heading toward the Whipple Federal Building. […] Amundson and Zemien were the only ones who recognized that the man was having a seizure. They spoke up immediately, telling the driver to pull over and telling the agents to call 911. When nothing happened, they repeated it, louder and more urgently. […] The SUV lurched over a curb and came to rest
Amundson could hear the agent’s tongue and fluids blocking his airway. She asked to be uncuffed. “He’s going to stop breathing,” she told them. Amundson, a kindergarten teacher who has received CPR and first-aid training through school emergency planning, moved without hesitation once the cuffs came off. […] Zemien, a personal care attendant
[…]
By the time emergency medical responders arrived, the women had been holding the agent steady for several minutes. […] Once the agent was transferred to medical care, Amundson and Zemien were placed into another vehicle and driven to Whipple anyway.
“I asked if we could just go home […] ‘We just saved his life. Is that cool with you?’ And they said no.” […] [An agent said] that because they had helped one of the agents, they could call one person.
Zemien called her attorney. By then, their support network was already mobilizing. Using a voice command to text a message during the detention, Amundson had managed to alert her husband, who contacted their state representative. Legal paperwork was already being gathered. […] A commanding officer eventually approached them. “We’re releasing you to your counsel and to your state representative,” the officer said, according to Amundson. “But you need to tell everybody that we treated you kindly.”
[…]
What stayed with Amundson most, she said, was […] the realization that came while she was holding the agent’s head in her hands and keeping his airway open. “I was hit so hard with the fact that this man would not do this for me,”
[…]
“We were willing to do for this man, this human, what they were not willing to do for Renee Good,” Zemien said. “It’s important for people to know how ill-prepared they are,” Amundson said.
the two were asylum seekers who were pulled over without a warrant and did not have a final order for removal. […] The case was quickly assigned to a judge, who signed an order […] Roughly 20 minutes later, the lawyers learned the child and her father had already been placed on the flight to Texas. […] They were transferred out of state within about eight hours of their detainment.
“To me, that is clearly part of this effort to try to evade the court’s jurisdiction,” said Vaynerman, the CEO of Groundwork Legal. “We have never seen this level of depravity with a 2-year-old.” Later [the next day], she said the girl has been reunited with her mother, but wasn’t available to provide additional details.
[…]
the father was not allowed to speak with attorneys before he and his daughter were transferred—a practice Vaynerman described as increasingly common in immigration detention cases.
StevoRsays
Posted on another thread so linking to that here :
Messy split oin the LNP coalition with the Nationals leaving the agreement – which hopefully menas neither mob willhave any ower for a good long time.
In the wake of the Coalition’s second split in less than a year, scrutiny is falling hard on both Ley and Littleproud.
Most Liberals believe Ley’s team prioritised short-term tactics over long-term strategy in relentlessly calling for the early return of parliament after the Bondi terror attack.
It’s how the party found itself wedged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who responded to Ley’s push with an omnibus bill every member of the Coalition had at least one problem with.
But if Littleproud was hoping to walk away as the victor, Liberals argue he made a huge error.
In making the end of Ley’s leadership a condition for a reunited Coalition, he has turned almost all the Liberals’ anger and discontent upon himself.
Allison Gill: “Last week, when we learned DoJ was investigating Renee Good’s partner, I said they’d probably investigate Good herself if she hadn’t died. Turns out…”
Chris Hayes: “THEY TRIED TO GET A WARRANT TO CRIMINALLY INVESTIGATE THE WOMAN THEY SHOT DEAD.”
After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer […] A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
[…]
Last weekend, Attorney General Pam Bondi urged other U.S. attorneys in Midwestern states to loan prosecutors to the depleted Minnesota office. The office normally has 80 prosecutors but is down to nearly half that number since Trump took office a year ago
StevoRsays
Penguins in parts of Antarctica are breeding up to two weeks earlier than a decade ago, likely in response to climate change, according to a long-term study.
The report, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, described it as the most rapid shift recorded in birds, and warned that it could cause increased competition.
“Our results indicate that there will likely be winners and losers of climate change for these penguin species,” lead author Ignacio Juarez Martinez said.
Homeland Security officials have urged disaster response staff at [FEMA] to avoid using the word “ice” in public messaging about the massive winter storm barreling toward much of the United States […] The concern is that the word could spark confusion or online mockery […] Instead, FEMA staff have been encouraged to use terms like “freezing rain”
wesinjapan (Disaster sociologist): “These fuckers are out of their minds. They do not care about safety in the least. Just to be clear: Watch out for ice AND Watch out for ICE. Both are cold and slippery and will kill you for no reason.”
Samantha Montano: “I 100% believe that it will be a meme that eventually takes this godforsaken administration down.”
“The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent.”
A FEDERAL JUDGE in Minnesota ruled last Saturday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violated the Fourth Amendment after they forcibly entered a Minnesota man’s home without a judicial warrant. The conduct of the agents closely mirrors a previously undisclosed ICE directive that claims agents are permitted to enter people’s homes using an administrative warrant, rather than a warrant signed by a judge. […]
I don’t have access to the rest of this report.
StevoRsays
As the first human moon mission in decades approaches two weeks before its prime launch date, NASA has a lot to do before it can get four astronauts into space on Feb. 6.
…(Snip)..
.. Blackwell-Thompson emphasized the team is prepared to take their time, and will only launch when they are safely ready. While Feb. 6 is the prime launch date for Artemis 2, windows are available in February, March and April at the least.
“We need to get through wet dress. We need to see what lessons that we learn as a result of that. And that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” Blackwell-Thompson said. “With a wet dress that is without significant issues, if everything goes to plan, then certainly there are [launch] opportunities within February that could be achievable.”
The ruling, […] in response to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on January 17, did not assess the legality of ICE’s internal guidance itself. But […] the same conditions ICE leadership has privately told officers is sufficient for home arrests […] Federal officials did not contest Gibson’s habeas petition.
[…]
One day after the judge ordered Gibson’s immediate release, ICE agents took him back into custody when he appeared for a routine immigration check-in at a Minnesota immigration office […] The re-arrest did not reverse the court’s finding that ICE violated the Fourth Amendment during the warrantless home entry, but underscores how the agency retains civil detention authority even if a judge rules that a specific arrest was unconstitutional.
StevoRsays
A tremendously large cloud that blocked the light from a distant star has been found to consist of swirling winds of vaporized metal. Even more curious, the cloud appears to be strangely bound to a mystery body that could be a massive planet or a low-mass star.
Astronomers were first tipped off to the existence of this metallic cloud in September 2024 when a sun-like star, designated J0705+0612 and located around 3,000 light-years away, became 40 times dimmer than usual. This dimming lasted for nine months, before the star returned to its original brightness in May 2025.
Follow-up to 111, regarding ICE exaggerating its street arrests and justifying the dragnet by claiming the detention facilities are releasing inmates onto the streets rather than cooperating to transfer them to ICE.
“DHS has repeatedly claimed that there are more than 1,360 individuals with ICE detainers in Minnesota custody. Despite requests, DHS has provided no data, no data source, no tracking methodology, no jurisdictional breakdown, no timeframe explaining how their numbers were produced. […] Minnesota law requires DOC to notify ICE when an individual committed to DOC custody is not a United States citizen. DOC […] goes further by honoring all detainers as a matter of policy […] ICE alone determines whether to place a detainer and is responsible for arranging pickup.”
[…] DOC conducted its own survey of county jails across the state, showing 94 people with ICE detainers. In state prisons, there are 207 people with ICE detainers. “That total is 301 individuals, nowhere close to the 1,360 that DHS has discussed,”
[…]
“We’ve reviewed every single DHS person who DHS has publicly named and here’s what we found, many individuals were never in Minnesota DOC custody at all, several have no Minnesota court or prison records whatsoever, some had short stays in Minnesota county jails, some are in custody in other states, many were directly released to ICE including cases going back to 2009, 2001, even into the 1990s.”
[…]
Schnell said if DHS believes they have failed to honor an ICE detainer, they’re asking them to reach out about the specific case, so it can be addressed. […] he’s reached out DHS several times directly and through third-parties to talk and DHS hasn’t returned their calls.
So the county jails—not governed by the state DOC—a subset of which use their autonomy to refuse administrative detainers—had too few instances to justify complaining about. And even then, that refusal is ICE’s fault for not bothering to involve a judge.
But the feds also still argued county officials don’t always do the same. […] [A county sheriff] says that detainers are often very generic, and not signed by a judge, but adds there is a simple, legal solution to that cause that isn’t not being used. […] “If you have a warrant, no sheriff would have any discretion about turning people over to the federal government.” Witt says it’s not that jails don’t want to cooperate with federal officials, but that there is—and should be—a process that needs to be followed in order to do so.
beholdersays
Follo-wub to @266 birger
Will Democrats vote to give Trump more money to ICE?
Of course they will. The deep state military-industrial complex always gets its way. @268 beholder
On Thursday, the House passed the combined defense and consolidated spending bills (H.R. 7148) by a vote of 341-88, with 149 Democrats voting yes and only 64 voting no. A separate bill funding the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (H.R. 7147) passed 220-207, with seven Democrats crossing the aisle to vote yes.
Republicans made no secret of what Democrats were voting for. After the vote Thursday, Representative Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, declared the legislation would “champion American military power, ensuring that our brave warfighters have the tools, weapon systems and capabilities to meet any foe anywhere in the world at any time.” He summarized the bill’s purpose in three words: “America First, Fully Funded.”
Representative Ken Calvert, chairman of the Defense Subcommittee, said the bill “protects the administration’s ‘America first’ defense agenda.”
The House Appropriations Committee issued a statement hailing the “Republican-led funding that puts America First. These bills advance President Trump’s agenda.”
Despite Republicans openly proclaiming that the legislation would fund Trump’s fascistic agenda, nearly two-thirds of House Democrats voted in favor of the defense and consolidated spending bill.
An “opposition” party that votes this way is not in opposition, but an active collaborator. The Democratic Party is an instrument of the same ruling class that stands behind Trump.
The total defense appropriations amount to $839 billion, some $8.4 billion above what even Trump requested. The bill funds $27.2 billion for 17 warships, including a Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine and two Virginia-class fast attack submarines. It allocates $7.6 billion for 47 F-35 stealth fighters, $3 billion for the Air Force’s sixth-generation F-47 fighter, $1.9 billion for the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, and $4.5 billion for hypersonic weapons systems. The legislation fully funds the ongoing “modernization” of the nuclear triad—the B-21, the Columbia-class submarine, and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile.
The Department of Homeland Security receives $64.4 billion, with approximately $10 billion earmarked for ICE. While the vote totals differed between the two bills, the fundamental intention is the same: the Democratic Party is systematically enabling the Trump administration’s assault on democratic rights and its preparations for global war.
The seven Democrats who voted for the DHS funding bill—Don Davis, Henry Cuellar, Laura Gillen, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Vicente Gonzalez, Jared Golden and Tom Suozzi—voted to fund the military occupation of Minnesota currently terrorizing immigrant communities. …
It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept [practices deemed DEI by Republicans].
birgerjohanssonsays
The new party leader shows how far you can go by offering voters someting new beyond the cliches of the labour-conservative debates. (Yes I know Labour is a million times better than the tories but Keir Starmer is still a huge letdown)
Exclusive: DOJ sought criminal probe of Renee Good after her death, sources say. Todd Blanche’s aides directed federal investigators in Minnesota to shut down the investigation into the ICE officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good—and instead probe the victim for possible criminal liability, according to reporting from MS Now’s Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian.
Video is 13:15 minutes. Excellent presentation of the facts and context.
Federal officers shot another person in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Saturday.
Walz, a Democrat, said in a social media post that he had been in contact with the White House after the shooting. He called on President Donald Trump to end the crackdown in his state. The details surrounding the shooting weren’t immediately clear.
“Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now,” Walz said in a post on X.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Associated Press in a text message that the person had a firearm with two magazines and that the situation was “evolving.” DHS also distributed a photo of a handgun they said was on the person who was shot.
After the shooting, bystanders gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. […]
Live updates: Federal agents shoot another person in Minnesota, governor says.
Federal agents shot another person in Minnesota on Saturday morning, Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post. Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the incident, and Walz provided few details. It was not immediately clear which federal agency was involved, and the condition of the apparent victim was unknown.
The governor called on the Trump administration to pull back on its surge in immigration enforcement in the state. “I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning,” Walz wrote on X. “Minnesota has had it. This is sickening. The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”
The city of Minneapolis posted on social media that it was aware of a report of a shooting in the city, adding that officials were seeking more information. […]
The city of Minneapolis posted on social media that it was aware of a report of a shooting in the city, adding that officials were seeking more information. “We are aware of reports of another shooting involving federal law enforcement in the area of 26th Street W and Nicollet Ave. We are working to confirm additional details. We ask the public to remain calm and avoid the immediate area.”, federal officials said.
Video shows a group of men who appear to be federal agents wrestling another man to the ground. Several gunshots ring out, and the man goes limp.
The Star Tribune later reported the man had died, citing Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. ICE attempted to order local police officers to leave the scene, O’Hara told the Star Tribune, but O’Hara refused.
A 51-year-old man shot Saturday by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis has died, a hospital record obtained by The Associated Press shows.
The person was shot amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Gov. Tim Walz said. The details surrounding the shooting weren’t immediately clear. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the AP in a text messages that the person had a firearm with two magazines and that the situation was “evolving.” […]
I’m not putting the video here; it’s plenty easy to find online. The man, beset by four five six agents, struggled to his knees as they tried to hold him down. An agent poured bullets into him. Maybe other agents did too. I counted six shots.
Right now, state police are protecting ICE from the enraged neighbors. Instead of turning around the other way, and facing off against ICE to protect the community, they’re just tackling some folks. (Edit: The Minneapolis police chief has ordered his officers to preserve the scene, despite ICE reportedly ordering them to leave. ICE has arrested witnesses and transported them to the Whipple building. We will have to see what happens.)
I’m not putting that video here either.
Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem will have some lies to tell. Make sure your loved ones […] know the truth. The truth that ICE and other DHS goons have been beating on immigrants and citizens alike, detaining and deporting people here legally who have done no crimes as well as US citizen children, and now claim nothing in the Constitution protects us.
Have a cry, have a weep, care for a neighbor, call your representatives and scream at their poor staffers. Do what you need to do to keep strong and steady.
Photo at the link. The gun appears to be placed on the seat of a vehicle.
The Department of Homeland Security shared a photo of what it says is a gun that belonged to the person who was shot in Minneapolis this morning.
It is not illegal to carry a concealed weapon in Minnesota, according to the state’s department of public safety. It’s unclear what led up to the incident or how the gun allegedly came into play.
Chief Brian O’Hara said: “Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the person who was shot and killed was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
A spokesperson for DHS said in a statement that the man threatened agents with his firearm.
O’Hara also said traffic tickets are the man’s only prior violations of the law.
[…] Federal agents have again begun to tear gas and throw pepper bombs at protesters, as local authorities address the city at a press conference.
Rachel Sayer, the director of the Emergency Management Department in Minneapolis, compared what she has seen in the city to her experience in international conflict zones.
Sayer said her background is in international human response in conflict zones, like in Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.
“What I’ve seen here is what I’ve seen there: a powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people, making them afraid to go outside so they can’t earn a living, so that kids are forced out of school,” Sayer said at a news conference this afternoon.
She added: “This has a lasting, generational impact.”
Several members of Congress from Minnesota have condemned the shooting in Minneapolis, with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., writing on X that it “appears to be an execution by immigration enforcement.”
“I am absolutely heartbroken, horrified, and appalled that federal agents murdered another member of our community,” Omar continued, adding that the shooting “isn’t isolated or accidental.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote on X urging the Trump administration to “get ICE out of Minnesota NOW.”
“The world is watching. Thousands of citizens stopped and harassed. Local police no longer able to do their work. Kids hiding. Schools closed,” the senator added. “And Republicans in Congress: Stop your silence and stop being complicit.”
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., also called out her Republican colleagues, writing on X, “This is sickening. The agency is beyond out of control. How much more evidence do my Republican colleagues in Minnesota need to speak out?”
Rep. Tina Smith, D-Minn., added in her own post that “ICE must leave now so MPD can secure the scene and do their jobs,” calling the incident “another catastrophic shooting in Minneapolis.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has a message for Americans after DHS agents shot and killed another resident of his city: “Stand up.”
“How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end? How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values?” Frey asked.
“How many times must local and national leaders must plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city?”
He called on President Donald Trump to “act like a leader” and to “put America first.”
“Let’s achieve peace. Let’s end this operation. And I’m telling you, our city will come back. Safety will be restored,” Frey said. [video]
Officials said the person shot and killed by DHS agents this morning is a white male, age 37, and a resident of Minneapolis.
They said they believe he is an American citizen.
[…] When Andrea IkweStrong and her sister arrived at the scene near Glam Doll Donuts in Minneapolis, ICE agents already had their guns drawn, she told NBC News. When they approached, she said agents had already shot someone and that medics were starting CPR.
“It’s packed here at the moment, people are everywhere. They spraying people with gas, and I witnessed them spray a person point-blank in the face, who managed to turn his face just in time so they only got the back of his head,” the witness said.
She called the agents in the city “bullies.”
“How can we go to work if we’re being shot and killed?”
[…] A spokesperson for DHS said law enforcement officers were “conducting a targeted operation” this morning in Minneapolis “against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.” [“Targeted operations” look to me like chaotic and ill-planned random harassment.]
While they were conducting that operation, the spokesperson said, someone approached the officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. [We cannot assume that DHS is telling the truth.]
The spokesperson said the person “violently resisted” after attempts to disarm them, adding that more details on the “struggle” are forthcoming.
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots,” the spokesperson said. Medical aid was given to the suspect, but the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect had two magazines and no identification, the DHS spokesperson said.
After the shooting, around 200 “rioters” arrived at the scene “and began to obstruct and assault law enforcement on the scene,” the spokesperson continued. Crowd control measures were used, they added. […]
“Zelenskyy says trilateral negotiations were constructive, with more meetings possible next week, despite massive Russian airstrikes overnight.”
Ukraine, Russia and the United States concluded a second day of U.S.-brokered trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, which Kyiv described as “constructive” despite continued attacks by Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the two days of meetings in the United Arab Emirates — the first in trilateral format in years — focused on possible parameters for ending the war and the security guarantees required to make any agreement credible.
“Our delegation delivered a report; the meetings in the UAE have concluded,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “A lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive.”
The talks brought together senior military and intelligence officials from all three sides. Ukraine’s delegation included Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov; Russia was represented by members of its armed forces and military intelligence; and the U.S. delegation included President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and senior White House advisers.
Zelenskyy said the U.S. side raised possible formats for formalizing any future settlement, as well as the need for American monitoring and oversight of a potential ceasefire or peace process.
“As a result of the meetings held over these days, all sides agreed to report back in their capitals on each aspect of the negotiations and to coordinate further steps with their leaders,” Zelenskyy said, adding that military representatives had identified issues for a potential follow-up meeting.
Russia’s TASS news agency also reported that the talks produced results and could continue in the coming days.
The diplomatic efforts unfolded against the backdrop of Moscow’s largest aerial assault on Ukraine so far this year. Ukrainian officials said hundreds of drones and missiles struck Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities overnight, killing at least one person and leaving millions without power and heat amid subzero temperatures. [!]
Zelenskyy said on Friday that it was “too early” to draw conclusions from the talks. He reiterated that Ukraine would not accept territorial concessions demanded by Moscow.
Greenland’s mining minister has rejected U.S. attempts to carve up her island’s mineral resources, saying no external power should decide the fate of the Arctic territory’s vast natural wealth.
“Everything is on the table except [our] sovereignty,” Mineral Resources Minister Naaja Nathanielsen told POLITICO in an interview, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte held closed-door talks that the U.S. president claimed included a deal on the island’s resources.
Nathanielsen challenged their right to do this, saying her country was “not going to accept our future development of our mineral sector to be decided outside Greenland.”
Trump started the week threatening to impose massive tariffs on EU countries if they didn’t hand over Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, to the U.S., but backed down Wednesday after saying he had reached a “framework for a future deal” with Rutte.
But if that deal includes allowing any country other than Greenland to control its minerals, it’s a “no” from Nuuk, the minister said.
The Arctic island is home to enough of some kinds of rare earth elements to cater to a quarter of the world’s demand, along with vast amounts of oil, gas, gold and clean energy metals — but has extracted almost none of them.
Although the exact details of the framework remain unclear, a European official told POLITICO on Thursday it could include an oversight board to supervise the island’s minerals.
Nathanielsen rejected that possibility. “That would amount to giving up sovereignty, that is our jurisdiction, what happens with our minerals,” she said, suggesting the possibility of resolving the issue over Greenland’s resources through multilateral talks.
“I’m not saying there is no deal to be had,” said the Greenlandic politician, adding that the government had “no objections to building up [NATO] capacity in Greenland or monitoring of any kind” and is also open to developing a 2019 mining cooperation agreement with the U.S.
“But we cannot begin to trade minerals for sovereignty,” she said. […]
Greenland is cautiously reviewing the risk levels that the U.S. presents after Trump seemed to exclude the possibility of military intervention on the island.
“People are still on edge, but we have taken steps down the conflict ladder,” said Nathanielsen. But it’s become clear that, “the U.S. is an ally, not necessarily a friend right now,” she added.
That evil murderous barbaric narcissistic egomaniacal pile of excrement and his fascist and plutocratic magat followers have proven that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
https://apnews.com/article/puerto-rico-trump-us-solar-energy-projects-cancelled-81250b7eea3f1d15902b44c0e16a1e97
By DÁNICA COTO Updated 5:33 PM MST, January 22, 2026 Leer en español
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled solar projects in Puerto Rico worth millions of dollars, as the island struggles with chronic power outages and a crumbling electric grid.
SHERMANJ COMMENT; that project was to have helped the low income people there in their battle against a huge corrupt corporation !
THE CELESTIAL REALM (The Borowitz Report)—Stating that He had had “just about enough of this idiot,” on Saturday God wreaked revenge on Donald J. Trump by transforming the United States of America into Greenland.
In a terse public statement, the Almighty declared, “Prayers answered, jerkwad.”
The act of God coupled with His blistering pronouncement left many atheists reconsidering their positions, nonbelievers reported.
In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney extended a helping hand to his beleaguered American counterpart, offering, “Since we know how to handle cold weather, we would consider making the United States our eleventh province.”
@259 Lynna, OM 24 January 2026 at 1:39 pm told us about winter weather in the USA, as reported by NBC; which provided some of the disastrous implications.
I say, this inability for any of magat hordes or the orange pile of excrement or the main slime media to say ‘All this suffering, death and chaos is caused by human influenced climate change’ proves that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
The man that ICE murdered today in Minneapolis was filming ICE agents, as he’s allowed to do, and was killed for helping a woman being pepper-sprayed by the mad king’s private goon militia. [social media post with video]
His name is Alex Pretti, and he was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at the Veterans Administration. You think it can’t get worse, and it does. [Photo at the link.]
ICE claimed he had a gun. He did. He never drew it. He had a license for it. The ICE goons retrieved it. Then they executed him. [social media post, with video: “Third angle of today’s shooting of a 37-year-old male by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, clearly shows one of the agents running away from the scuffle before the shooting carrying the victim’s handgun, a Sig P320.“]
Thank god for Minneapolis police, who aren’t playing. [social media post: “They tried to cover it up immediately and the Minneapolis police chief refused. Witnesses have been taken to police headquarters and all available off duty police have been called to work. ICE cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Congress must act now. The Courts must stop the stupid foot dragging. Enough is enough.”]
And of course, MAGA is now claiming the execution was justified because Pretti had a legally permitted gun. They were never about owning guns to protect themselves from a tyrannical government. They want guns in order to impose tyranny, and protect that tyranny from the people.
Here is Gestapo chief Greg Bovino flat-out lying: [social media post, and video]
And this is just the latest of a never-ending stream of outrages. Just another day in Trump’s America. [social media post and video: “This is a cruel disgrace. ICE agents in Minneapolis chase, tackle, and handcuff a child in the freezing cold and snow while he yells “I’m legal! I’m legal!” How does this make us safer? How does this target “the worst of the worst?” Horrifying and shameful.”]
And it’s not just in Minneapolis. Protesters in Maine are being targeted and threatened too. [social media post and video]
[…] The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.
President Donald Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out at Minnesota’s governor and the Minneapolis mayor.
Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”
In a bystander video obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at agents on Nicollet Avenue.
The video shows an officer shoving a person who is wearing a brown jacket, skirt and black tights and carrying a water bottle. That person reaches out for a man and the two link up, embracing. The man, wearing a brown jacket and black hat, seems to be holding his phone up toward the officer.
The same officer shoves the man in his chest and the two, still embracing, fall back.
The video then shifts to a different part of the street and then comes back to the two individuals unlinking from each other. The video shifts focus again and then shows three officers surrounding the man.
Soon at least seven officers surround the man. One is on the man’s back and another who appears to have a cannister in his hand strikes a blow to the man’s chest. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. As they pull his arms, his face is briefly visible on camera. The officer with the cannister strikes the man near his head several times.
A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear from where the shot came. Multiple officers back off of the man after the shot. More shots are heard. Officers back away and the man lies motionless on the street.
[…] Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said the officer who shot the man had extensive training as a range safety officer and in using less-lethal force.
“This is only the latest attack on law enforcement. Across the country, the men and women of DHS have been attacked, shot at,” he said.
Walz, a Democrat, said he had no confidence in federal officials and that the state would lead the investigation into the latest fatal shooting.
[…] The age of the man who was shot has been corrected to 37, per information from the police chief. The AP previously reported his age as 51 based on a hospital record.
Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse dedicated to treating veterans, said Dr. Aasma Shaukat, who said she hired Pretti at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System about a decade ago
.
“Alex was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest soul you ever met,” Shaukat said.
Shaukat, now a physician and clinical researcher at the Manhattan VA Medical Center, hired Pretti for a research position.
“He was very bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, he wanted to get into the health care field, work with patients and be a nurse,” she recalled, and “he did wonderful. Did his work really well, was a team player.”
After finishing nursing school, Pretti, 37, returned to the Minneapolis VA as an intensive care nurse, she said.
“He wanted to serve the veterans, just had a high sense of duty and thought they were a vulnerable group in the country who needed our help,” she said.
[…] Pretti did not talk about politics, she said.
“But when things got brought up, he always stood for people and human rights, helping fellow citizens and just being a good citizen of society and the communities that he lived in,” Shaukat said.
Shaukat described bystanders’ video of the shooting as “horrific. They [federal officers] look like trained militia. Clearly, they’re emboldened.”
“It just feels so wrong,” she said. “Knowing Alex, he was probably trying to protect or help or shield somebody from the agents. He had not a single mean bone in his body; always spoke about doing the right thing.”
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said his investigative team secured a search warrant to examine the crime scene where Saturday morning’s fatal shooting occurred, but was denied access by federal officials.
Evans said the warrant was “an unusual move in a public area like that. But we did that attempting to have judicial approval to enter the scene to gather evidence.”
Evans said the Department of Homeland Security has not provided state investigators with the names of the federal officers involved in Saturday’s shooting or the federal agents involved in other recent shootings in the state.
[…] Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said at a news conference that he was thankful there was video documentation of Saturday’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis, saying that the Department of Homeland Security’s description of what took place was “nonsense.”
“Thank God we have video because, according to DHS, these seven heroic guys took on an onslaught of a battalion against them or something. It’s nonsense, people. It is nonsense, and it’s lies,” he added. “ … The American public knows, and this needs to be the event that says enough.”
[…] Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) confirmed during a news conference that the state’s National Guard had been activated.
Major General Shawn Manke said that on Saturday morning, the Guard began responding to a request for support from the Hennepin County Sheriff to provide security at the Whipple Building — a home base for federal immigration agents in the area — and was preparing to respond to other requests from local law enforcement.
“We are mobilizing more soldiers as we talk at this time,” Manke said.
Walz said he would be “billing” the federal government for the resources.
Updates from the New York Times: Minneapolis Live Updates: Videos Appear to Contradict Federal Account of Killing
An I.C.U. nurse shot by federal agents was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun.
[…] Videos analyzed by The New York Times appear to contradict the accounts of federal officials, who said Mr. Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a handgun and the intent to “massacre” them. Video footage shows Mr. Pretti stepping between a woman and an agent who is pepper spraying her. Other agents then pepper spray Mr. Pretti, who is holding a phone in one hand and nothing in the other, and pull him to the ground.
His concealed weapon was found only after he was restrained on the sidewalk.
Federal officials posted images of a handgun they said Mr. Pretti was carrying, and have blocked attempts by Minnesota law enforcement officers to investigate the encounter. Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis police said the victim was an American citizen with no criminal record, and had a valid firearms permit. Open carry is legal in Minnesota.
[…] Here’s what else to know:
Federal claims: Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of President Trump’s Border Patrol operations, said without evidence that Mr. Pretti had “wanted to do maximum damage.” Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota disputed the claim that he posed a threat. “Thank God we have video!” he told reporters. “It’s nonsense people, it’s nonsense and it’s lies.”
Multiple shots: Mr. Pretti has both hands clearly visible when approaching federal agents, video shows. He moves to help a protester whom the agents had pepper sprayed, and is pulled down from behind. Agents appear to have fired at least 10 shots within five seconds after taking him to the ground, according to a Times analysis of social media videos. Chief O’Hara said investigators believe that at least two agents opened fire.
[…] Investigators blocked: Drew Evans, who heads the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said federal agents had blocked state investigators at the scene of Saturday’s shooting. Mr. Evans said his agency took the rare step of obtaining a search warrant to access the shooting scene on a public sidewalk, but have been stymied. […]
[…] An agent begins shoving the demonstrators, and squirts pepper spray at their faces.
At this moment, Mr. Pretti has both hands clearly visible. One is holding his phone, while he holds the other up to protect himself from pepper spray. He moves to help one of the protesters who was sprayed, as other agents approach and pull him from behind.
Several agents tussle with Mr. Pretti before bringing him to his knees. He appears to resist as the agents grab his legs, push down on his back and strike him repeatedly.
The footage shows an agent approaching with empty hands and grabbing at Mr. Pretti as the others hold him down.
About eight seconds after he is pinned, agents yell that he has a gun, indicating that they may not have known he was armed until he was on the ground.
The same agent who approached with empty hands pulls a gun from among the group that appears to match the profile of a firearm DHS said belonged to Mr. Pretti.
The agents appear to have him under their control, with his arms pinned near his head.
As the gun emerges from the melee, another agent aims his own firearm at Mr. Pretti’s back and appears to fire one shot at close range. He then appears to continue firing at Mr. Pretti, who collapses.
A third agent unholsters a weapon. Both agents appear to fire additional shots into Mr. Pretti as he lies motionless.
In total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds. […]
In the pink coat footage, an agent shoved a woman to the ground and wielded a can of pepper spray, Pretti stepped in to deflect the agent’s arm and turned to shield her from the spray with his back. Then multiple agents tackled Pretti.
video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired.
[…] the man was filming, holding a phone in his right hand, backing up. His left hand is up, visible, palm facing out, as he backs away from the area. An agent uses his right hand, on the torso of the victim, pushing him back, while the man complies.
Multiple federal agents can later be seen struggling with the man who is shot. One federal agent is seen approaching with empty hands, before reaching around the man’s waist. Moments before the first shot is fired, this federal agent can be seen retreating with a gun. It appears to match the general appearance of the firearm posted by DHS, including the red dot sight. This agent’s back is turned when the first shot occurs.
Two different agents are visibly firing their guns, with at least 10 shots being heard in total. Most of them are fired after a brief delay, when the man is already lying motionless on the ground.
The agent in the black beanie appeared to fire the first shots, as the agent in the brown beanie doesn’t draw his gun until after the first shots are fired.
[…] We’ve placed the available videos […] into the same synchronised timeline and are continuing to analyse further. [Video collage]
Southpaw (Lawyer): “The federal government’s official story […] is that DHS killed a guy for simply having a gun. This is the gun rights lobby’s nightmare scenario, and they likely won’t utter a mumbling word of opposition.”
[…] Two men and one woman were found dead in New York City on Saturday morning amid freezing temperatures, the New York Police Department said. All three were discovered outdoors, where they were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The NYC Chief Medical Examiner will determine their cause of death.
The deceased appeared to be “undomiciled,” an NYPD spokesperson said on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the deaths that were still under investigation. […]
Sky Captain @270, thanks for adding the information posted by Bellingcat.
Follow-up to comments 265, 266, 267, 268, 269 and 270
Kristi Noem lies … again:
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem reiterated the administration’s view that the victim in the shooting was interfering with law enforcement.
“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him, and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers,” Noem said in a news conference.
“These agents took actions to defend their lives,” she said later.
The quoted text referring to Noem’s statements was posted in the Live Update section of The Washington Post.
Follow-up to comments 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 and 272.
More on the response from Trump’s lackeys, as reported by the New York Times:
Kristi Noem called the victim of the shooting a domestic terrorist. “This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism,” she said. “That’s the facts.” Earlier in the day, Stephen Miller has described the man as a domestic terrorist as well. [blatant lies]
[…] Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, continues to say at her news conference that she knew the intent of the individual killed by D.H.S. officers on Saturday. “The facts of this situation: this individual showed up to an law enforcement operation with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition,” she said. “He wasn’t there to peacefully protest.” There is no evidence, as of yet, about the motives of the man. [!]
More details regarding the response from Minneapolis’ elected leaders:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city will be asking a federal judge to order an end to the immigration crackdown immediately. The city is a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking an end to the federal operation and the parties have a court hearing scheduled on Monday.
[…] Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, called on Congressional Republicans to “condemn this violence” and refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security. “All Americans should be outraged,” she said. “If it can happen here, it can happen in your community too.”
[…] Senator Amy Klobuchar called on Republicans to join Democrats in decrying the immigration operation in Minnesota. “They know what’s going on here,” she said. Most Republicans in the state have refrained from criticizing the deployment of thousands of immigration agents.
Senator Amy Klobuchar delivered a statement at the news conference on behalf of all Democrats in Congress. “Our message is really clear: We need ICE out of Minnesota,” she said. “They are not making us more safe.”
[…] Mayor Frey said that “most of the protests that we’ve seen have remained peaceful” and urged residents to “keep it that way.”
Chief O’Hara said some protesters had engaged in “unlawful acts” earlier in the day. He said some people erected barricades and threw items at law enforcement. State and local law enforcement used “less lethal and gas munitions” but later in the day the gathering at the shooting scene had become peaceful.
[…] Minnesota National Guard members deployed in Minneapolis to guard a federal building and a neighborhood where federal agents shot and killed a man on Saturday morning will wear neon reflective vests. State officials said this is being done so residents can distinguish National Guard soldiers from federal agents involved in the immigration crackdown, many of whom have been wearing uniforms similar to those worn by members of the military.
[…] Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has requested assistance from the National Guard to protect the area where federal agents shot a resident Saturday morning. “Local law enforcement resources are stretched thin because of the disruption to public safety caused by thousands of federal immigration agents in neighborhoods,” the city said in a statement. Gov. Tim Walz has authorized the deployment of the guard amid concerns of escalating violence. […]
Rachel Sayre (EmgyMgmt Dir): “My background is in international humanitarian response in conflict zones in Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. What I’ve seen here is what I’ve seen there. A powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people.” [Video clip]
Cops sealed off 26 st. Lots of tear gas coming now. People taking refuge in nearby apartments. People have built a barrier of dumpsters one block away from the riot cops on 26th. State troopers in riot gear are protecting ICE agents who have long guns. People yelling at the state troopers, “turn around and arrest them! They just killed a Minnesotan!”
* Velshi said the long guns are canister weapons loaded with tear gas.
Dozens of federal agents are facing off with hundreds of outraged residents. People being tear gassed, helicopters above, I keep hearing pops, and lots of loud BANGS. […] More and more angry residents keep pouring in and are shouting at the federal agents, who have been retaliating with lots of tear gas. People have been running up to people getting tear-gassed and giving them water to pour in their faces. It’s negative six degrees out here. More tear gas. More flash bangs.
People are rolling trash bins down the street toward the federal agents and leaving them in the middle of the street, apparently creating a barricade. Several people have been throwing up from tear gas. But more people still going back toward the federal agents. “Whose streets? Our streets!”
[…]
Feels like a goddamn war zone […] There’s also a drone hovering above the crowd […] These are just regular people out here, wearing snow goggles and gas masks, holding cardboard signs telling ICE to GTFO of MN as federal agents spray tear gas and set off flash bangs […] More people rolling out trash cans, and now couches. […] “That’s my couch,” said a woman standing nearby. “It’s been on my porch for four years […] My neighbor will be pleased it’s gone now.”
[…]
A fire truck came through and cleared the barricade of trash bins and the couch. […] Now I know why the fire truck came […] According to eyewitnesses, ICE agents threw a teargas canister at this car, and it caught on fire! WTFFFF?
[…]
I had to peace outta there. I haven’t eaten […] I have never seen a community of people so united and so committed to helping each other in the face of something so terrible, in my decades of reporting on terrible things. The people of Minneapolis are all in this together, legit. You can feel it and see it everywhere. It’s incredible.
Rando: “[A couch.] Damn they’ve started setting traps for the vice president.”
Velshi: This is going on […] An hour and a bit after a reported shooting. […] This guy has his gun out of his holster. […] It does look like ICE is having trouble getting control of the scene […] because this isn’t actually what they’re trained to do under any circumstances.
[…] Agent (6:21): It’s like Call of Duty! So cool, huh.
[*flooding the area in tear gas and pepper balls*]
Acyn: “Protester in Minnesota: I’m 70 years old, and I’m fucking angry!
[*grabs a bottled water and disappears as gas envelops him*] [Video clip]”
Derek McCaw:
I met the man who created Call of Duty, about 12 years ago. He regretted it, and as penance was taking audio and video of traumatic incidents and turning them into VR experiences so a viewer could feel the emotional pain. I think of him a lot right now.
I should add that I went through 2 of his experiences. A marketplace in Syria where terrorists exploded a bomb (which I think was uploaded to Steam) and a border incident south of San Diego in which a migrant was beaten and killed. Both were devastating.
* Sounds like ‘Project Syria’ and ‘Use of Force’ by Emblematic, but I couldn’t find a story about the CoD man to tie it to them.
Alejandro Ramirez (Nashville Scene): “Call of Duty is probably best known for its multiplayer, but I can’t help but think [ICE/CBP]’s actions reflect the infamous ‘No Russian’ mission. The player infiltrates a terrorist org that rampages at an airport and the player can choose to join the slaughter or not.”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Southpaw (Lawyer): I keep thinking about how [Alex Pretti] was a federal employee too. Even that doesn’t stand in the way of the vicious posthumous defamation from Trump admin mouthpieces.”
Will Stancil:
SCHUMER just now: “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”
ICE is so awful it’s radicalized Chuck Schumer.
Seth Klamann (Denver Post): “ICE […] issued a rare condemnation”
Immigration agents […] placed branded ace of spades playing cards—similar to “death cards” left on corpses by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War—in cars left behind after immigrants’ arrests this week […] The cards were stamped with “ICE Denver field office” and the address and phone number for the immigration detention center in Aurora
[…]
[DHS] said ICE “unequivocally” condemned “this type of action and/or officer conduct.” […] “The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility will conduct a thorough investigation and will take appropriate and swift action,” the spokesperson wrote.
“The Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti”
“Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.”
WITHIN MINUTES OF Alex Pretti being shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, the Trump administration, backed by right-wing influencers, launched a smear campaign against the victim, labeling him a “terrorist” and a “lunatic.” […]
The National Rifle Association on Saturday disavowed a statement from a U.S. attorney who said that law enforcement authorities would be legally justified in shooting someone who approaches them while possessing a gun, calling his remark “dangerous and wrong.”
Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, wrote on social media that “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood that they will be legally justified in shooting you.”
The statement came after a border patrol agent in Minneapolis shot 37-year-old ICU nurse Alexander “Alex” Pretti multiple times, killing him, amid a crowd of protestors. Pretti’s family said that it was clear Pretti was only holding a phone in his hand at the time he was killed, while the Department of Homeland Security claimed Pretti approached federal officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and was shot.
Video footage of the incident shows Pretti pinned to the ground by multiple agents before he was shot.
“This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong,” the NRA said in response to Essayli’s social media post. “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
[…] Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty encouraged the public to use an online portal to “submit anything they think might be evidence” of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, including video.
In a video statement Saturday night, Moriarty said that her office, along with state officials, is “committed to conducting an objective investigation into this case.”
[…] The Washington Post obtained permission from the family to use this statement:
Statement from the family of Alex Pretti, Michael and Susan Pretti:
We are heartbroken but also very angry.
Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.
The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.
Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
[…] Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) on Saturday accused the Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem of attempting to peddle a false narrative around the killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alexander Pretti, whom she said federal agents “executed in the street.”
Secretary Noem and the Trump administration are asking the American people to not believe their eyes, to not believe their ears, and to not believe what they are seeing right before them,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN in an interview Saturday. “They are instead asking you to give up your belief in your own senses and instead hand over your belief into anything that they say.”
[…] “I’m not asking the American people to believe me, […] but to believe themselves,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Look at it for yourself and what you will see is an innocent man being executed in the street.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
WaPo quoted @278:
The National Rifle Association on Saturday disavowed a statement from a U.S. attorney who said that law enforcement authorities would be legally justified in shooting someone who approaches them while possessing a gun, calling his remark “dangerous and wrong.”
You do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to them”.
For months, radical progressive politicians like Tim Walz have incited violence against law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their jobs. Unsurprisingly, these calls to dangerously interject oneself into legitimate law-enforcement activities have ended in violence, tragically resulting in injuries and fatalities.
As there is with any officer-involved shooting, there will be a robust and comprehensive investigation that takes place to determine if the use of force was justified. As we await these facts and gain a clearer understanding, we urge the political voices to lower the temperature to ensure their constituents and law enforcement officers stay safe.
A magistrate judge found no probable cause to support arrest warrants for 5 people involved in the St. Paul church protest.
DOJ appealed to the 8th Cir. That appeal led to this remarkable letter from the Chief Judge [Schiltz] of the Minnesota district court. […] it’s really something. The judge, by the way, is a Bush appointee and two-time Scalia clerk.
I am unable to access any documents […] because at the request of the United States, the case is sealed—apparently even from me. So I have been given about two-and-a-half hours to respond to a mandamus petition that I have not read and cannot read. Apparently I am supposed to guess what the petition is about […] I will do so.
[…]
the [US] presented an application for eight arrest warrants to Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko in connection with the disruption of a religious service [on Jan 18]. […] Micko found there was probable cause [for only 3 of the 8 suspects]. Minutes after Judge Micko signed three arrest warrants, the US Attorney [wanted a district judge to review the decision]. […] It is important to emphasize that what the US Attorney requested is unheard of […] I have surveyed all of our judges—some of whom have been judges in our District for over 40 years […] The reason why this never happens is likely that, if the government does not like the magistrate judge’s decision, it can either improve the affidavit and present it again to the same magistrate judge or it can present its case to a grand jury and seek an indictment.
We are scheduled to meet […] January 27. I have informed the U.S. Attorney that I will make a decision about the warrant application immediately after that meeting. This, however, was not satisfactory to the [DoJ]. It has claimed that there is a national-security emergency. As the Department sees it, if I do not issue warrants for the five additional suspects, “copycats” will invade churches and synagogues this weekend and disrupt religious services.
Apparently, the government believes that the arrests of the leaders of the Cities Church invasion—whose arrests have received widespread international attention—will not deter copycats, but arresting five additional suspects will. The government has also argued that I must accept this as true because they said it, and they are the government.
And that is where things stand. The five people whom the government seeks to arrest are accused of entering a church, and the worst behavior alleged about any of them is yelling horrible things at the members of the church. None committed any acts of violence. The leaders of the group have been arrested, and their arrests have received widespread publicity. There is absolutely no emergency. The government could have sought indictments [for 3 days and still can] but chose not to do so. […] If the mystery petition […] seeks an order […] forcing me to decide today—instead of Tuesday—whether to issue arrests warrants […] the order is frivolous.
I am also dealing with a number of emergencies, including a lockdown at the Minneapolis courthouse because of protest activity, the defiance of several court orders by ICE, and the illegal detention of many detainees by ICE (including, yesterday, a two-year old). And I have been given a little over an hour to submit this additional response.
[…]
The government lumps all eight protestors together and says things that are true of some but not all of them. Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.
[…]
I move that the Eighth Circuit unseal the petition for mandamus filed by the government […] and my two responses. In my opinion, there is a strong public interest in those filings—especially in light of some of the public statements that the government has made about this situation and my colleagues
Eric Columbus: “no career DOJ attorneys agreed to sign the [mandamus petition]. Just the political appointees. Extremely unusual.”
Rando 1: “Either they refused or the politicals didn’t even ask.”
Rando 2: “When you’ve lost the 8th Circuit… Chief Judge Schiltz is pissed off.”
* The 8th Circuit was previously characterized as 10/11 Republican-prez appointees. https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290241
Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She’s afraid to go home, worried she’ll be arrested. [Screenshots]
I’m a children’s entertainer who specializes in face painting. […] I’ve been involved in observing […] because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors.
[…]
I don’t feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don’t know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they’re not telling the truth about what happened. I’ve heard that other witnesses might have been arrested
[…]
I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined—it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can’t just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
A moment from the crowd in the aftermath near Alex Pretti’s shooting @275.
This is horrifying, and the difference between the out-of-control federal agents brutalizing this man and the calm, careful residents taking care of his wife, making sure they know the man’s name, and promising not to lose track of him is extraordinary. [Video clip]
“You’re gonna have to kill me! You’re gonna have to kill me! I’ve done nothing wrong! […] My name is Matthew James Obediah Allen! I’m a US citizen! […] You’re gonna kill me! Is that what you want?” (wife screaming)
“That’s my husband […] We were just running away from the gas.”
guards abruptly ordered [visiting] attorneys to leave while detainees—many of them children—poured into open areas of the facility chanting “Libertad,” or “Freedom,” […] As the Michigan-based attorney walked toward his car, he said he heard what sounded like “hundreds of children” shouting
[…]
Lee described Saturday’s action inside the facility as a peaceful demonstration, not a riot, and said the show of solidarity carried risk for detained families. […] He characterized the facility as “a horrible, horrible place,” alleging that drinking water is “putrid” and often undrinkable, and that meals have contained “bugs,” dirt, and debris. “The guards are just as tough as the guards at the adult facilities. This is not a place that you would want to have your child be for even 15 minutes,” […] it functions like a punitive facility despite housing families.
Militant Agnosticsays
“The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards” – Heather Cox Richardson.
The actual response to Dachau was to stand the guards against a wall and shoot them, then force all the residents of the town to tour the camp.
birgerjohanssonsays
EU demands ‘Nigel Farage clause’ | Outside Views on Brexit and the UK
A federal judge in Minnesota late Saturday blocked the Department of Homeland Security from “destroying or altering” evidence after a man was shot and killed by a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent in South Minneapolis.
In a late-night order, United States District Court judge Eric C. Tostrud, an appointee of President Trump, issued a temporary restraining order inhibiting the agency from “destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting involving federal officers that took place in or around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026.”
The lawsuit, brought forth by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office alongside the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, was filed against DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), CBP and U.S. Border Control.
Earlier Saturday, BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said the state’s safety agency was shut out of an investigation into the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
“It’s been a long-standing understanding, both within our state and across the country, that entities like the BCA that conduct 80-plus percent of officer-involved shootings across the United States are asked to do these investigations of federal agents involved in officer-involved shootings,” he continued, noting “others outside of the state” have blocked the agency’s involvement in any investigation.
[…] “Alex Pretti was killed by DHS agents in broad daylight in front of all of our eyes. Both the rule of law and the sense of justice we all carry within us demand a full, fair, and transparent investigation into his death,” Ellison [Attorney General Keith Ellison] said. “We will not settle for less. Tonight’s ruling protects that investigation by barring federal agents from altering or destroying any evidence they captured involving the fatal shooting of Alex.”
A hearing will be held Monday afternoon on Saturday’s restraining order.
This is not the first time state and local agencies have been excluded from federal investigations in Minnesota. Earlier this month, after an ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis,
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday outlined terms to “restore the rule of law” in Minnesota, just hours after a second person was fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
“You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” Bondi wrote in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) obtained by multiple outlets. “Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together.” [Bondi is part of team Trump that helped to cause chaos.]
In the letter, Bondi pressed Walz to hand over information about the state’s welfare programs amid mounting scrutiny over a massive fraud scandal, get rid of immigration sanctuary policies and let the Department of Justice see voter rolls “to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.”
“I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans,” Bondi said in the letter.
[…] Trump on Saturday connected the Saturday killing of Pretti to the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota, claiming there was a coordinated “cover up” to distract from tens of billions of dollars being stolen from the state.
“We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy,” Trump wrote.
“Much of what you’re witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud. The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric! Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America,” he continued. [From Trump this is projection mixed with delusion and conspiracy theories.]
Walz, meanwhile, demanded federal officers get out of his state after Saturday’s fatal shooting.
“Donald Trump, I call on you once again: Remove this force from Minnesota,” Walz said at a press conference on Saturday. “They are sowing chaos and violence. We’ve seen deadly violence from federal agents again, and again and again.”
I will point out once again that Walz’s team in Minnesota has been investigating and prosecuting people who committed fraud long before Trump latched onto this problem in order to paint all Somali immigrants as criminals. Walz’s team sent some fraudsters to jail. The leader of the fraud ring was a white woman. Trump exaggerates the amount of fraud every time he mentions it.
The Trump administration, for the second time in recent weeks, is using allegations of fraud to justify increased federal law enforcement actions in Minnesota, the state with the country’s largest Somali population.
The latest surge in federal resources — from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security — followed the release of a widely circulated video in which 23-year-old YouTube content creator Nick Shirley [a true fraudster] alleges, with little evidence, to have uncovered widespread fraud at Somali-run child care centers.
The accusations are the most recent in a series of fraud scandals involving state social service programs that provided meals for needy children during the pandemic, Medicaid housing assistance and other safety nets which benefit needy families.
[…] The scandals go back nearly a decade and include allegations of fraud in the Somali community focused on Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit prosecutors said falsely claimed to provide meals to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Federal charges were brought against dozens of people — most of them Somali — beginning in 2022.
Shirley’s video with the newest accusations involving Somali-run child care centers was retweeted by Vice President JD Vance and former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk. The US Department of Health and Human Services then announced it was freezing child care payments to the state pending a federal investigation of the allegations.
On Friday, the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families said the child care centers at the heart of the newest fraud allegations fueled by a viral video were operating as expected when visited by investigators.
[…] A federal jury in March found Aimee Bock and Salim Said guilty for their roles in a $250 million fraud scheme connected to a government-funded food program for kids.
Bock was founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that received funding from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Said was co-owner of Safari Restaurant, which provided meals for children at the restaurant and many other food sites associated with Feeding Our Future. Beyond feeding children, prosecutors said, the defendants used proceeds from the scheme to buy real estate, luxury vehicles and pay for international travel.
An early investigation by state education officials was slowed in part by a lawsuit filed by the organization and Bock — who is not Somali — on grounds the probe was discriminatory. She later voluntarily dropped the suit after federal agents raided her home and offices.
Bock was eventually convicted of seven federal charges, including bribery. She has not yet been sentenced, but a judge denied her request for a new trial. Said, who also awaits sentencing, was convicted of 20 federal charges, including bribery and money laundering.
[…] The majority of roughly 70 people charged in the case are members of the state’s Somali community, CNN has reported. Thirty-seven defendants have pleaded guilty, according to The Associated Press. Five were convicted among a group of defendants who were tried last year, the AP reported. […]
More at the link.
JMsays
@291 Lynna, OM:
let the Department of Justice see voter rolls “to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.”
There is of course a normal procedure for doing that. The problem for the DOJ is that it one way or another it would end up in front of a judge. That would mean providing evidence and rationals for the investigation. Which doesn’t work because the rational is helping Trump rig the vote and the evidence is “Trump thinks states that voted against him have more fraud then states that voted for him”.
Federal agents who were wrestling a man to the ground in Minneapolis early Saturday secured a handgun he was carrying moments before shooting him multiple times, according to a Washington Post analysis of videos that captured the incident from several angles.
As many as eight agents were attempting to detain Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, videos show. One emerged from the scrum holding Pretti’s gun, having removed it from his waistband area. Less than a second later, the first of what appear to be 10 shots was fired. It is not clear from the video whether the other agents realized Pretti — who local authorities believe had a permit to carry the weapon — had been disarmed. [excellent video at the link]
[…] Department of Homeland Security officials have said agents were on Nicollet Street conducting a “targeted operation” against another person when they encountered the man later identified as Pretti. DHS posted to X that “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” The statement said it appeared the man wanted to “massacre” law enforcement. [bullshit, blatant lying, and unjustified speculation]
“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said at a news conference. “Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
[…] One video, filmed from a passing car, shows Pretti in the street, speaking to officers and filming them with his phone. He is not holding a gun in either hand. An officer moves him back toward the sidewalk. It is not clear how the interaction began or what words were exchanged.
[…] A second video, filmed a short time later, shows Pretti on the same block. He walks toward the officers, still appearing to film with his phone in his right hand and not holding a gun. The audio does not pick up what was said between Pretti and the officer. One of the officers pushes a person who appears to be a bystander or protester down onto the sidewalk.
Pretti steps between them, and the officer pepper sprays him. Pretti begins to interact with the person who was pushed, an exchange that is inaudible in the footage. An officer appears to try to pull him away and is joined by other agents who attempt to force him to the ground.
Over roughly the next 10 seconds, Pretti never appears to be fully prone on the ground or to yield fully. At times, his knees are tucked under his body, agents holding him down, their hands on his back.
As at least four agents attempt to subdue Pretti, an officer wearing a gray jacket approaches. His gloved hands are empty, video shows. [video]
The agent in the gray jacket crouches down, reaches toward Pretti and lifts a gun from his back near his waistband, according to videos taken from multiple angles. The agent turns and begins to walk away while holding the weapon, pointing it toward the ground. [video]
Another agent, standing beside the agent in the gray jacket, unholsters his gun at virtually the same moment and points it at Pretti’s back at close range. At least two agents are attempting to hold him down. A split second later comes the crack of the first gunshot, though the videos do not clearly show which agent fired. Pretti gets up on one knee and falls over as the agent who had unholstered his weapon fires in rapid succession.
The agent in the gray coat retreats. The gun, with an optical attachment, is clearly visible in his hand. It appears to match an image that the Department of Homeland Security posted of what it said was the handgun agents recovered from Pretti. [video]
There is another point I want to note about what has happened over the last 48 hours. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is a pretty forward-leaning lawmaker. But on a show this morning he said something very clear: “We cannot fund a Department of Homeland Security that is murdering American citizens.” That’s clear, succinct and accurate. Those are the stakes. DHS is being used as a domestic terror force to deprive American citizens of their liberties. Yes, they’re killing American citizens. But that’s with the goal of terrorizing the larger population and depriving it of its liberties.
Pam Bondi sent the state a letter offering to withdraw ICE agents if the state will turn over welfare rolls, voter rolls and end sanctuary policies. So the administration will withdraw its marauding gangs in exchange for state leaders surrendering citizens’ right to local self-government.
But note also that Gov. Tim Walz is now explicitly asking the citizens of Minnesota to document what he calls ICE’s “atrocities” for the purposes of eventual prosecution. Compile evidence now, force accountability with prosecution later. This is the same basic approach, albeit by different means, that we’re trying to encourage with the DOJ-in-Exile project.
My point here is that the White House’s escalation is pushing state leaders to adopt the posture they should already have had: resolute defenses of state sovereignty and local self-government; properly identifying ICE as a lawless presidential secret police and terror force’ and putting the state explicitly on the record demanding and committing to criminal accountability for the agents now menacing the state. Meanwhile the verdict of public opinion gets more and more clear. Even Nate Silver, who’s spent the last couple years in a kind of anti-anti-Trump mindset is saying what can no longer be ignored: the public is resolutely rejecting this reign of lawless, terrorizing behavior which not only leads to ICE murders of American citizens but also cheers it.
The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.
The statement is from both Barack and Mishelle Obama. Here is more text from that statement:
[…] Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job. But Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety. That’s not what we’re seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we’re seeing the opposite.
For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city. These unprecedented tactics—which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless and cruel—have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S citizens.
And yet rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed, the President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation—and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence. [[[.]
[…] Even the New York Times took the words “Appear to” out of their headline “Videos Contradict Federal Accounts of Shooting.” Right there above the fold. [image at the link]
[…] And of a piece with Pretti’s whole life was this 2024 video. At his work, honoring a dead veteran, with words about freedom. [ This viideo, and other video snippets I haven’t seen post elsewhere, are available at the link]
“Today we remember,” he said, “that freedom is not free. We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we render them our honor and our gratitude.”
Rando: I just want to make it clear that it was *Border Patrol* agents who murdered Alex Pretti, and those fuckers murder people regularly here along the border. Renee Good´s murderer is also a former Border Patrol agent (currently ICE).
It’s a little confusing because on the ground everyone uses “ICE” as an umbrella term […] there are many agencies that have been thrown into this paramilitary invading force—ICE, ERO, Border Patrol, HSI, FBI, US Marshals. Border Patrol is easily the most militarized.
ICE is distinguishable by their rotundity, their stature, their slobby half-civilian uniforms, their visible lack of physical conditioning, and their total lack of training.
Border Patrol is distinguishable because they’re always equipped like they’re about to ship out for Fallujah.
important caveat[:] One of the evil superpowers of Donald Trump is how he makes you defend or long for institutions that weren’t ideal in the first place. CBP and ICE in the Obama or Biden years—or even the first Trump term—were by no means perfect nor deeply humane organizations that always respected civil rights and liberties. There are plenty of CBP and ICE horror stories from its first two decades.
[…]
There are two different federal agencies causing chaos in Minneapolis […] many of the viral video clips and brutal assaults are actually primarily the work of CBP strike teams led by Gregory Bovino […] Both agencies are brand new creations of the post-9/11 world—but they have very different missions, histories, and authorities
[…]
First, ICE. There are two (traditionally) very different halves of ICE: What are known as the “Enforcement and Removal Operations,” aka deportation officers, who are among the least trained and educated law enforcement in the US government, and “Homeland Security Investigations,” more specialized and highly trained “special agents,” akin to the FBI or Secret Service, who handle complex “transnational” and national security smuggling cases—think nuclear nonproliferation, antiquities smuggling, child pornography cases, and other very serious and legitimate crimes. HSI does some great work, and as a nation, we should be glad they’re on the watch.
[…]
Throughout its history, ICE has been beset by tension between ERO and HSI […] in one eye-popping rebellion in 2018 during the first Trump administration, the special-agents-in-charge of the majority of the HSI field offices signed a letter requesting the agency be split apart. […] The letter was blunt: We, HSI, do good important work and we’re being unfairly maligned by being linked to those unhinged lunatics deporting immigrants.
[…]
So-called “GS-1801s” are the […] bottom ranks of law enforcement, classified in the federal employment system as “General Inspection, Investigation, Enforcement, and Compliance” positions. The positions come with less training and lower education requirements—usually only a high school degree or equivalent—as well as more limited authority. All of CBP, including both the Border Patrol and Office of Field Operation, are “1801s,” as are all ICE ERO deportation officers. They are authorized to enforce immigration laws and, notably, only authorized to make arrests for federal crimes [in front of them]. […]
Then there are the “GS-1811” positions, known as “Special Agent / Criminal Investigator.” These are the government’s detectives—think the FBI, Secret Service, US Marshals, and, notably, HSI agents. These positions usually require more work experience and a college degree (most FBI agents in fact have advanced degrees, either law degrees or accounting degrees), and come with far more training (months, not weeks), and more broad investigative authority.
[…] since CBP was entirely set up as 1801s, that inadvertently meant that it had no authority or power to investigate wrongdoing by its own agents and workforce—to make that point more sharply, in the post-9/11 reorganization, we created the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency and didn’t give it the power to have the internal affairs capacity that one would expect at even a mid-size local police department.
[…]
In rough terms, the workforce of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents commit crimes at an equal or even greater rate PER CAPITA than the population of undocumented immigrants do in the United States. And, we are now in the process of repeating all of the same mistakes we made with the CBP hiring surge with ICE’s new hiring surge, which is going disastrously so far.
[…]
A lot of cops go through entire days and shifts without making an arrest or encountering a criminal. But when you talk to Border Patrol agents, they stress how their career conditions them to almost the exact inverse: When they’re patrolling the border, everyone they encounter crossing the border is at least committing the crime of illegal entry. They’re used to treating everyone they encounter at work as a criminal. […] CBP isn’t well practiced in the most basic civil rights and civil liberties Americans expect. That is a terrible mindset to bring to policing the “interior” of the United States.
[…]
In most police agencies, using pepper spray counts as a use-of-force and comes with paperwork and supervisory review. ICE and CBP are using chemical agents almost recreationally and prophylactically […] in city after city, federal judges have to issue court order limiting their use
[…]
We know precisely how much of ICE and CBP’s current strategy is just out-and-out racial profiling because during the brief window last summer when an LA judge ordered them to stop racial profiling, arrests dropped by 2/3.
[…]
Despite what might seem like their overwhelming force, those 3,000 CBP agents and ICE officers are wildly outnumbered by Angry Minnesota Neighbors. Moreover, these Bovino operations are hugely resource-intensive, and can only happen in 2-3 cities at the same time across the country.
A source familiar with the situation told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister channel, that agent Tracee Mergen resigned as a supervisor in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office following pressure from bureau leadership in Washington.
Mergen left her job after facing pressure to discontinue an inquiry into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, Jonathan Ross, according to The New York Times, which first reported on Mergen’s resignation.
Hopefully somebody is keeping a list so the next president can rebuild these agencies by offering jobs to all the people pushed out by Trump.
Mergen’s exit comes after the Justice Department (DOJ) said it sees “no basis” for a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
Forget civil rights investigation, it’s too early to pin it down. A US officer shot an American citizen, it should be investigated on principle. In this case it might turn out to be straight up murder charge eventually.
Minnesota National Guard members have arrived at a federal building and were directed to distribute donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate to anti-ICE protesters. Guard members were issued reflective vests so they would not be mistaken for federal agents.
Rando: “This is a good way to show the people of Minneapolis that the Guard is on their side while not having them engage directly with ICE.”
Brandon Friedman (Dallas police oversight board): “For one thing, protesters are safer in the presence of National Guard soldiers by orders of magnitude. Second, the approach […] makes ICE and CBP look so incredibly small and weak.”
One thing the Minneapolis police have become VERY good at is deescalation. If there’s an angry crowd, the police basically evaporate. If you walk a few blocks you’ll see them, but they’ve learned being invisible calms things down. ICE does the opposite: floods in troops and starts shooting.
It was striking yesterday. As soon as ICE could be removed from the scene of the killing—which took hours—all visible local and state presence instantly vanished. Suddenly the very real threat of unrest subsided
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Follow-up on the corporate silence over ICE et al., after the general strike.
profiles in cowardice: Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill and roughly four dozen other large MN companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in the state. Stops short of condemning the killings or who is responsible for them.
Since July, I’ve tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process. This is one that stands out:
Respondents arrested a chronically ill, 70-year-old woman, who […] applied for asylum, who has lived here peacefully for 26 years and complied with all check-in requirements […] no known criminal record […] without notice or the process required by their own regulations and without any plan for removing her from this country, then kept her in detention for months without sufficient medical care—and they do not have any argument to offer to even try to justify these actions. […] have they released her? No. Thus, Petitioner remains in custody, and her council, and the Court, are required to expend resources and effort to address a matter that Respondents either cannot be bothered to defend or realize is indefensible.
Minnesota courts have been inundated with these cases since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge last month. Here’s a ruling by Judge Bryan from yesterday, freeing a man who as detained after living in the US for 20 years with no criminal record.
Here’s another ruling in Minnesota, also yesterday, releasing a man who was forcefully detained by ICE despite having *active* refugee status.
Another ruling just yesterday in Minnesota: A federal judge calls it “particularly craven” that ICE transfered “a nursing refugee mother” out of state. Ta Eh Doh Lah was admitted as a refugee from Myanmar in 2024, has no criminal history and a 5-month-old.
[…]
last night: A federal judge is threatening DHS with contempt for transfering a petitioner out of the state despite a court order
[…] The federal judges deciding bigger questions about ICE’s conduct in MN have been inundated with these detention cases for months. They’re the backdrop to everything unfolding now.
[…]
Judge Menendez—who issued last week’s injunction against ICE’s retaliatory use of pepper spray—just ordered the release of a Kenyan woman arrested while picking up seizure medication at CVS.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “This is ‘Operation PARRIS,’ a top reason that DHS is in Minneapolis. The goal is to arrest 5,600 lawfully present refugees and take them to detention centers in Texas to be interrogated about their status. There is NO investigation first. They are arresting everyone; grab first, question later.”
Jared McClain (Civil rights lawyer): “Some have had to find their own way home once they win their release.”
Joseph Morris (Lawyer): “‘particularly craven’ are not words frequently put together by federal judges to describe the federal government.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Lets Talk Elections: “NEW DATA: Voters Are Fed Up With Trump Over ICE!”
People can submit basic information, details or images of an incident and answer questions as to whether other law enforcement was at the scene. Reports will be reviewed and may be shared with the Colorado congressional delegation and local district attorney offices.
birgerjohanssonsays
Cancer tumors may protect against Alzheimer’s by cleaning out protein clumps using Cyst-C protein.
“South African San rock art reveals trance dances and initiation ceremonies”
I would add that the rock art of the San (aka “Hottentots”) was the oldest human continuous culture tradition, and was wiped out by the Afrikaaner intrusion less than two centuries ago.
Idiot AI says “dramatic” instead of “germanic”. Also, the genetic continuity coupled with cultural assimilation is exactly whay you can expect from elite domination.
.
“Slavic Origins The Forbidden Genetic History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=C98D2oarZ1c
[HC] zinc chloride smoke is slightly more irritating than the colored smoke, but not some wunderwaffen. It’s still less irritating and honestly still less dangerous than CS tear gas. […] a fire with plastic, rubber […] THAT smoke is bad. Very bad. Way worse
A hexachlorethane canister was recovered in Oregon last night.
Decent turnout tonight at the ICE facility in Portland, Oregon. A call to action was put out after border patrol executed Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis
[…]
I was wearing a full face gas mask. During that last wave of teargas, I was really holding it together while filming. Mostly because my eyes were burning. I took off my mask to clear my eyes after the feds retreated and after inhaling one time I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t breathe. I made it to the sidewalk and was on my knees when a medic came over to help. Drinking water helped the burning feeling a little bit, as it had felt like I swallowed fire. Teargas is uncomfortable obviously but not usually *that* bad and intense. For me anyways. I cleaned off and took a break and remained otg for a few hours. I felt better.
Idk if it’s the adrenaline wearing off or what but I have since felt a lot worse. My skin is decontaminated, but my head is pounding, my stomach is killing me and I feel extremely nauseous.
Turns out the feds deployed HC gas. [Photo of canister]
[…]
I saw some of [Dan Kaszeta’s] posts. Idk what to say. Unless we have different versions of what “slightly” means lol. Even though it’s not good, I can walk through the [signal] smoke without any PPE, might cough a bit and blink more than usual but it doesn’t take me out and I can function. This? Not so much. My stomach is still on fire from last night. I’m not sure if it was the wind working in peoples favor or just the fact that I couldn’t see or breathe and was out myself last night, but my experience with HC in 2021 was even worse. People around me were vomiting and passing out. Maybe it was also the quantity at which it was used. Idk.
But it’s worse than the typical teargas that is deployed like OC or CS. I’ve spoken with a handful of people who have been sick all day.
* Her canister read: “CM Large Style Maximum Smoke HC Defense Technology”.
* Manufacturer tech specs for a similar canister says “Hexachloroethane (HC)”.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
^ To be clear, Alissa Azar said HC smoke was “dark grey”—not the green misinfo.
birgerjohanssonsays
Republican Commenter on BBC Calls Boris Johnson LEFT-WING?! Defends ICE Brutality!
For months now, reports of the Chinese state purging some of its senior military officials from service have frequently made headlines. But even in this context, news that the only remaining Vice Chairman of the Chinese Central Military Commission (CMC) — the apex military decision-making organ — is being investigated for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law” marks an unprecedented development.
Zhang Youxia, 75, is a veteran leader. He joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in 1968. Zhang was not only professionally associated with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but is also known to share personal ties with him. Their fathers were senior party leaders who knew each other.
This effectively means that the seven-member CMC now has only two people: Xi Jinping himself, as the CMC Chairman, and Zhang Shengmin, the other CMC Vice Chairman. He was appointed to the post just three months ago, when his predecessor, He Weidong, was also purged.
There has been rumors Zhang Youxia had been contesting control of the military with Xi but there are a lot of rumors floating. The CCP’s internal politics are really obscure. The important thing is that this effectively puts Xi in direct command of the military.
That stated corruption charges don’t matter. He is surely guilty of some degree of corruption but that is a given in China’s military which runs on bribery to a greater degree then Russia’s did pre-invasion of Ukraine. An official of that high rank will only be arrested for political reasons.
Over the short term it will give Taiwan some protection as China will have to reorganize the military command before doing anything significant. In the long though Xi has been a promoter of invasion. It’s tempting to draw some comparison to Putin as both are aging dictators who may want to cement their place in history but China has more a history of slow drawn out political border disputes then military invasions.
Minnesota’s secretary of state accused Bondi of making an “unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security.”
Hours after federal agents fatally shot an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight, Attorney General Pam Bondi did precisely what many expected her to do: She ran to a Fox News studio.
In fact, the Florida Republican who ostensibly serves as the nation’s chief law enforcement official tried to blame the deadly shooting not on those who pulled the trigger, but on Joe Biden, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. As part of the same on-air appearance, Bondi also tried to advance her party’s “paid protesters” myth, insisting that those demonstrating against the administration’s policies have carried signs that are “all matching.”
But that’s not all she did. The same day, the U.S. attorney general sent a three-page letter to Minnesota’s Democratic governor, sketching out three demands — what Bondi characterized as “common sense solutions” — that she asked Walz to obey.
Specifically, she directed Walz to (1) repeal Minnesota’s “sanctuary policies”; (2) disclose more information related to the state’s social insurance programs that became the subject of a fraud investigation; and (3) turn over the state’s voter registration records to the Trump administration.
The governor appeared unimpressed with the correspondence. “I would just give a pro tip to the attorney general: There’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those,” Walz said at a Sunday news conference.
Around the same time, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon issued a statement of his own, specifically related to Bondi’s attempts to acquire the state’s voter rolls:
The answer to Attorney General Bondi’s request is no. Her letter is an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law. This comes after repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data. […]
Our position on the federal government’s request to access Minnesota voting records starts and ends with the law. The law does not give the federal government the authority to obtain this private data. … In Minnesota, we will continue to follow the letter of the law, which requires us to protect the private data of our voters.
The Democratic secretary of state’s statement added, “It is deeply disturbing that the U.S. Attorney General would make this unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security. More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately.” […]
After federal agents shot and killed an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight, Vermont’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, had the kind of reaction one might ordinarily expect from a Democrat:
Enough. … It’s not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government. At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans.
Scott added, “The president should pause these operations, de-escalate the situation, and reset the federal government’s focus on truly criminal illegal immigrants. In the absence of presidential action, Congress and the courts must step up to restore constitutionality.”
Some might see this and think Scott might not have much of a choice, since he’s a Republican governor in one of the nation’s bluest states. But the Vermonter wasn’t alone: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican in one of the nation’s reddest states, spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash and took a similar line.
“What we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability. Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now,” Stitt said on “State of the Union.” He added, “Americans are asking themselves, ‘What is the endgame? What is the solution?’ And we believe in federalism and state rights. And nobody likes feds coming into their state. And so what’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want.”
The Oklahoman added that he believes Donald Trump is “getting bad advice” on immigration policy from those around the president.
[Oh FFS. Don’t give Trump that excuse of “getting bad advice.” Of course he is getting bad advise. He surrounded himself with alarmingly bad advisers … because that is the way he wanted it. Trump agrees with his advisors. They tell him what he wants to hear. And why can’t the president tell the difference between bad advice and good advice? Was he stupid to begin with, and then made sure he would remain stupid (or at least ill-informed) by living in a bubble of ignorance? No excuses.]
The Stitt-led National Governors Association also released its own statement over the weekend, calling for federal officials to “consider a reset” on immigration enforcement strategy. In apparent reference to the Pretti shooting, the NGA added, “We believe there are criminals in our country who must be held accountable, but moments like this demand thoughtful leadership, coordination, and clarity. Scenes of violence and chaos on our streets are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are.”
As for congressional Republicans, there was at least some pushback over the weekend to the latest developments, with Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina endorsing an independent investigation into the deadly shooting.
The White House might’ve hoped for a united partisan front in the wake of the Pretti shooting, but it’s instead confronting cracks in the GOP wall.
Apparently, innocent American citizens have to be murdered in the streets before the GOP wall cracks.
In reading all the credible, authenticated news here and on other honest sites, I can only state emphatically: In so many ways, those ru(i)nning this country are pushing it down a death spiral in which I will not participate.
The evil, murderous, barbaric, narcissistic, egomaniacal, pile of excrement and his fascist and plutocratic magat followers have proven that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
Is that statement clear enough?
In the U.S. political system, senators can’t initiate impeachment proceedings; only House members can. That said, senators can encourage representatives to launch impeachment efforts, and over the weekend, one unexpected member of the upper chamber made just such an announcement. The Associated Press reported:
Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying that she believes Noem is attempting to ‘mislead the American public’ about the fatal shooting of a 37 year-old protester in Minneapolis. […]
‘Kristi Noem has been an abject failure leading the Department of Homeland Security for the last year — and the abuses of power we’re seeing from ICE are the latest proof that she has lost control over her own department and staff,’ Rosen said in a statement to The Associated Press. [It is not that Noem “lost control,” it is the fact that she actively encouraged violent and illegal tactics!] Rosen said Noem’s conduct is ‘deeply shameful’ and she ‘must be impeached and removed from office immediately.’
For those unfamiliar with Rosen, the Nevada Democrat is hardly the most progressive member of the upper chamber. On the contrary, she’s earned a reputation as a centrist who helped Republicans end last fall’s government shutdown in ways that generated widespread frustration on the left.
Rosen appeared highly unlikely to take a bold stand on impeaching Noem, but after federal agents shot and killed an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight, leading to an avalanche of absurdities from the Homeland Security secretary, the Nevadan apparently felt compelled to step up.
On Capitol Hill, Rosen has quite a bit of company. When Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois formally unveiled articles of impeachment against Noem earlier this month, she was joined by 69 co-sponsors. When last week came to an end, that total was up to 111. After Pretti’s slaying, it appears all but certain that other House Democrats who were weighing their options will sign on to the same effort, likely in the coming days.
[…] After federal agents shot and killed Pretti, everything changed quickly. Late Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”
[…] Roughly 24 hours later, Schumer reiterated, “Senate Democrats will not allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward. … Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill.”
To summarize, funding for Homeland Security is currently part of a six-bill package that senators were expected to approve before Friday’s deadline. As things stand, the Democratic position — which has been publicly endorsed by centrist members who were originally inclined to back the overall package — is that the funding for DHS will have to be removed and considered separately. […]
[…] What became clear over the weekend is the degree to which the timeline [for gaslighting the public and rewriting history] has compressed. When Republicans tried to rewrite the story of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, for example, the efforts unfolded in earnest in the months after the insurrectionist violence at the Capitol.
After Pretti was killed, Team Trump didn’t wait months, weeks or even days. Rather, officials set out to rewrite the story within hours of the deadly violence.
The ICU nurse who worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis was, in the words of the White House’s Stephen Miller, a “domestic terrorist” and a would-be “assassin.” Gregory Bovino, who helps lead Border Patrol operations, said it would be wrong to speculate too much about the incident, but he nevertheless felt comfortable telling Americans that Pretti intended to “massacre law enforcement.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem peddled so many absurd and offensive lies that it was difficult to keep up with her avalanche of mendacity, though it was especially unsettling to see her insist that the victim was “brandishing” a weapon when he was not.
The falsehoods weren’t just at odds with eyewitness accounts, they were also plainly contradicted by unambiguous video evidence that documented exactly what happened. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told The Washington Post that administration’s claims are “flat-out insane.” [Keith Ellison is correct.]
The administration surely knows this. It also doesn’t appear to care.
Republicans brazenly set out to rewrite recent history, in part because they believe they have to — the truth is too horrific or too humiliating to be left intact — and in part because they believe they can get away with it, especially as media outlets aligned with GOP politics agree to stick to the agreed-upon script.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears,” George Orwell wrote in his dystopian classic “1984.” “It was their final, most essential command.”
It will fall on Americans to decide whether to accept reality or believe a counternarrative with no foundation in the truth.
Revealing Extent of Blowback, Trump Plays Nice with Walz
“Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding: “Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!”
Quite a change in tone, as Republicans start to worry about public opinion.
[…] In the wake of Pretti’s execution, Trump took to social media to issue demands, echoing the style of terrorists who tie violence to their cause.
On Sunday, Trump called on “EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor” to “formally cooperate” with his administration and bend to his demands to turn over undocumented immigrants. Trump also demanded that local law enforcement “must agree to turn over all Illegal Aliens arrested by Local Police” and “assist Federal Law Enforcement in apprehending and detaining Illegal Aliens.”
Trump also said Congress must pass legislation to “END Sanctuary Cities” which he falsely described as “the root cause of all of these problems.”
Trump’s statement falsely implies that undocumented immigrants are a major source of crime. It also makes it sound like Democratic leaders have not been complying with federal immigration law—but they have. Rather, Democrats just haven’t endorsed Trump’s racist deportation strategies.
In another post, Trump blamed Democratic leaders for federal agents shooting people, arguing that “two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos.” Of course, the federal agents who have killed people were deployed by Trump, operating to enforce his policies—not the policies of Democrats.
On Monday, Trump was apparently watching a segment on “Fox & Friends” that suggested his border czar Tom Homan be sent to Minnesota. About an hour after the Fox segment aired, Trump said Homan would go to Minnesota. Trump also claimed “Welfare Fraud” is rampant in the state and “at least partially responsible” for “violent organized protests” there.
The fraud in question has been investigated and prosecuted under state Democratic leadership, but Republicans like Trump have pretended that Democrats ignored it.
[I snipped details regarding Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter.]
[…] These requests are based on Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden. Trump lost to Biden in Minnesota by over 233,000 votes. […]
[…] On Saturday morning, Border Patrol agents fatally shot intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti while he was subdued on the ground. Pretti was armed with a handgun, but videos show he never drew it during the encounter and that an agent secured Pretti’s gun before agents fired the first shot. Pretti held an active concealed-carry permit, according to his family members.
In all, federal agents fired at least 10 bullets at Pretti, executing a disarmed man who was no threat to them—all for Pretti having the temerity to assist another innocent bystander who had been brutalized by federal agents.
Despite these clear-cut facts, Republicans rushed to defend the execution.
“Organized domestic terrorists believe they are untouchable. GOP must unite to support @realDonaldTrump to defeat them,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wrote in a post on X shortly after Pretti was killed, seemingly him of being a domestic terrorist. “Stay the course[.] Fund ops through reconciliation or ending fake filibuster[.] Support Insurrection Act[.] Follow the money to crush Marxist terror network[.]”
Roy wasn’t the only Republican to push the false and defamatory accusation that Pretti was a paid agitator.
[…] Other Republicans similarly lied about Pretti, accusing him of pulling a gun on agents despite numerous videos showing Pretti did nothing of the sort. They also blamed Pretti’s killing on Democrats, not the federal agents who have been wantonly beating and killing Americans in the streets.
It was clearly a coordinated messaging campaign from House Republican leaders, who posted similar versions of the same message on X.
“[…] We are grateful no Border Patrol officers were harmed,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota, wrote in a post on X.
[…] Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican running for Senate, said Pretti would be alive if he had just complied with officers and not been armed—a bizarrely hypocritical message from a self-proclaimed Second Amendment defender who has posted videos of him shooting things for fun.
[…] Of course, Pretti was not interfering with law enforcement. He was recording their violent tactics before assisting a fellow observer whom agents had harassed and sprayed with chemical irritants.
[…] Because at the end of the day, Republicans are cowards who are afraid of Trump and the rabid MAGA cult that blindly follows Dear Leader.
There also seems to be a streak of sadism running through too many elected Republican leaders. They are applauding.
An ethics watchdog group filed a complaint Thursday seeking an investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney — now the No. 2 at the Justice Department — broke federal conflict-of-interest law when he issued a new prosecution policy that benefits the cryptocurrency industry.
The complaint comes after a ProPublica investigation revealed last month that Todd Blanche owned at least $159,000 worth of crypto-related assets when he ordered an end to investigations into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges launched during President Joe Biden’s term. Blanche, the deputy attorney general, issued the order in an April memo in which he also eliminated an enforcement team dedicated to looking for crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes.
Blanche had previously signed an ethics agreement promising to dump his cryptocurrency within 90 days of his confirmation and not to participate in any matter that could have a “direct and predictable effect on my financial interests in the virtual currency” until his bitcoin and other crypto-related products were sold.
Later ethics filings show Blanche divested from the investments more than a month after he issued the memo. Even when he did ultimately get rid of his crypto interests, his ethics records show he did so by transferring them to his adult children and a grandchild, a move ethics experts said is technically legal but at odds with the spirit and intent of the law.
In its complaint this week, the Campaign Legal Center asked the Justice Department’s acting inspector general to launch an investigation. The complaint alleged that the evidence suggests that Blanche “blatantly and improperly influenced DOJ’s digital asset prosecution guidelines while standing to financially benefit.”
[…] In the complaint, Payne alleged that Blanche’s orders violated the law because they benefited the industry broadly, including his own investments. He estimated that Blanche’s bitcoin alone rose by 34%, to $105,881.53, between when he issued the memo and when he divested. At the time he issued the memo, Blanche also held investments in several other cryptocurrencies, including Solana and Ethereum, and stock holdings in Coinbase.
[…] In his April 7 memo titled “Ending Regulation by Prosecution,” Blanche condemned the Biden Justice Department’s tough approach toward crypto as “a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed.” The memo disbanded the agency’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which had won several high-profile crypto-related convictions. Blanche said the agency would instead target only the terrorists and drug traffickers who illicitly used crypto, not the platforms that hosted them.
“The digital assets industry is critical to the Nation’s economic development and innovation,” Blanche wrote. “President Trump has also made clear that ‘[w]e are going to end the regulatory weaponization against digital assets.’”
The market reacted favorably; crypto trading spiked. […]
Investigators are reviewing body-worn camera video from immigration agents in the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.
[I am waiting for more confirmation. I do not assume that DHS is telling the truth.]
Homeland Security investigators have videos recorded by multiple agents on multiple cameras, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. [McLaughlin is a known liar and Trump sycophant.]
The agents involved in the Pretti shooting were part of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, an elite specialized force, McLaughlin said. Two law enforcement officials told NBC News that unit has more body-worn cameras.
[…] The encounter was recorded by eyewitnesses, and videos circulated widely on social media throughout the weekend. The Department of Homeland Security has said an agent shot Pretti in self-defense after he violently resisted attempts to disarm harm. But eyewitness videos taken from various angles appear to contradict elements of the department’s account of events.
The existence of body-worn camera video could help clarify some of the basic facts of the shooting and potentially serve as evidence in legal proceedings related to the weekend violence.
[…] Trump announced Monday morning he is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, where he will manage ICE operations on the ground.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat and a fierce critic of the Trump administration, said in a statement: “If Tom Homan is here to engage constructively with local leaders and find common ground, I welcome that conversation. My door is open.”
“If his visit is instead focused on escalating tensions or spreading misinformation,” Frey added, “Minneapolis doesn’t need that here.” [Homan has spread disinformation in the past.]
[…] Pretti and Good were both 37-year-old U.S. citizens. The Border Patrol agent who shot and killed Pretti has not been publicly identified. […]
[…] many were eager to learn which agencies would be responsible for investigating Pretti’s slaying. Under normal circumstances, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Force Investigations Unit would take the lead in looking into use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement. On Saturday, however, as MS NOW reported, officials from the Department of Homeland Security denied state law enforcement access to the scene.
So who is taking the lead on investigating the DHS officers’ shooting? According to Secretary Kristi Noem, it’s DHS. [Are they going to also investigate Kristi Noem for lying to the public?]
[…] A day later, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that Homeland Security is overseeing the probe into the incident.
So let’s review. DHS officers shot and killed an American citizen. DHS officers denied local law enforcement access to the scene. The head of DHS repeatedly lied to the public about what transpired and blamed the victim for the deadly violence. And now DHS is investigating the shooting carried out by DHS officers.
A great many Democrats, and a handful of Senate Republicans, have endorsed an independent investigation into the deadly shooting. Given the circumstances, that hardly seems like an outlandish suggestion.
First sign I’ve seen lately of an HC white smoke grenade. In Portland not MN. To be honest these should be banned. But their unhealthy aspects are often being exaggerated or misinterpreted. […] this is an example of what an HC smoke grenade looks like
Unhealthy like toxicity, carcinogenicity, lethality. Some of his other PSAs…
1. I do not want people exposed to smoke or tear gas to be treated with atropine, which is the key nerve agent medicine. Because that may kill people.
2. I do not want people to be more afraid of smoke and tear gas. Making people MORE afraid helps the bad people.
“Tear gas and smoke may be used to push people into vulnerable positions or be a distraction from something actually lethal. It’s an old tactic. Be mindful.”
“Tear gas and smoke grenades are not pressurized spray cans. They are burning at stupidly hot temperatures, like 800 deg C. That’s C. Not F.”
“literally too hot to handle […] hot enough to cause house and car fires. And if you put one in a dumpster or something, the burning plastics etc are a real not imaginary poison gas.”
A thread on nerve agents – “People have often claimed that CS tear gas is a nerve agent because it triggers a pain response in the nerves. That’s literally not the definition of a nerve agent”
“Do not use milk, antacids, honey, lemon juice, onions, vinegar, urine, baking soda or anything other than clean water to deal with tear gas or pepper spray. Most of the time it’s best to just do nothing. There’s no reason that saline solution is bad. But you should save that for other things.”
“I have seen the video. It is sickening. But Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word. It must have the last word. As I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning, the state will handle it, period. […] We will investigate this. We will not be stonewalled. […] Minnesotans are witnessing, and we’re creating a log of evidence for the future prosecution of ICE agents and officials responsible for this.”
[…] “Thank God we have video because according to DHS, these seven heroic guys took an onslaught of a battalion against them or something. It’s nonsense, people. It is nonsense and it’s lies. So my confidence is this, Minnesotans. You know who you are and you demonstrate it every single day and we damn sure know who these people are. The American public knows, and this needs to be the event that says enough. Go ahead. I’m up front.” [video at the link]
“You’re allowed to decide at any point that you’re not with this anymore. If you voted for this administration, heck, even if you thought Operation Metro Surge was a good idea, sounded like the thing to do a month ago, you’re still allowed to look at what’s happening here in Minnesota and say, ‘This isn’t what I voted for, and this isn’t what I want.’ I ask you not to stand by idly, speak out, share what you’re seeing, and others urge others to put politics aside. We’re no longer having a political debate. We’re having a moral debate.” [additional video at the link]
[…] “What side do you want to be on? The side of an all-powerful federal government that can kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or on the side of a nurse at the VA who died bearing witness to such government?” […]
Commentary:
[…] Again, just like the feds did with Renee Good’s murder, they frantically scrambled to thwart any state investigative efforts. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office sued and got an injunction to prevent the federal government from destroying evidence in the case, which is wildly unprecedented. But that is how little anyone can trust the word of the federal government anymore. […]
There’s no identification yet of any of the ICE agents involved because of how they are all masked and anonymous, other than Greg Bovino saying the shooter is an eight-year veteran of Bovino’s force with “extensive training as a range safety officer.” Observers also noticed a Texas patch on the goon’s jacket. […]
DHS claimed “Medics provided immediate aid to Pretti.” They lied. In truth, a physician entered a sworn affidavit that ICE blocked him from reaching Pretti, and when he finally got there ICE wasn’t giving him CPR, but counting bullet holes. [Screenshot]
Numerous members of his inner circle have clamored to tell me tales of the president’s godlike virility.
[…]
Fred Trump died in 1999 at age 93. He had, Trump said, a “heart that couldn’t be stopped” with almost no health conditions to speak of throughout his long life. “He had one problem,” Trump said. “At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?” He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.
“Alzheimer’s,” Leavitt said.
“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Frieren anime : The duel with the clone.
“This is how the fight would sounds like if you were there” | Total sound re-design.
I spent four nights […] in Minneapolis last week […] my -20 degree windshield wiper fluid froze. […] But it wasn’t cold enough to keep Minnesotans inside. It wasn’t so cold that people didn’t turn out, in the tens or hundreds of thousands, to fill the streets for the general strike. It wasn’t so cold that people didn’t pour out of their houses in their pajamas and crocs when they saw commotion outside
[…]
far and away the largest, most organized, and most successful networks like these I’ve ever seen, and they’re entirely decentralized. […] It’s strange to realize that the work people can do aboveground is harass federal agents, but the work that people have to do in secret is… feed people. […] There are tens of thousands of people, at least, being cared for by these networks.
[…]
I asked people in Minneapolis what they wanted other people to know […] the core of the resistance is just neighborliness. […] this spirit of “if your car is broken by the cold, strangers will save you” was presented to me by multiple people as the spirit that animates the resistance to ICE.
[…]
Both the rapid response and mutual aid efforts are hyperlocal. There’s not some city-wide network, there are barely neighborhood-wide networks. People are organizing with people on their own block, or small handful of blocks. […] Decentralized networks are harder to infiltrate and harder to destroy.
Half the street corners around here have people—from every walk of life, including republicans—standing guard to watch for suspicious vehicles, which are reported […] I have been actively involved in protest movements for 24 years. I have never seen anything approaching this scale. […] ICE fucking murdered a woman for participating in this, and all that did is bring out more people, from more walks of life. […] There are a few basic skills involved, and so people teach each other those skills, and people are collectively refining them.
[…]
I don’t want to paint a rosy picture, because it’s a city under siege. People are being abducted all the time. One person told me about watching 1-2 abductions a day, just in her own work following ICE.
[…]
What people are doing here is beautiful. It’s a tragic beauty, but a real one. […] I’ve never seen a population more united.
As Pretti’s slaying jolted American politics, the president shifted his attention to other matters, like his ballroom.
After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good earlier this month, Donald Trump responded in a decidedly Trumpian way: The president blamed the victim, peddled conspiracy theories and described video footage of the incident in ways that were plainly at odds with what the public could see with their own collective eyes.
Seventeen days later, federal immigration officers shot and killed an intensive care nurse named Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight, at which point Trump did what he always does: He tried to change the subject, lashed out at his political foes and twice suggested that the deadly incident was part of a “cover-up.”
I haven’t the foggiest idea what he meant when he alleged a “cover-up,” and when a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to clarify, she dodged the question. [social media post and video]
But as Pretti’s slaying dominated headlines, renewed a public conversation and jolted American politics, the president decided to shift his attention to other matters of greater apparent concern. On Sunday morning, for example, Trump published a 448-word screed to his social media platform (the missive was a little longer than his official health care “plan”) about his beloved White House ballroom vanity project. The Washington Post summarized:
President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted his proposed ballroom is a done deal — even as Justice Department lawyers in court present the plans as flexible and subject to federal reviews.
In a lengthy post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said the project could not realistically be reversed because key materials have been lined up, writing that ‘there is no practical or reasonable way to go back’ and declaring: ‘IT IS TOO LATE!’
The president’s online comments, the Post added, were at odds with his own position in federal court [!], where just three days earlier, Justice Department lawyers “told a judge that the ballroom plans can be modified and that the White House intends to wait for two federal advisory panels to review the project before beginning aboveground construction in April.” [!]
The previous evening, the president attended a private White House screening of the documentary about his wife, first lady Melania Trump, which Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million to produce.
Around this time a year ago, The New York Times’ David French noted that Trump “is not a man who is ready to meet important and dangerous moments.” The truth of the quote lingers for obvious reasons.
At least 21 deaths were attributed to the weekend’s snowstorm. More than 700,000 homes and businesses, particularly in the South, remained without power on Monday, and officials said it could take days to restore it.
After a powerful winter storm dumped heavy snow, sleet and ice across wide swaths of the U.S., millions of people on Monday were facing new dangers: perilously cold temperatures and widespread power outages that forecasters and local governments warned could last for days.
The storm dumped more than a foot of snow in at least 19 states, from New Mexico to Maine, according to preliminary figures from the National Weather Service. At least 21 deaths were reported across the country, including several from hypothermia and medical emergencies associated with clearing snow. At least nine other deaths were being investigated to determine whether they were linked to the storm.
The worst of the weather may not be over. More than 70 million people remained under an extreme cold warning on Monday, with below zero temperatures expected to sweep from the Northern Plains to the Northeast and freezing temperatures expected to reach as far south as the Gulf Coast throughout the week. The threat posed by the bitter cold has been intensified by outages that left about 700,000 homes and businesses without power on Monday, particularly in the South, according to poweroutage.com. Freezing rain hit one Mississippi county especially hard.
Local officials, scrambling to restore service, warned that recovery efforts could take days. In Nashville, where the main electric agency said it saw the largest number of simultaneous power outages in its history, the mayor said trees were still falling and knocking out power that had already been restored. The city’s emergency management director urged residents to plan for being out of power “for the long haul.”
[…] Snow in Canada: The storm also brought near-record snowfall to parts of Canada. Toronto Pearson International Airport recorded about 18 inches by late Sunday night. […]
Forty percent of Amtrak’s service in the Northeast Corridor, between Boston and Washington, was canceled on Monday as a result of the winter storm, said Beth Toll, a railroad spokeswoman. Cancellations across Amtrak’s entire network were at 25 percent, she said.
Several more deaths related to the storm have been confirmed, bringing the national toll to at least 21 people. […]
[“]nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.” […] “United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong,” […] “National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,”
[…]
[He] had recently provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. […] Madel also said he believes President Donald Trump deserves credit for many things [*snip*]
“I helped [Jonathan Ross] fill out a form [so the DoJ could represent him].” […]
“Our leaders right now are acting like a bunch of children […] Walz, Frey.”
How about President Trump? “[*Pretends he didn’t hear that.*]”
But is President Trump acting like a child? “[*Trashes Walz and Frey.*]”
New York Times report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Trump specifically referred to an “armada” moving into the region: “President Trump said late Thursday that a large naval force was heading to Iran, continuing his threats of U.S. military action against the government nearly a month after protests erupted across the country.”
Also from the New York Times:
As U.S. warplanes and aircraft carriers approach the Persian Gulf, Tehran and its regional allies are warning they will respond aggressively to a potential strike.
New York Times report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
The 36th known strike: “The United States military on Friday struck another boat it suspected of smuggling drugs, killing two people, according to the U.S. Southern Command, in its first known boat strike in the eastern Pacific since the capture of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.”
Associated Press Report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
I wish he spoke a lot less about secret weapons: “President Donald Trump said the U.S. used a secret weapon he called ‘The Discombobulator’ to disable Venezuelan equipment when the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro. Trump also renewed his threat to conduct military strikes on land against drug cartels, including in Mexico. Trump made the comments in an interview Friday with the New York Post.”
European Union regulators on Monday announced an investigation of Elon Musk’s social media platform X after the authorities said that it had failed to stop the spread of sexualized images generated by artificial intelligence.
birgerjohanssonsays
In Range podcaster Karl Kasarda reads a pro-gun children’s book written by a gun nut.
I spoke with President Trump this afternoon […] The president agreed that the present situation cannot continue. Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest […] I plan to meet with Border Czar Tom Homan tomorrow
Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon
[…]
For the past seven months, […] Noem […] sent him and his masked border agents to Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and then Minneapolis […] with his own film crew
Rando: “Commander at little.”
JMsays
@339 Lynna, OM:
The president’s online comments, the Post added, were at odds with his own position in federal court [!], where just three days earlier, Justice Department lawyers “told a judge that the ballroom plans can be modified and that the White House intends to wait for two federal advisory panels to review the project before beginning aboveground construction in April.”
Trump probably doesn’t even see an issue here because he is so used to saying things in public that are different then what his lawyers are saying in court. As a private citizen he could get away with some of that, as president the situation is different because everything he says is now to some degree an official statement of the US government. His (and other senior officials) jumping the gun statements and bogus claims are going to be a problem for a bunch of the really controversial court cases if they ever make it too court.
birgerjohanssonsays
Jon Stewart on Alex Pretti’s Killing, DHS vs. Video Evidence & MAGA’s Gun Rights Surrender
Long but powerful read raising some good questions & points here. Will those named listen & more importantly act? I sure hope so! Seen on fb today :
Dear President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, and President Biden. Vice President Gore, Vice President Pence, Vice President Harris, and Senator Romney:
Senator Romney, you don’t belong to the club of former presidents and vice presidents. Still, you belong in this letter because you ran for president in 2012, you were one of the loudest Republican voices against President Trump when it mattered most, and you voted to convict him in both impeachment trials. You stood alone among Senate Republicans when courage was required. That’s why you’re here. The question now is whether that courage was real or whether it was simply theater performed when the stakes were lower.
When Melissa Hortman was shot to death in her Brooklyn Park home last June, her husband Mark died beside her. The gunman had come hours after shooting State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, nine bullets in John, eight in Yvette, both somehow surviving. Police found a list in the killer’s car with nearly seventy names: abortion providers, Democratic politicians, and pro-choice advocates. Three months later, at Utah Valley University, Charlie Kirk was speaking to three thousand people when a sniper’s bullet tore through his neck. He was thirty-one years old. These murders happened in America in 2025, and you have all responded with studied silence.
President Obama and President Biden, you’ve spoken, but you won’t say Donald Trump’s name. President Obama, you spoke in April about the US government actively trying to destroy the international order. President Biden, you said this new administration has done so much damage. Neither of you could bring yourselves to name him. President Clinton, President Bush, Vice President Gore, Vice President Pence, Vice President Harris, Senator Romney, you’ve said even less. You all invoke tradition, this fantasy that former presidents don’t criticize its successors. But Theodore Roosevelt called his successor, William Howard Taft, a fathead, a puzzle-wit with the brain of a guinea pig. Jimmy Carter called George W. Bush’s administration the worst in history. Vice President John Nance Garner broke with FDR over court-packing and became Roosevelt’s leading critic. The tradition you’re hiding behind is a lie you tell yourselves to avoid doing what needs to be done.
Here’s what you refuse to acknowledge. On January 3, 2026, the US military invaded Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro after months of military buildup. President Trump did not cite human rights or democracy as a justification. No congressional authorization. No international coalition. Just unilateral military force against a sovereign nation. President Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commandant of the Coast Guard, the vice chief of the Air Force, and the top officer of the Navy, all with no apparent cause. The government shutdown lasted six weeks, the longest in American history, leaving federal workers without pay through the holidays. President Trump fired thousands of federal employees in sensitive positions at the Department of Energy, the Forest Service, NIH, the IRS, the FAA, and the Department of Agriculture.
Migrants with pending asylum claims, legal work authorization, and U.S.-citizen spouses or children were detained and often expelled. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is operating as a domestic military force, conducting raids in American cities, terrorizing communities, and separating families with legal status from its homes. These are not criminals being deported. These are people with pending court cases, with work permits, with American citizen children, being rounded up and expelled without due process. Courts issue orders to stop these raids. The administration ignores them. Federal judges rule that the deportations violate due process. The administration continues anyway. The judiciary has become irrelevant. The separation of powers has collapsed. President Trump’s administration pulled the country out of international bodies, agendas, and treaties, and threatened to sanction International Criminal Court judges unless it promised not to prosecute him. The Supreme Court issues rulings, and President Trump ignores them. Federal courts issue injunctions, and his administration acts as if it don’t exist.
President Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” He named his adversary. He demanded action. You can’t bring yourselves to say, “Mr. Trump, stop tearing down our Constitution.”
President Clinton, you remember President Nixon. You were young and idealistic when democracy was threatened, then, when a president believed he was above the law. You understood what was at stake. Now you’re comfortable and wealthy, and you won’t even mention President Trump’s name in public criticism. You made millions on speaking fees after leaving office. You have lifetime Secret Service protection. You have all the resources you need to speak out safely. But you’ve chosen silence. You remember what it meant when a president treated the rule of law as optional. You’re watching it happen again. Your silence is consent.
President Bush, you created PEPFAR, which saved 25 million lives, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. President Trump gutted it. You built something that mattered, something that transcended politics, something that saved millions of human beings from death. And you’re watching it be destroyed, and you say nothing. You also understand what happens when presidents launch military operations based on flawed intelligence or manufactured justification. You lived through that criticism. President Trump invaded Venezuela without congressional authorization, without citing human rights or democracy as justification. Where’s your voice? You know what unchecked executive power in foreign policy looks like. You know the consequences. Speak.
President Obama, you built international coalitions that President Trump has abandoned. You spent eight years trying to restore America’s standing in the world after it was damaged. You negotiated climate agreements, nuclear treaties, and trade partnerships. You believed in American leadership through multilateral cooperation. President Trump pulled the country out of international bodies, agendas, and treaties. He’s threatening international judges. He’s isolated America from its allies. Everything you built is being systematically dismantled. You spoke in April about the US government actively trying to destroy the international order, but you wouldn’t name him. Why? You made millions from Netflix and book deals. You have the platform, the resources, the credibility. Use them. Say his name. Make demands. Fight for your work.
President Biden, President Trump will dismiss you as a sore loser. Let him. You warned Americans about President Trump during the campaign. You told them what his second term would mean. You were right. Courts are being ignored. ICE is terrorizing American cities. Military leadership has been purged. The federal workforce has been gutted. You predicted all of this. Now it’s happening, and you’ve gone quiet. You’ll collect over four hundred thousand dollars annually in combined presidential and congressional pensions. You have lifetime Secret Service protection. You have every resource you need to continue the fight. The fact that President Trump will be rude to you is not a reason to abandon your oath. Speak. Demand accountability. Make him answer for what he’s doing to the country you just led.
Vice President Gore, you know what it means to have an election stolen. You know what it means to watch the Supreme Court make decisions that change the course of history. You know what unchecked executive power looks like because you served in an administration that had to navigate it. You’ve spent years fighting climate change, understanding how institutions work, and how it can be corrupted. Where’s your voice on military invasions without congressional authorization? Where’s your voice on immigration enforcement operating as a domestic military force? Where’s your voice on the judiciary being rendered impotent? You have the knowledge and the platform. Use them.
Vice President Pence, this is the simplest case of all. You stood up on January 6. You refused to help President Trump overturn the election. You did your constitutional duty when it would have been easier to cave. You wrote a book about it. You positioned yourself as the man who saved democracy at a critical moment. Now President Trump is actually in power again, doing exactly what you warned about, and you’ve gone completely silent. You proved you have courage when the stakes are highest. Where is it now? You’re watching courts being ignored, watching military leadership being purged, watching ICE conduct military operations against American residents, and you say nothing. Your silence makes your stand on January 6 look like a political calculation rather than a principle. Prove it wasn’t.
Vice President Harris, you campaigned against President Trump, warning Americans exactly what his second term would mean. You warned them about threats to democracy, about authoritarianism, about the dismantling of institutions. You were right about everything. Every warning you issued has come true. The deportations, the government shutdown, the purging of federal employees, the military adventurism, and the ignoring of court orders. You predicted all of it. Now it’s happening, and where are you? You have Secret Service protection. You have the resources of a high office. You have a national platform. You were the Democratic nominee for president. Your warnings were accurate. Now follow through. Demand accountability. Say his name. Make your case. You told Americans this would happen. Don’t let them forget that you were right.
Senator Romney, this is why you’re in this letter alongside former presidents and vice presidents. You voted to convict President Trump in both impeachment trials. You were the only Republican senator to vote for conviction in the first trial. You stood alone. You called him unfit for office. You said his actions betrayed the Constitution. You were the loudest Republican voice against him when your entire party abandoned its oaths and its principles. That moral clarity, that willingness to stand alone, is precisely why you belong here. But where is that courage now? Charlie Kirk was murdered at Utah Valley University in your own state. A political assassination happened in Utah, and you’ve been largely silent. Where’s your voice on courts being ignored? Where’s your voice on military leadership being purged? Where’s your voice on ICE operating as a domestic military force? You proved you could stand alone against President Trump when it mattered. The stakes are higher now. Courts are being treated as irrelevant. The separation of powers has collapsed. This is what you warned about. Stand up again.
You all receive pensions, travel reimbursements, and lifetime Secret Service protection. You’re all wealthy. You can all afford additional security if you need it. Melissa Hortman was a state legislator earning a public servant’s salary when she was murdered in her home. She didn’t get Secret Service protection. She showed up anyway. Your silence while people without your resources risk its lives is obscene.
Here’s what you do. Call a joint press conference. All of you together. National Press Club. Prime time. Every major network. Say these words: “President Donald Trump is governing as an authoritarian, and it must stop.” Then make demands. Demand that Congress investigate the Venezuela invasion without congressional authorization. Demand an investigation into why military leadership was purged. Demand answers for why court orders are being ignored. Demand an immediate halt to ICE operations that violate due process. Visit the ICE centers. Comfort the children. Demand restoration of asylum processing.
Demand accountability for using immigration enforcement as a domestic military force against legal residents. Demand an investigation into the longest government shutdown in history. Demand restoration of funding to gutted agencies. Demand that President Trump explain why he’s threatening international judges. Demand answers for his response to political assassinations. Offer to testify before Congress under oath.
Could you do it again? Every morning show. Every Sunday show. Fox News. CNN. MSNBC. Local news in Minnesota, where Hortman died. Local news in Utah, where Kirk died. Town halls in swing states. Write joint op-eds in every major newspaper. Create a watchdog organization that documents every norm violated, every institution undermined, every court order ignored.
Your oath still matters. ICE is conducting military operations against American residents. Courts are being ignored. Military force was used against Venezuela without authorization. Your military leadership was purged. Political violence is epidemic.
The separation of powers has collapsed. Federal workers were left without pay for six weeks. International judges are being threatened. Say his name. Make your demands. Fight back. Now. Or admit the oath you took was a performance, words you spoke because the Constitution required them, not because you meant them.
President Reagan demanded that Gorbachev tear down the wall. Demand that President Trump stop tearing down the Constitution.
Or step aside and let history record that when America needed you most, you chose comfort over courage.
Anton Petrov yt clip with a photosynthetic focus here – Complex Life Around Most Milky Way Stars May Be Impossible a good just over 15 mins long discussion albeit alien life – even microscopic – might be able to find a way to do more than we now think, I suspect. Still, yeah, discouraging. Except for the bit about the K type orange dwarf stars anyhow..
StevoRsays
From tonight’s 7.30 Report :
MIKE LORIGAN: In Melbourne tensions ran high.
Across the country the March for Australia movement has come under further scrutiny over violence and the presence of neo-Nazi’s.
In Sydney sympathy for some of the country’s most prominent neo-Nazi’s were on display.
Joel Davis is currently behind bars for allegedly making threats against Federal MP Allegra Spender.
This man, a 31-year-old from Peakhurst was arrested and charged for his comments against Jews under new laws in New South Wales, which make it an offence to incite hatred on the ground of race causing fear.
Today he was refused bail by a magistrate.
Plus then :
(Reporter Mike Lorigan – Ed.)… There’s been some reportage that there are neo-Nazis at this rally today. What do you say to those that have included themselves in this movement?
ELIZABETH STEWARD (Rally goer – ed.): Neo-Nazis are passionate Australians, they love this country. Alright, they want a white Australia. That can never happen. It’s too late now, but they still love this country and they’re fighting for Australia, so they have been labelled as neo-Nazis. It’s just a label like all of us have been labelled with.
MIKE LORIGAN: These individuals have identified themselves as Nazis. What’s mislabelled there?
LENNY LAWSON: They do regard themselves as nationalists. I only know one of them who actually calls himself a Nazi. They others reckon they’re just nationalists Australians.
MIKE LORIGAN: This is a group that adores and supports ideology from Hitler’s Germany.
LENNY LAWSON: Yeah, yeah. I can’t explain it.
In addition to :
MIKE LORIGAN: Earlier in the day, it was the Invasion Day Rally which occupied Parliament’s steps.
THANE GARVEY: To make sure that we can still stand for our people.
MIKE LORIGAN: Thane Garvey welcomed the estimated 17,000 in attendance to country.
THANE GARVEY: How can we possibly come together as a country when certain people have chosen to celebrate on our day of mourning. It was marked as a day of mourning long before it was a day of celebration.
MIKE LORIGAN: At this rally, there were no Union Jacks but there were Palestinian flags.
MIKE LORIGAN: What do you make of some people bringing international issues into the rally today and putting them to the fore?
THANE GARVEY: Look, I think that if they align with what it is that we’re asking for, which is respect and understanding of what happened on these lands, then I can understand why it happens. That’s what solidarity is.
When the newly announced Australian of the Year was asked about the wisdom she most wanted to impart in the 12 months ahead, she spoke of the need to shed light on aspects of her chosen field that remain clouded by misconception.
“Space isn’t about escaping the Earth,” space engineer, trailblazer and trained astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg told ABC Radio’s Hamish Macdonald.
Here in Adelaide, we had a record breaking low of 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 fahrenheit) overnight last night. Yes, it sucked.
But in other parts of my state :
South Australia’s Riverland region is enduring sweltering conditions, with the temperature soaring above 49 degrees Celsius in what the weather bureau says is “a new all-time record for Renmark”.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) observations data page showed the temperature reached 49.6C in the Riverland town after 2pm today.
While BOM’s media team said the record would be confirmed tomorrow, that temperature surpassed the previous Renmark record of 48.6C set in December 2019.
“If you’re going to have to put up with the heat, it may as well be something that goes in the history books,” senior forecaster Christie Johnson told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“That south-eastern or eastern part of the state [is] really copping the brunt of the heat at the moment, and definitely seeing records falling out there.”
“January records have also been broken at Lameroo, Loxton, Keith and Naracoorte.”
Loxton today hit 48.2C just after 3:35pm, while Keith recorded a maximum of 47.3C, the BOM website shows.
Yeah, this ain’t normal even for our Aussie Summers. Yes, this is Global Overheating – &, no, we’re still doing nowbere near enough about it and not enough people are joining the very obvs dots.
StevoRsays
Venus could experience a dramatic meteor shower this summer, the result of the breaking apart of a nearby asteroid that has left a trail of dust in its wake. The meteor shower is predicted to next take place on July 5, but observing it from Earth is going to be difficult. Only superbright fireballs, with a magnitude of around minus 12 to minus 15 — roughly the same brightness in our sky as the moon — will be visible from our planet.
The origin of this proposed meteor shower is the result of a detective story involving two asteroids curiously sharing the same orbit, more or less.
(Thinks about a fifth of a second about the conditions on the Cytherean surface .. )
Oh wait, no, no I don’t.
PS. Also from that linked space dot com story :
Incidentally, the pair also have the fastest orbits ever measured for an asteroid in the solar system, taking just 115 days to complete one circuit around the sun.
The discovery of two asteroids that look the same while sharing almost the same orbit was too much of a coincidence for a team of astronomers led by Albino Carbognani of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). So they set about modeling the orbit of the asteroids going 100,000 years back into the past, to see if they could figure out the space rocks’ origin.
The researchers suspected that the two asteroids were once a single asteroid that broke apart, but..
Ban on deporting U.S. citizens removed from DHS funding bill, congresswoman warns. Rachel Maddow relays a warning by Rep. Veronica Escobar that her amendment to the bill to fund Homeland Security that would ban the deportation of Americans citizens was stripped out of the bill by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller before the bill was voted on.
Maddow: Doors close on ICE as locals say no to immigration prisons. Rachel Maddow reports on the expanding list of communities that are refusing the admit the Department of Homeland Security to install an immigration prison or processing facility in their area. Even across differences of politics and demographics, no one wants to be host to an immigration prison.
Maddow: Trump in retreat as disastrous anti-immigrant campaign becomes political catastrophe. Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant mission was already damaging his standing with the portion of Americans who didn’t already dislike him, but the escalating violence and brutality and shocking on-camera killings have seen his opposition balloon from Americans protesting to a large swath of his own party, business leaders, clergy and Congress. Rachel Maddow outlines how the forces of democracy are imposing themselves on Trump.
Maddow: Americans flexing democratic muscles are stronger than Trump. Rachel Maddow points out the consistent, unrelenting, stalwart, peaceful opposition of the people of Minnesota to Donald Trump’s brutal anti-immigrant tactics, flexing every democratic muscle, is steadily defeating Trump. The people of Minneapolis are showing that the way to save democracy is by democratic means, including peaceful protest.
Mary Moriarty: Hennepin Co. has substantial evidence to decide on charges. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty joins MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell as Minnesota presses forward with its own investigation into the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Moriarty says she disagrees with the Trump Justice Department’s assertion that state prosecutors lack authority to file charges against the federal agents who killed two U.S. citizens.
“It defies common sense — and is completely inexcusable — that the agent who killed Alex Pretti … is already back in the field,” one key congressman said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a formal use-of-force policy, which states that when CBP agents use deadly force, “the officer/agent shall … be placed on Administrative Leave.”
So it came as something of a surprise when Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino held a press conference the day after federal immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti and said that those who pulled the trigger are still on the job.
When a reporter asked specifically whether those agents are “working right now,” Bovino replied, “All agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations.”
A day later, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed incredulity about the decision to leave Pretti’s shooter in the field. The congressman’s written statement read:
It defies common sense — and is completely inexcusable — that the agent who killed Alex Pretti Saturday is already back in the field terrorizing our communities and believing — as Greg Bovino has so wrongly asserted — that he is the victim. Clearly, no investigation took place and longstanding Department policy was completely ignored.
At a minimum, the agent should be on Administrative Leave. It is clear that that this administration does not care about accountability or the safety of U.S. citizens.
On Tuesday morning, Thompson received some backup from Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee. “Local police routinely put officers involved in deadly shootings on administrative leave until an independent investigation is concluded,” the Kentucky senator said in a statement. “That should happen immediately.”
Paul added, “For calm to be restored, an independent investigation is the least that should be done.” The senator also took an unsubtle rhetorical swipe at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, “I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin.’”
There’s nothing to suggest that the Trump administration intends to act on these calls, which suggests the agent who killed Pretti is likely to remain at large for an indefinite period.
If there’s a defense for leaving him on the job, I can’t think of it.
@338 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote: 26 January 2026 at 5:00 pm — @321 shermanj: humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
I reply: You quote me out of context, distorting my comment. I did praise this blog by saying: “In reading all the credible, authenticated news here”.
And, if you examine the world down through history and even today, it is filled with genocide, hatred, corruption, destruction of the environment and stupidity. Those of honesty and caring are a minority and relatively powerless to stop that destruction. So, overall, compared to the potential for humanity to be peaceful, helpful, honest and good stewards of the environment, I still can only posit that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@364 shermanj: “You quote me out of context”
321:
In reading all the credible, authenticated news here […] those ru(i)nning this country are pushing it down a death spiral in which I will not participate. […] excrement and his fascist and plutocratic magat followers have proven that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
364:
if you examine the world down through history
Goalposts. Then civilization was a failure long before, and magats didn’t finally prove it. A death spiral falls from a height.
Those of honesty and caring are a minority and relatively powerless to stop that destruction.
They are not powerless to mitigate the damage, help each other survive it, and imspire others to be better.
Let us examine these issues more carefully. There are no goalposts. Human society has always been varying levels of barbarity. A death spiral can begin from a low and modest height of civilized society, since it has been shown, time and again, throughout history, that there is no bottom to the well of depravity into which the death spiral may carry us. The magat infestation has just been the most recent one proving society hasn’t significantly improved.
And even those that are being helpful, and I work, locally, as part of them and always support them; they/we only mitigate the destruction, they do not stop it from continuing to occur or from increasing in severity.
lumipunasays
Hello.
In the aftermath of the Greenland standoff, Danish public broadcaster made a 1-minute satire video (in English, joking about Donald Trump while jabbing more seriously on Denmark’s own newfound love of Greenland) that became a viral hit. Video embedded in this Finnish news story:
The conservative mindset tends to sort things into binaries with no room for scale. Mass shootings either happen or they don’t. You can talk about how much safer countries with robust gun control are, and they’ll just say, “Here’s a shooting that happened in England. Here’s a shooting that happened in Australia. Gun control didn’t stop them. You can’t regulate evil.”
[…]
it’s only applicable in this context thanks to the word that’s implied but not stated: “You can’t regulate all evil.” […] Does it matter that these shootings are far less deadly and happen far less often? Does it matter that making guns harder to get has saved tens of thousands of lives? […] The mentality here is that, if you can’t stop every shooting, you shouldn’t bother stopping any; if you can’t save every life, there’s no point improving healthcare. Nothing short of literally defeating death will be good enough.
[…]
You can see how talking in terms of systemic problems and harm reduction just bounces off of that. It’s like saying it’s better to die with one, unconfessed mortal sin on your soul than seven. Nope! Nope. You’re still going to Hell! […] Evil exists to test your integrity.
[…]
The necessary counternarrative is to stress that the problems we face are not natural features of the world, that, in fact, very little of human life is natural […] Humanity as we know it only exists in defiance of nature. Every form of bigotry, every means of oppression, is a thing we created; they are human problems, and they have human solutions. They have not always existed, and there are places in the world where they are being addressed. The idea that the worst things on Earth have no great significance, that most evil is a chaotic mess borne of human fallibility, can be very depressing to consider; it can also be empowering.
it has been shown, time and again, throughout history, that there is no bottom to the well of depravity into which the death spiral may carry us. […] society hasn’t significantly improved.
Used to be worse, hasn’t improved.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Swedish Defence has started its first ever Equality Conference. The goal is to overcome the inertia that is blocking integration.
For instance, there is still not military underwear available suited to female body types, and women are instead issued money to purchase their own underwear.
lumipunasays
Re: StevoR at 355 and 356
I think Adelaide should be astronomically in good position for observing the Moon during the upcoming Artemis II mission, as the waning Moon rises high above southern hemisphere. Also meteorologically, notwithstanding the extreme heat. Should be less cloudy than on Venus. Here in Helsinki the Moon will barely rise above horizon for a few hours a day, and the southern horizon will be almost guaranteed to be obscured by clouds.
“The administration’s threats appear to have had the opposite of their intended effect: People are turning up with more resolve and more emotion.” Video at the link.
Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has led Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, is out of his post in Minneapolis and will return to his previous job as sector chief in El Centro, California, a senior administration official told MS NOW.
Two officials briefed on the matter also told MS NOW that there will be a reduction of Homeland Security Department officers in Minnesota.
We do not know if this is the end of what the administration has called Operation Metro Surge, the sustained, large-scale paramilitary attack on the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but we know it’s the end of something.
Bovino’s sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering its most aggressive tactics after the Saturday killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol officers under Bovino’s command.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to reports of Bovino’s departure, writing on social media that he had “NOT been relieved of his duties,” which may be true, but it doesn’t exactly answer the questions about his future.
On Monday, The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff further reported that “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski, who were Bovino’s biggest backers at DHS, are also at risk of losing their jobs.”
The administration appears to be in retreat.
On Monday, Trump held conciliatory phone calls with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Both of those elected officials have been demonized by the president and his administration. Once Trump started criticizing both men, his Justice Department naturally put them both under federal investigation.
Even so, the personal threats against Minnesota’s elected leaders seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect, causing them to dig in and fight harder, and increasing their political support both in their state and around the country.
The federal government’s threats to the people of Minneapolis, federal agents’ increasingly unhinged and explosive violence toward the people of that city, and their killing of people who were protesting as well as observing and filming federal agents there, also seem to have had the opposite of the intended effect.
Those factors have caused the people of Minneapolis to recommit to being in the streets, to come out in larger numbers, with more resolve and more emotion.
It’s also sent support for them soaring all around the country. From Davenport, Iowa, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Twin Falls, Idaho, to Traverse City, Michigan, to New York City — protests in support of the people of Minneapolis could be seen in cities big and small, blue and red.
At every protest I’ve ever been to, at every protest I’ve ever covered, somebody at some point starts up the chant “This is what democracy looks like.” We’ve all heard that so much that it has become kind of protest wallpaper. It feels like a generic sentiment, but it’s literally true.
The unromantic, strong, simple truth of the matter is that in our country right now, every democratic muscle that we have is flexing, and, it turns out, that is way stronger than Trump.
In the wake of Pretti’s death and the massive protests that have followed, Republicans in the Minnesota state legislature have called for de-escalation and a pause in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
On Monday, Chris Madel, a leading Republican candidate for governor in the state, dropped out of that race, saying he cannot support his national party’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”
It’s not just in Minnesota. Republicans in Congress have called the events in Minneapolis “incredibly disturbing” and called for a thorough investigation.
Republican governors are also speaking out. One called the operation, at best, “a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership,” and at worst, “a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans.”
Even Democratic senators who have sided with Republicans in the past and voted to fund the Trump administration have come out and said they will not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is a vote that has to happen this week.
Over in the House, the handful of Democrats who voted last week to fund DHS have started to apologize for it.
In a statement, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York said he “failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis.”
“I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE’s unlawful behavior and I must do a better job demonstrating that,” he wrote.
In our democracy, which was designed to be decentralized, divided and responsive to the people, when the people push in a concerted way, the levers of power move.
Even the sinkhole of sniveling cowardice that has been America’s business so-called leaders have started, ever so tentatively, to express a mild discomfort. On Sunday, chief executives of Target, Best Buy, General Mills, Cargill, Land O’ Lakes, Hormel, U.S. Bancorp, the Mayo Clinic and other large Minnesota-based companies issued a public letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation” in the state.
Yes, too little, and yes, too late — but way more than they were willing to do before.
We even saw the old graybeards of U.S. politics rouse from their retirement pastimes and diversions. Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton each issued pretty stirring statements condemning Trump’s attack on Minneapolis and praising the strong, peaceful protests of the people who responded.
We are conditioned to be bored and underwhelmed by Congress, by candidates, by brand-name politicians and even by state elected leaders. We are conditioned to expect the actions of anyone in politics who is not the president to be not very powerful.
But when the people push in a concerted way, the levers of power move in our democracy, which was designed to be decentralized, divided and responsive to the people. There is a political response, a small-d democratic response.
Yes, that response includes the president’s poll numbers sinking further into the bedrock (including on immigration, which he really wanted to be his signature issue), but the other forces of political gravity start to work as well — in Congress, in state government, in party politics, in business.
Protest — principled, peaceful, relentless protest — works. The American people are using democratic means to save a democracy, which is the only way to win in the long term.
The number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded or missing during nearly four years of war is on track to reach two million by this spring, according to a new study, a stunning toll as Russia’s assault on its neighbor grinds on.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children be vaccinated against 18 diseases, more than the U.S. government directs after it overhauled its schedule. The doctors group, which released its recommendations Monday, kept its guidance largely unchanged from its previous version from last year. The group said it doesn’t endorse the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood-vaccine schedule. The agency now recommends all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases.
A federal judge in Oregon dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking Oregon’s unredacted voter rolls on Monday in another setback to wide-ranging efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to get detailed voter data from states.
News that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present during the upcoming Winter Games has set off concern and confusion in Italy, where people have expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Prize-winning composer Philip Glass has called off a scheduled world premiere at the Kennedy Center of a symphony about Abraham Lincoln, the latest in a wave of cancellations since President Donald Trump ousted the previous leadership. Glass’ Symphony No. 15, ‘Lincoln,’ was to have been led by Grammy-winning conductor Karen Kamensek for performances on June 12 and June 13.
[…] For Bovino, whose recent record has included one scandalous development after another, it’s an embarrassing setback, especially as he’s replaced in Minnesota by White House border czar Tom Homan, who’ll oversee immigration operations in the state.
Trump presented Homan as some kind of moderating force, which is preposterous given Homan’s controversial background, political antics, absurd conspiracy theories and bribery allegations.
But of particular interest was a brief aside the president made when announcing the lineup change: Trump said Homan “will report directly to me.”
If that’s true, it’s a demeaning development for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for one unavoidable reason: These enforcement policies were supposed to fall under her purview, and now her powers have been weakened in the aftermath of repeated failures.
A Politico report noted the larger context, after emphasizing the fact that the DHS secretary appears to have been “sidelined”:
For Noem, it’s nothing short of a public humiliation; pushed aside from her department’s highest-profile operation following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — and following her ill-judged response. Homan ‘will report directly to me,’ Trump announced on Truth Social, and the message could hardly have been clearer.
If, sometime soon, Trump publishes an item to his social media platform announcing that he has decided to nominate Noem to serve as an ambassador to some faraway land, no one should be too surprised
[…] The UK’s largest cinema chain VUE’s flagship theatre in London’s Islington has so far sold just one single ticket for the first showing [of the film “Melania”] of the day on Friday, while only two have been booked for the next showing. No seats at all so far been sold in any of the other three VUE cinemas elsewhere in the UK where the film is screening. VUE knows a dead turkey when it sees it and has refused to release the film in any of its other 95 cinemas nationwide. [Now that is an awesome moment of schadenfreude.]
VUE’s biggest competitor CineWorld is releasing the film in just two of its venues where advance ticket sales are slightly rosier, with four and five tickets sold in advance respectively. [LOL]
[…]With such prospects, it is highly unlikely that the film’s box office takings will be reported at all here in the UK and with any luck the film will disappear from the screens entirely in the course of next week.
To prop up the film, Amazon is holding premiere events in nearly two dozen cities nationwide on Jan. 29, a day before the film’s general release […] Amazon executives are also being dispatched to attend premiere events
“Trump Threatens 100 Percent Tariffs And Fighter Jet Flyovers For Canada”
“Is it TACO Tuesday yet?”
The entire world knows, as it has since at least his first term, that Donald John Trump — president, former gameshow host, and adjudicated con man — is full of shit with his tariff game. Now he is threatening to put one hundred percent tariffs on Canada, our second-biggest trading partner after Mexico and until last year our closest ally, with a side of [telling] Canada that he will start sending fighter jets over Canadian airspace for “security” if Canada doesn’t go through with buying 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets. Huh, Trump sure does love that number! And he is extra-super pig-biting-mad that Canadian PM Mark Carney would not pay a billion dollars to join his Made Up Peace Club for Men, next to Vlad Putin, Viktor Orban, and the former Tantric sex instructor president of Argentina.
Canada would of course have nul reason to want or ever even trust any American-built fighter jets after Trump has spent a year threatening to take over Canada and make it the 51st state, and has taken lately to referring to Prime Minister Carney as “Governor Carney,” as in, “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.” […]
Trump is still burning, though, after Carney’s barnburner of a speech at Davos last week, where he said something along the lines of how the world had ruptured and the US is not at the top any more, and Canada was no longer going to go along to get along […]
Carney also encouraged others to stand together against Trump’s many crapulences, pointing out that “middle powers must act together, because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” And Canada’s first step is a plan to import 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles at a tariff rate of 6 percent instead of 100 percent, because how much Canada taxes other countries’ goods at its borders is none of the US’s fucking business.
Canada had a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, plus a 25 percent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum, and China responded with 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood. Obviously now Canada is wondering why its consumers are paying more for Trump’s folly when it hasn’t bought them any kind of a reprieve from his idiotic threats.
[…] Oh, and yesterday Trump threatened to tariff South Korea more too. [I snipped Trump’s blather.]
Trump is wildly stupid at business, especially given he somehow got an MBA from undergrad BS in economics from Wharton, eesh. But he is not so stupid he is unaware that American consumers and companies pay for tariffs on foreign goods. His tariffs are more about how a proper king needs the power of the purse! Tariffs are also something Peter Navarro’s faction of the Heritage Foundation has long been pushing, ostensibly as a way to make China realize it is “reliant” on the US, to decouple the US economy from China’s, and punish China for selling more things to us than we buy from them. That traitorous nut Navarro has a doctorate in Economics from Harvard, if you can believe it!
Class, can you spot Peter’s logical fallacy there? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
As we have all learned over the past year, China is not reliant on the US. Quite the other way around. Even back in 2023, the US was less than 15 percent of China’s export market. […]
China’s own AI chip technology is rapidly reaching the level of the US’s newest NVIDIA chips, if it is not already there. Even if they aren’t, China’s chips are adequate enough that they can build a whole lunar base with them, so. China also controls the majority of the world’s supply chain of electric cars, Barbies, handbags, toilet brushes, clothes […]
China is a job creator, and Chinese manufacturing workers make about 40 percent of what Americans do, and there are no labor unions selfishly demanding higher wages for workers there.
Over the past year, while Trump’s dramatics inconvenienced, annoyed and insulted Chinese leadership and its people, China has still done just fine. More than fine. Look how low China’s 10-year bond yields are compared to the US’s, less than half price! As we bondsplained last week, that extra 2.4 percent of return the US Treasury will be forced to pay at the end, there, is the price of risk, just like with a credit card. It’s the real number of how much more confident investors are that China’s treasury will still be in a position to pay up in a decade, versus the US, and/or that the dollar will sink and inflation will go up and make the bonds worth less, which has also been happening to a greater degree under Art O’ Deal. And higher treasury yields also makes the price of Americans borrowing money go up, like mortgage interest rates, uh oh.
Debt, that is the other big thing we make that China buys! And they have been slowly selling their US treasuries over the past nine months. Somebody should break it to Navarro that the party benefitting from the conscious uncoupling is not the US.
[…] And China has been making newer and closer friends all over the world as the US withdraws into North Korean-style terror and isolation. Another bonus! China’s human rights abuses are getting a lot less attention and international brow-furrowing lately, because compared to executing people in cold blood in the street for looking at a government agent sideways, China’s secret prisons do executions in secret, and their social credit scores seem comparatively humane and methodical!
In short, by ceding US hegemony to internally grab any and every kind power for himself he can, Trump has made China more powerful than it’s been in 5,000 years, and without China even having to try very hard.
And by threatening Canada, Trump is screwing over US consumers. If he actually follows through this time, it will mean real economic collapse here.
Canada is the top export destination of goods for 36 US states, and about $2.7 billion worth of Canadian goods and services also cross the border southbound every day. About 60 percent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85 percent of electricity imports. If voters are mad about The Affordability now, 100 percent tariffs on Canada will mean consumer prices and layoffs the likes of which we have never seen. Canada is also the biggest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum, and uranium to the US, and oh, has 34 of those critical minerals and metals necessary for the US’s AI bubble to keep afloat.
So, in spite of dumbshit Scott Bessent pathetically lying that Mark Carney had privately walked back his words, Carney has not walked back any of those words and only repeated, “I meant what I said.” [!]
Economic sanctions, even military threats, will and do hurt Canada, emotionally and otherwise, but they will hurt the US way worse. And Canada is a member of NATO, and NATO has planes too.
When will Trump chicken out again? Place your bets! Trump doesn’t seem to have put a deadline on it this time, that’s how credible it is, but Polymarket is paying out odds of it going into effect by June at 10 to one. [LOL] […]
a fast-track plan to allow up to 500,000 undocumented migrants to apply for legal residency status, most of them from Latin America and Africa. The move is one of the largest regularizations seen in Europe in years, and bucks the wider trend of many European governments adopting tougher stances on migration. […] people who had been in Spain for at least five months […] no criminal record […] They would apply for a one-year renewable residency permit, or five years for children.
[…]
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly argued that migration underpins Spain’s economic performance, saying it accounted for about 80% of growth over the past six years […] The plan was adopted by royal decree, allowing the government to bypass parliament, where it lacks a stable majority.
[…]
Spain currently has about 49.4 million residents, including 7.1 million foreign nationals. An estimated 840,000 people were living in the country without authorization at the start of 2025
[…] while it is hilarious and wonderful and fun to watch Bovino’s career being ruined like this, this is just a shuffling of the deck chairs, and it ain’t over until all the Nazis are being punished to the fullest extent of the law. On that note, Secretary [Pete Hegseth] just approved a request from DHS to use Fort Snelling next to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a staging area for their Nazi bullshit. San Francisco Chronicle
A bunch of Bovino’s CBP and DHS [federal officers] are also leaving Minnesota with him, though. So it’s really unclear exactly what’s going to happen in Minnesota now.
[…] White House Nazi Fillers Barbie wants to know why the libs aren’t upset about dead actual domestic terrorist Ashli Babbitt, who got shot and killed while she was in the process of attacking the United States Capitol. As opposed to Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse who was holding a cell phone on a public city street and stopped to help a lady up, at which point ICE terrorists murdered him. […]
The former president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, spoke out in support of people boycotting traveling to the US for the World Cup this year. You know, because of everything. [Guardian ]
[…] Donald Trump will not be waddling into the Super Bowl this year to get booed and laughed at by the entire world. To be clear, if he thought he would be greeted well, he would be there.
[…] Speaking of stealing Trump’s joy, did you hear that on top of the glorious wokeness and Puerto Rican and Spanish-speaking-ness of the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show, they have ALSO added a performance by Green Day, a band that hates Trump as much as you hate Trump? Oh, and Brandi Carlile is singing the national anthem. So if you’re keeping score at home that’s gay, gay, gay, woke, woke, woke, wokeity gay trans bi lez, LGBTQ-ity wokeity woke, SPANISH SPANISH WOKE SPANISH WOKE […] [Rolling Stone “I’m anti-them,” Trump says.]
[…] Two movie recs for you this week, both nominees for this year’s Oscars.
The Alabama Solution is up for Best Documentary, and it’s about the legalized slavery that is the prison system in Alabama, and by extension in all the red states, and also blue states. […] helps bring into focus that nothing has really changed about white conservatives since the Civil War, and how true that viral tweet is about how we got where we are today by failing to properly punish the Confederacy. They’ve never been chastened, never had a reckoning. They’re the same white supremacist authoritarians they’ve always been, they’ve just changed their language somewhat, though these days they don’t feel as much need to lean on euphemism. […] [Trailer]
The second one is Blue Moon, a collaboration between Richard Linklater and lead actor Ethan Hawke, who is nominated for Best Actor. […] This is the story of lyricist Lorenz Hart reflecting on his life on the night of the opening of Oklahoma!, the first collaboration between Hart’s longtime collaborator Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The whole film takes place in Sardi’s, 1943. It’s just … it’s a cool movie. And now I have to watch every Rodgers/Hart show I’ve never seen, plus go back and revisit all the Rodgers/Hammerstein. Anyway, you can rent this one on Apple TV and a couple other services. [Trailer]
@368 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote about the Alt-Right Playbook – “You can’t regulate all evil.” […] Does it matter that these shootings are far less deadly and happen far less often? Does it matter that making guns harder to get has saved tens of thousands of lives?
I reply: that’s an interesting point, a different angle that I have not thought about.
and Sky Captain expressed: “Used to be worse, hasn’t improved.”
I have to agree with you. But, as you pointed out, we must try, in our own limited way. to help others to avoid being casualties.
@380 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain and @383 Lynna,OM both wrote about tRUMP and bezos pushing attendance at the movie ‘melania’. I found the link below and a few other articles were similar: https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/27/melania-trump-75-million-movie-empty-theaters/
Martha Ross, Features writer for the Bay Area News Group is photographed for a WordPress profile in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Thursday, July 28, 2016. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) By Martha Ross
The film is opening in around 1,500 to 2,000 theaters nationwide Friday, according to the Daily Beast. That’s a wide release, which is unusual for a documentary, a genre that usually plays in arthouse theaters or on streaming platforms.
. . .
“Not a single ticket sold for the opening night 9:55 p.m. showing of ‘Melania’ at the busiest movie theater in the metro Jacksonville area,” Travis Akers, a former naval intelligence officer turned community activist, posted on X Monday evening. He also shared an image of an empty booking screen. As of Tuesday afternoon, just two seats had been sold.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
I’d intended my second part @368 to be ironic, making plainer the contradiction in the quote. Because if things used to be worse, by definition, that would mean they HAVE improved since then. Wordplay really. Linear language flattens the many different ways each bad phenomenon can be made more/less bad.
(Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, which purports to make a rosy comparison between past and present, was a shoddily researched, hack job of a book, btw.)
Glad my first part was helpful. That was the important bit =)
Needless to say they didn’t get very far. I wonder if they were acting on a tip from a prankster.
Militant Agnosticsays
Lynna @376
What the hell could ICE even do at the Winter Olympics? This is like something from one of those Ignorant Americans who don’t know anything about the rest of the world compilation YouTube videos.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Onion: Police Ask For Public’s Help In Falsifying Report
@388 Militant Agnostic: They would naturally have a small role in checking Visa/Passport/records. The press release from the White House says that will be what they are doing, but of course that could simply be BS. Given the way the DHS budget has been inflated I can see them trying to use ICE for security, something they are not remotely trained for.
A candidate planet that might be remarkably similar to Earth, HD 137010 b, has one potentially big difference: It could be colder than perpetually frozen Mars.
‘History is being made here’: Chris Hayes reports live from Minneapolis. Chris Hayes reports live from the site of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. “These are not just ‘protests.’ This is a standoff,” says Hayes.
Good news for Democratic politicians in Minnesota, as summarized by Steve Benen from a New York Times report:
Democrats won lopsided victories in two special elections in Minnesota on Tuesday, restoring the state’s House of Representatives to an even partisan split. The Democratic candidates, running in Democratic strongholds, prevailed by margins of 95% and 91%, respectively.
Less than a month into Donald Trump’s second term, as Elon Musk and the White House’s DOGE operation sparked a national controversy, Sen. Chuck Grassley said the public shouldn’t look to Capitol Hill for solutions. “Congress can’t do anything except complain,” the Iowa Republican told reporters.
Strictly speaking, that wasn’t altogether true. As the Department of Government Efficiency incrementally dismantled parts of the federal government and pushed federal workers into unemployment, the Republican-led Congress had the power to intervene. It just chose not to. [!] The idea that lawmakers had no choice but to throw up their hands in frustration — rather than, say, exercise their oversight authority — was difficult to take seriously.
This came to mind nearly a year later, as HuffPost’s Igor Bobic asked Grassley whether it was appropriate for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter homes without judicial warrants.
“Ask a constitutional lawyer,” the GOP senator reportedly replied. “I’m a farmer.” [Chuck, you should retire. That’s a stupid reply.]
Whether or not one is inclined to describe the 92-year-old Iowan as “a farmer,” he also has a very different kind of title: Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which should probably take at least some interest in the question of whether ICE agents should be able to enter American homes without a warrant.
Indeed, after more than 44 years working as a federal lawmaker, Grassley is the longest-serving senator currently on Capitol Hill, and he’s the sixth-longest-serving senator in the history of the United States.
The idea that he has an agricultural background, which in turn precludes him from taking a position on a key legal issue, is folly. But Grassley’s response is emblematic of broader concerns related to the GOP-led Congress and its relative indifference to the Trump administration’s tactics and abuses.
If the Judiciary Committee chairman wanted to defend the president’s agenda, it would at least open the door to a substantive conversation. But to answer key questions with a shrug is to offer a timely reminder about the current Congress’ willingness to embrace its own irrelevance. [True]
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Disaster struck at the White House on Tuesday night when Donald J. Trump fell into what appeared to be an irreversible coma during a screening of the upcoming film “Melania.”
Trump was unresponsive seven minutes into the screening despite the First Lady’s attempts to rouse him by repeatedly swatting his right hand.
“Be wake!” the increasingly irate Mrs. Trump shrieked.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one White House source said, “He looked like Pete Hegseth at the end of a workday.”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt later briefed reporters on Trump’s coma, asserting, “This will in no way affect his performance as president.”
“It has reached the point at which House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MS NOW, ‘Kristi Noem is a despicable, corrupt, pathological liar.’ ”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wasn’t exactly on firm political ground before recent developments in Minnesota. On the contrary, the South Dakota Republican was generally seen as a hapless Cabinet secretary, known more for dishonesty, inefficiencies and costume changes than governing successes.
But in the wake of federal immigration agents fatally shooting Alex Pretti, followed by Noem’s indefensible lies about the incident, the secretary’s political standing is in free fall.
Even if we were to narrow the focus to the executive branch, Noem clearly has a problem. Shortly after Donald Trump humiliated the secretary by deploying border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, and having him report to the White House instead of DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection — an agency that falls under the DHS umbrella — issued preliminary findings about the Pretti shooting that appeared to contradict Noem’s own public comments.
But to fully appreciate the scope of the secretary’s troubles, it’s even more important to shift the focus to Capitol Hill. As MS NOW reported:
Two Republican senators joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the death of a Minnesota man over the weekend at the hands of federal immigration agents.
GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, on Tuesday called for Noem to leave her post leading DHS, the department charged with overseeing a surge of as many as 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minneapolis as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.
“I think that what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters on Tuesday, saying he hadn’t decided whether to back a push to impeach Noem. “She should be out of a job. … She needs to go.”
Around the same time, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked whether he still has confidence in the DHS secretary. Rather than answer the question directly and offer support to his former home-state colleague, the South Dakotan replied, “That’s the president’s judgment call.”
Among Senate Democrats, meanwhile, there’s intensifying interest in Noem’s impeachment. As this week got underway, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada publicly called for impeachment proceedings to begin. And soon after, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ruben Gallego of Arizona made related comments.
As for developments in the House, an impeachment resolution targeting Noem, recently introduced by Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois, is quickly picking up support. When it was first unveiled, the measure had 69 cosponsors. As of Tuesday night, that total was up to 156. [!]
What’s more, on Tuesday afternoon, the entirety of the House Democratic leadership team — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar — issued a joint statement that concluded, “Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” [video]
Around the same time, Jeffries appeared on MS NOW and said, “Kristi Noem is a despicable, corrupt, pathological liar.”
Subtle, it was not.
To be sure, the president has said multiple times in recent days that Noem isn’t exiting. But once the resignation boulder starts rolling downhill, gathering momentum, it’s tough to stop it. Watch this space.
The Trump administration has overhauled a set of nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR.
The sweeping changes were made to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs. They occurred over the fall and winter at the Department of Energy, which is currently overseeing a program to build at least three new experimental commercial nuclear reactors by July 4 of this year.
Over 750 pages were cut from the earlier versions of the same orders, according to NPR’s analysis, leaving only about one-third of the number of pages in the original documents.
The article is long and goes into the details of the changes but removing 2/3 of the safety and environmental regulations tells you everything you need to know.
As a somewhat amusing side note, it removes the requirements that guards get firearms training. This White House seems to think people armed with guns don’t need training at all.
Sure, you don’t expect USA Today to have the standards of like, I dunno, whatever paper is still left that is known for maintaining proper standards any more. But behold the sucking-up-to-power chutzpah of this article, “Tim Walz condemned for comparing Minnesota children to Anne Frank.”
The scoop, the words Some People are Condemning in particular:
“We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank,” Walz said. “Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
Hey, which people are condemning that? Do said people sincerely believe that if Anne Frank was alive today instead of having died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 she would be cheering for the ICE agents and Trump’s deportation agenda?
She was an “illegal” refugee in Amsterdam too, which as anybody who read the book in the sixth grade knows was why her family was in hiding in the first place. And she and her family could have lived if the US hadn’t had draconian caps on immigration from Germany, and instead approved her family’s application to immigrate to the US at any point between 1938 and when they were sent to the camp in 1944, where they were murdered.
But the USA Today article does not mention any of that, and only talks to Trump employees or supporters, featuring statements from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, a Trump special envoy, and StopAntisemitism, the group that’s been leading the thought purge against “Islamist propaganda, anti-Semitism, and anti-American bias” on college campuses. Nary a word from any actual Holocaust scholars or survivors, or Walz defenders. In terms of getting diverse opinions, this would not meet the journalistic standards of a recipe blog.
Sheeit, it’s not hard. You can be like People magazine and include the context that the largest school districts in Minnesota are being forced to offer remote learning options because ICE has been popping up outside of schools and kidnapping children as young as 5 as bait to get to their families, like they did with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.
People readers in their pedicure chairs get a citation to the New York Times adding context to what Walz was talking about: “Roughly half of Spanish-speaking students in St. Paul, Minn. and a quarter of Somali-speaking students were absent from school on Jan. 9.”
USA Today also neglected to mention that the Holocaust Museum board is now no reading room of scholars. [!] Back in May, Trump purged the board of all members appointed by Joe Biden, including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, and former domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, and installed 14 loyalists instead, including shock jock Sid Rosenberg; Ariel Abergel, a 25-year-old former Fox News producer; Sigalit “Siggy” Flicker, a former Real Housewife of New Jersey whose son was at the January 6 riot; Robert Garson, who served as Trump’s lawyer in his lawsuit against Bob Woodward in 2023; and Alex Witkoff, the son of Trump’s golf buddy Steve. Nary a historian among that bunch, to say the least.
Sid Rosenberg is a former morning show host and co-host with Don Imus, who got fired (then later rehired) from the radio show in 2001 after calling Venus Williams an “animal” and saying she and sister Serena were unwatchable and “disgusting” because they’re “too muscular.” [OMG]
Rosenberg: “One time, a friend, he says to me, ‘Listen, one of these days you’re gonna see Venus and Serena Williams in Playboy.’ I said, ‘You’ve got a better shot at National Geographic.’”
And at that VERY NAZI LIKE Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in November of ‘24 in a speech, Rosenberg called Democrats “a bunch of degenerates … Jew-haters and lowlifes, every one of ’em.”
He made a joke. Or a “joke.” [video]
[…] Back to the statement from the Holocaust Museum: [social media post]
Deeply offensive? More offensive than Trump repeatedly accusing Jewish people of dual loyalty, declaring they hate their own religion if they don’t vote for him, and blaming them for his regime’s takeover of universities for doing thoughtcrimes? Is it a false equivalence when DHS is literally ripping off neo-Nazi propaganda for recruitment materials?
[…] More offensive than the various literal self-identified neo-Nazis Trump has tried and sometimes succeeded in installing, like his nominee for the Head of the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, who once bragged that “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.” Elon Musk heiling? The dead-eyed guy Trump nominated to juke unemployment numbers and had to withdraw after he took Zoom calls with a four-foot long poster of Hitler’s boat behind him?
Is Tim Walz evoking Anne Frank more deeply offensive than pardoning hundreds of Nazi-sympathetic January 6ers, like Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, known to sport a literal Hitler mustache? More offensive than rabid antisemites Nick Fuentes and old Kanye dining with Trump, all the (((George Soros))) dog whistles, Trump calling bankers Shylocks … Our fingers are tired now.
Antisemitism surging has everything to do with all of the both-sides-ing, winks, nods, and affectionate pinches on the cheek Nazi-ism is getting from the highest office in the land. [!]
Don’t think we didn’t notice that Vice President JD Vance, whose political bread is entirely buttered by neo-Nazis, celebrated Holocaust Remembrance Day just yesterday without once mentioning Jews or Nazis. [social media post, with images]
Holocaust comparisons should not be tossed around though, absolutely. The Jewish people have been through enough without the likes of say, Marjorie Taylor Greene comparing COVID masks to the Holocaust. […]
And you sure can’t deny those comparisons. Not while DHS is literally out here re-creating Nazi photos. [social media posts, with alarming photo comparisons!]
Walz said in May:
“They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
If the boot fits!
Counterpoint, though, from Edna Friedberg, an actual historian and former senior curator at the Holocaust Museum whose father was a Holocaust survivor, in 2018:
“Careless Holocaust analogies may demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets. But there is a cost for all of us because they distract from the real issues challenging our society, because they shut down productive, thoughtful discourse.
“At a time when our country needs dialogue more than ever, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. We owe the survivors more than that. And we owe ourselves more than that.”
Walz is not speaking in bad faith or wrong with his observations at the similarities, but that is exactly what just happened: Any kind of productive discourse about the morality of imprisoning children or forcing them to live in hiding, or being left behind after their parents have been violently taken away right in front of them, has been shut down and re-directed towards scolding Tim Walz. By the newspaper given out for free at the Motel 6, no less. [!]
The Jewish people are as diverse as the Christian people! A rainbow from ultra-Orthodox and the likes of Stephen Miller on over to like, Bernie Sanders, Abbie Hoffman, and Mel Brooks […] But about 69 percent of American Jews identify as Democrats, and the last major survey of Jewish voters back in April found nearly three-fourths disapproved of Trump. [!] With Trump’s approval in a near-constant plunge ever since with everyone in every category, those numbers have surely not improved.
Last word to this Holocaust survivor confronting lying shitheel Tom Homan: [video]
[…] Trump doesn’t like the shootings, it’s time to “de-escalate” and have “heart.” Like so: [social media post, with video: Video from this morning shows ICE agents deploying tear gas outside a Minneapolis preschool as parents shout, “This is a preschool! There’s kids here!”]
[…] You can’t train your way out of evil. (The New Republic)
“Embattled” Kristi Noem is clearly leaking that it wasn’t her, it was Stephen Miller who came up with the disgusting lie about Alex Pretti wanting to “assassinate” and “massacre” ICE. Well, obviously. He said it first and she then repeated it word for word. Not particularly exculpatory, there, Rohm. (Axios) Meanwhile, “the president wants it unfucked” and they want local Minneapolis PD to protect ICE while it does its “operations.” But they’re not going to listen to Democrats, because Democrats lost the election based on immigration, even though everybody who voted for that now fuckin’ hates it. These guys aren’t very bright, and it continues to get out of hand. (Axios again)
[…] “The court’s patience is at an end.” Judge orders ICE chief to come defend the agency personally in court. (Order) The same judge, who once clerked for Antonin Scalia, also released this crazy letter about what the fuck why are you expecting me to arrest Don Lemon. “Apparently I am supposed to guess what the petition is about and guess what the mandamus petition says and then respond. I will do so.” (Letter)
Oh. “Court records show that during the hiring process, the man Bovino selected for a senior role, Christopher Bullock, wrote that Bovino was like a confederate general, set to liberate a fort from Black union soldiers.” (The American Prospect) [Embedded links are available at the main link.]
[…] It’s going horrendously. I don’t mean there have been a few minor speed bumps; I mean the bus is pancaked, Wile E. Coyote–style, against the side of the mountain. Ratings have nosedived. The broadcasts have been beset by basic technical errors. Dokoupil has been pilloried on both the left and the right, to the point that he seems to have broken several of his critics’ brains in fascinating new ways: Megyn Kelly, whose brain wasn’t exactly running smoothly to begin with, blamed Weiss’s sexual orientation for convincing her to hire the “soft” Dokoupil. (“This is a lesbian’s idea,” she sneered, “of what women want.”)
A new exposé about the chaos inside CBS News seems to drop every day, stuffed with juicy quotes from staffers furious about Weiss’s leadership. […] At one point, Dokoupil cried on the air.
“Let’s do the fucking news!” Weiss shouted at her staff during her first editorial meeting, on October 7. Well, here’s some of the fucking news CBS has done on her watch, as reflected in the headlines it’s inspired. “CBS Anchor Tony Dokoupil Is Stuck in an Endless Loop of Humiliation.” “This Tony Dokoupil Thing Isn’t Working.” “It’s Worse Than Even CBS Thought It Could Be.” “Tony Dokoupil’s ‘Embarrassing’ First Days at CBS Evening News Savaged by Staff.” ”‘Blood in the Water’: Bari Weiss’s Chaotic First Three Months in Charge of CBS News.” “The CBS Evening Debut of Tony Dokoupil Was Embarrassing in Ways I Didn’t Know Possible.”
[…] Last week, as America melted down in 50 new ways, as Minneapolis resisted a brutal ICE occupation, as Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club hosted a party where dancers dressed as French aristocrats and wore dog masks to raise money for canines in law enforcement, images leaked of a new segment apparently being readied at CBS Evening News. Its name? You guessed it. Whiskey Fridays … with Tony Dokoupil. social media post of “Whiskey Fridays” set for CBS Evening News]
[…] Alas, even before Friday’s broadcast aired, Whiskey Fridays proved to be a mere illusion. First Jack Daniel’s, perhaps responding to the large “Sponsored by Jack Daniel’s” sign CBS had placed on the Whiskey Fridays set, clarified that it was not in fact sponsoring Whiskey Fridays, and also had never heard of Whiskey Fridays. Then CBS announced that the set for Whiskey Fridays wasn’t actually a set for Whiskey Fridays. It was “an experimental mockup.” In sober truth, there was no Whiskey Fridays. CBS had simply been dreaming of an alternate universe, in much the same way that, in an earlier segment featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Dokoupil had shown an AI-generated image of Rubio as the new shah of Iran.
For me, what emerged from the crucible of Whiskey Fridays is that Dokoupil’s Evening News has managed to invert the very concept of the news. We turn to a news show for accurate information and to help us make sense of a confounding world. But on CBS, what’s most confounding is the production of the news show itself.
Before Dokoupil’s first night in the anchor’s chair, CBS laid out “five simple principles”—pledges to the viewer that would shape this new version of the evening news. Let’s consider them one by one […] We can have whiskey afterward. I don’t care what day it is.
Principle No. 1: “We Work for You.”
Full text: “We work for you. That means you come first. Not our advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests, including the corporate owners of CBS News.”
How does it sound? Great. Noble .[…]
How accurate is it? In the legal, financial, moral, and literal senses?Wildly inaccurate. Dokoupil has his job for one reason only, which is that Ellison, CBS’s new owner—his media company, Skydance, acquired the network’s parent company, Paramount, in August—wants to make his news division more friendly to the Trump administration. This is why he hired Weiss, a 41-year-old writer known for anti-woke, anti–cancel culture, and pro-Zionist views. […] her only prior managerial experience came from editing a popular Substack newsletter, The Free Press, which Ellison bought for $150 million when he brought her to CBS.
To be plain, then: Dokoupil works for Weiss, Weiss works for Ellison, and Ellison works for his family’s business interests, which means seeking favor from the White House. […]
If you’re a rich white man convinced that pronouns and trans athletes are the greatest threats facing America today, Weiss is there to assure you not just that you’re right, but also that your bile is proof of your intellectual fearlessness.
The staging of this performance is neither particularly subtle nor particularly complex. Weiss will typically define “elites” exclusively as left-leaning academics and journalists, then depict the billionaires who feel aggrieved by those academics and journalists as the leaders of a bold grassroots rebellion against the tyranny of liberal groupthink. (Here she is, for instance, calling Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance’s billionaire mentor and the chairman of the powerful surveillance technology company Palantir, the “vanguard” of an “antiestablishment counter-elite” […]) Billionaires, not a flattery-averse demographic overall, love it when she writes lines like “He’s beholden to no tribe but himself, no ideology but his own”—that’s Weiss on Thiel again—and reward her by funding her projects and giving her jobs.
[…] The acquisition of Paramount last year made it clear to them [the Ellisons] that the Trump administration will gum up the business dealings of media companies that don’t curry the president’s favor: Approval for the long-delayed deal came through only after CBS paid Trump $16 million to settle a very sketchy lawsuit, then canceled the late-night show of Trump critic Stephen Colbert […]
you end up with Dokoupil, the public face of the enterprise, bellowing “Marco Rubio, we salute you!” live on national television. It’s how you end up with Dokoupil’s long infomercial of a talk with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. [Yes, that was particularly cringe-worthy] It’s how you end up with his shit-eating chat with the president himself, who bragged that the anchor had Trump to thank for his new role: “If she got in”—meaning if Kamala Harris had been elected president—“you probably wouldn’t have a job right now. … You wouldn’t have this job, certainly, whatever the hell they’re paying you.” A normal news network might have cut that bit of the interview out; CBS couldn’t, because Trump threatened to “sue your asses off” if they edited his interview […]
So no, none of this suggests that CBS Evening News works for us […]
Principle No. 2: “We Report on the World as It Is.”
Full text: “We report on the world as it is. We’ll be honest and direct with you. That means no weasel words or padded landings. We’ll tell you what we know, when we know it. We’ll update our reporting when we uncover new facts. And we’ll admit when we get it wrong.”
How does it sound? A little weird! This is literally just a description of how a news organization is supposed to work. […]
How accurate is it? Not particularly! I don’t mean Dokoupil lies on camera, or even distorts narratives Fox News–style. It’s more that the tone of his reporting, which combines a professionally folksy everyman demeanor with low-calorie pseudo-gravitas, smooths away the sharp edges of events, favoring vibes of unity and healing over real understanding, particularly when the causes of a tragedy lie in right-wing ideology. Conservative media reacted to the killing of Renee Nicole Good by trying to convince you she had it coming; Dokoupil, by contrast, delivered a much-mocked soliloquy filled with high-toned rhetoric that, on close examination, didn’t seem to mean much at all. “There is so much to say about the last 24 hours,” he intoned, “but sometimes, what matters most is what is yet to be said at all, and what we all still need to hear.” [cringe] [video]
The real tragedy, Dokoupil seemed to say, isn’t that ICE shot Good; the real tragedy is our national mood, and our national mood can be rescued by Dokoupil looking into the camera and taking it very, very seriously. All the words, in this case, were weasel words. None of them honestly, directly depicted “the world as it is”; instead, they softened the world into a gentle, sorrowful, vaguely mysterious blur. In this way, CBS seemed to acknowledge our feelings while suggesting that no one, least of all the people whose decisions led to Good’s death, could possibly be held to account.
Principle No. 3: “We Respect You.”
[…] I felt hugely respected by CBS’s decision to push the transparently ludicrous claim from anonymous Trump officials that the ICE officer who killed Good “suffered internal bleeding” during the incident. […]
Principle No. 4: “We Love America.”
[…] Anyone who really believed that “our foundational values of liberty, equality and the rule of law” made us “the last best hope on Earth” would presumably want to defend those values. But CBS, under its new ownership, is engaged in a conscious project of enabling the forces working to subvert them.
[…] CBS, under Weiss, is contributing to the larger right-wing project of undermining access to accurate information, thus making the republic more fragile by making the public easier for would-be authoritarians to manipulate. […]
Principle No. 5: “We Respect Tradition, but We Also Believe in the Future.”
[…] In the sense that it’s saying “you can watch CBS News on your phone,” I’d say it’s stunningly accurate. You can watch CBS News on your phone! At last, CBS has found a way to report on the world as it is. […]
CBS is now Trump TV. I really think that Dokopil takes his job seriously, but he is not backed up by an organization with integrity. He can’t win. I think this can only get worse.
[…] Trump’s marauding bands of immigration goons have made the United States so unsafe that an allied foreign government issued a travel advisory to warn its citizens about coming here.
Germany updated its travel guidance on Wednesday to tell its citizens that Trump’s federal immigration agents are provoking violent clashes in Minnesota, advising them on what to do if they’re unlucky enough to get caught up in it.
“In Minneapolis and other cities, demonstrations sometimes lead to violent clashes with immigration and security authorities,” the guidance says. “Be vigilant and stay away from crowds where violence might occur. … Remain calm and follow the instructions of the authorities and local security forces.”
The irony is not lost on us that Germany, which has a sordid history with fascist leaders who violently murdered citizens based on their ethnic backgrounds and political beliefs, is now warning about the same thing happening in the United States.
But it’s absolutely true that visiting the United States now comes with risks, as federal immigration agents are racially profiling people—pulling them over and asking for their papers, violently ripping them out of their vehicles, and beating them if they do not comply.
Even U.S. citizens and immigrants with valid paperwork have been arrested and held in detention facilities, where they’ve reported deplorable and inhumane conditions.
And in violation of the First Amendment, when brave bystanders exercise their constitutional right to film the agents’ horrific conduct, they are also at risk—both of being beaten or even killed, as we tragically saw with Minnesota residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Meanwhile, Trump can’t stop boasting that his return to office has made the world respect the United States again. He made that ridiculous assertion during a rambling and incoherent speech in Iowa Tuesday, where he declared that he solved inflation. [I snipped Trump’s blather. I also snipped poll results showing that the citizens of most other counties (of those polled) do not believe that America has a positive influence on world affairs.]
[…] Tuesday, after Trump had a chitchat with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that Trump blessed as good, Tom Homan arrived on the ground with specifics of the regime’s hostage demands. Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal reports that Greg Bovino was there too, on his way out of town into infamy. During the conversation Homan checked in with the bosses at the Death Star, and Trump trilled, “I hear that’s all going very well.”
What is the quid pro quo they want to GTFO? Minnesota has been cooperating and turning over any and all convicted immigrant criminals promptly to ICE all along.
The Wall Street Journal’s got the nugget in the 14th paragraph of their story: They want “a broader swath of people […] including immigrants in local and state jails who haven’t yet been tried.”
ICE (acting) director Todd Lyons authored a memo to agents telling them they don’t have to bother to get judicial warrants anymore to bust into private property, now ICE can sign its own permission slip. So you can see why ICE is slobbering to get custody of as many quota-meeting bodies as they can snatch before any nosy judge can step in and try to stop them, even people who have not been convicted of anything, and were perhaps just picked up for say, protesting. […]
Anyway, the conversation apparently didn’t end as well as Trump had hoped, because Mayor Jacob Frey continued to say things that Trump did not like. [“Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws.”]
[…] And Walz had demands of his own, not that he is in much of a position to make any: “impartial investigations into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, a swift, significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota, and an end to the campaign of retribution against Minnesota.”
You know, follow the law. [video]
After the meeting, Walz conceded that Homan was a “professional,” and that there was a “tone shift,” but he doesn’t want any kind of different Operation Metro Surge, he wants it over and wants them all out. […]
let us hope that Tim Walz is able to stand firm. Some advice from dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on negotiating with Trump, as he claimed he related to UN Ambassador to Russia Vitaly Churkin: “it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”
No kind of lawless quid pro quo Tim Walz could give will make the siege of Minneapolis anything but a bloody devastating public relations failure for Trump and his goons. (Though Tom Homan would surely not turn down a bag with $50,000 in it anyway.) There is no upside to be had for Republicans by them staying. Time for Trump to proclaim he “reached an agreement,” [claim] his victory, and tell Stephen Miller to tell Kristi to tell Tom to tell Todd to move on. […]
It only took a few months or 10 years, but on Tuesday the New York Times caught up with what experts on extremism have been pointing out since forever: Trump administration social media accounts — particularly in his second, even more benighted term — sure are posting a lot of messages that just happen to be packed with white nationalist imagery and rhetoric. But even if it’s a little behind previous examinations from NPR, the New Republic, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Times story breaks some new news on the topic […]
At the Department of Homeland Security, the most consistent pusher of white-nationalist tropes, the stream of far-right, nativist messaging has the explicit approval of DHS Propaganda Minister Tricia McLaughlin. Not surprisingly, she denies there’s any neo-Nazi or white supremacist content in the first place, insisting that only a crazy leftist would see any such connection.
Any overlap between white nationalist messages and what’s coming out of her comms team is purely coincidental, McLaughlin told Times reporter Evan Gorelick, apparently with a straight face. Yes, even including a January 9 DHS Twitter post that just happens to quote a song with explicit race-war lyrics, “We’ll Have our Home Again,” that’s hugely popular with neo-Nazis. The song was written by some assholes who say they’re a “pro-White fraternal order,” and is really big with extremist groups like the Proud Boys. [social media post]
[…] Open Measures, a research organization that tracks online extremists, notes that he song has been shared hundreds of times, nearly always by “explicitly neo-Nazi and white supremacist channels,” with virtually no circulation outside those creeps. Gorelick also notes that a white supremacist quoted the song’s lyrics in a written rant he left behind before he went to murder three Black people in a 2023 shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida.
But don’t you go worrying about any of those connections, McLaughlin lied, lyingly, insisting that
if the ICE recruiting post were actually about the song, it “would be a problem” and “morally repugnant.” But, she said, the post had no relation to the white-supremacist anthem.
“There are plenty of references to those words in books and poems,” she said, adding that she was “in charge of everything” posted on the department’s social media accounts.
That’s the news: Tricia McLaughlin acknowledges that she oversees everything that DHS posts to social media. So when she says the white nationalist messages from DHS are definitely not white nationalist messages, you know she’s being every bit as truthful as she is every other time she lies.
Gorelick points out that there’s a problem with McLaughlin’s insistence that the recruiting ad and the song title just happen to have some words (all of them) in common:
[w]hen the post was opened on Instagram’s mobile app, audio from the chorus of the song played in the background. After a reporter pointed this out, Ms. McLaughlin said The Times was participating in a left-wing conspiracy theory.
“I’m telling you it’s not there,” she said.
And indeed, this is true, because within 40 minutes of McLaughlin’s interview last Thursday, the Instagram version of the post was deleted, so it really is not there. (It doesn’t appear to have been preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, either.)
In keeping with the official White House policy of responding to fact-based criticism by trolling, McLaughlin doubled down and insisted that the Times was “mainstreaming racism” by suggesting that the DHS post was in any way connected to the song, shame on you. […]
As several extremism researchers point out, the overlap between white nationalist rhetoric and Trump administration social media might be coincidental if it only happened once or twice. But when it’s as constant as we’ve seen, and as blatant, says William Braniff, head of the the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, “it’s much harder to dismiss.”
Other extremism experts agree, although the Times story waters down one of their points by referring vaguely to “potentially secret codes and numerological clues” in recruiting messages.
“Numerological clues”? You need to know a thing or two about white nationalism to get that one as a reference to the “14 words” (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children”) beloved of Nazi creeps. […]
It’s pretty darn cute how frequently DHS tweets just happen to be 14 words long, like this one from July that on the surface evokes Manifest Destiny, but hey, look at the 14-word length of the caption, which unnecessarily capitalizes “H” twice. Couldn’t possibly refer to “Heil Hitler,” you nutty libs! [social media post]
And then there’s this little August 2025 gem that’s ostensibly about how capacious an extended Ford van — in an ad from 1981! — would be for deporting “criminal illegal aliens.” [social media post from Homeland Security, with images]
[…] [I snipped an example posted by The White House, and some more blather from McLaughlin]
The denials from the White House continue in the same vein now, even as agencies play footsie even more explicitly with Nazi rhetoric. Earlier this month, the Department of Labor inexplicably decided to evoke the old Nazi propaganda slogan “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” by posting a nearly identical slogan, but linking it to George Washington instead, in a post captioned “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.” [social media posts]
[…] It’s pretty clever: Deny for years that you’re echoing Nazi imagery & rhetoric, then go with a very explicit Nazi slogan and insist critics are crazy, because haven’t they been calling us Nazis for years? […]
“The Slovak PM, a Trump ally, told leaders at last week’s EU summit he was concerned about the way the U.S. president spoke to him, European diplomats said.”
Slovakia’s prime minister told EU leaders at a summit last week that a meeting with Donald Trump left him shocked by the U.S. president’s state of mind, five European diplomats briefed on the conversation said.
Robert Fico, one of the few EU leaders to frequently support Trump’s stance on Europe’s weaknesses, was concerned about the U.S. president’s “psychological state,” two of the diplomats said. Fico used the word “dangerous” to describe how the U.S. president came across during their face-to-face meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Jan. 17, according to two of the diplomats.
[…] The Slovak prime minister made his remarks in a separate informal huddle between some leaders and chief EU officials rather than during the formal roundtable talks, the diplomats said. While none of the diplomats who spoke to POLITICO were present, individual leaders briefed them separately on the content of the conversation shortly after it.
[…] A year ago, Fico spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference and told Americans “your president is doing Europe a great service.”
Fico took to X on Wednesday, saying: “I must emphatically reject the lies of the POLITICO portal about how I assessed my meeting with US President D. Trump at an informal summit in Brussels. No one heard anything, no one saw anything, there are no witnesses, but nothing prevented the POLITICO portal from coming up with lies.”
[…] Fico seemed to be “traumatized” by his encounter with Trump, one of the European diplomats said. Fico characterized Trump as being “out of his mind,” a diplomat said, using the words briefed to them by their leader, who was directly involved in the conversation.
[…] Fico, who signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal with Washington while on his trip to the U.S., did not mention Trump’s claims on Greenland or his operation to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro […]
There are definitely two contradictory accounts of conversations between Trump and the Slovak prime minister.
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen, who writes for The Maddow Blog:
* It’s still worth knowing why this didn’t happen earlier in the week: “The two Department of Homeland Security officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti were placed on immediate paid administrative leave for three days, an official with direct knowledge of the situation told MS NOW.”
* I wish this were more reassuring: “The FBI has taken the lead in the criminal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar being sprayed with a liquid as she spoke on Jan. 27 at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, a police spokesman said.” [Source: Star Tribune]
* Putin still doesn’t want peace: “A Russian drone strike on a passenger train in northeastern Ukraine killed five people, prosecutors said, an attack denounced as terrorism by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Prosecutors said fragments of five bodies had been found at the scene of the strike on the train by a village in northeastern Ukraine‘s Kharkiv region.” [Source: NBC News]
* The worst measles outbreak in the United States in the 21st century: “Measles in South Carolina has spread to at least 789 people, surpassing the 2025 West Texas outbreak that sickened 762 people and killed two young girls.” [Source: NBC News]
* More discouraging economic data: “U.S. consumer confidence slumped to the lowest level in more than 11½ years in January amid mounting anxiety over a sluggish labor market and high prices, which could see households becoming more cautious about spending.” [Source: Reuters]
* A case worth watching: “The state of California is suing the Trump administration over its plans to restart an oil pipeline project that has been on hold for environmental and public health reasons since a massive oil spill in 2015.” [Source: MS NOW]
* I didn’t think we could do this: “A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to get into Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis on Tuesday but was prevented from entering the premises by consulate staffers, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.” [Source: Reuters]
* Fresh clarity from Ottawa: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he spoke to President Trump and told him he stands by his remarks last week issuing a call-to-arms among smaller powers against economic coercion. … The Canadian leader’s remarks to reporters Tuesday were meant to rebut comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent told Fox News Monday night that he was in the Oval Office when Trump and Carney spoke by phone, and Carney ‘was very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.’” [Source: Wall Street Journal]
* I wish we had a president who knew something about monetary policy: “The U.S. dollar notched its biggest one-day decline since April’s tariff turmoil after President Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the recent slide in the U.S. currency.” [Source: Wall Street Journal]
* There are long-term consequences to a 0.5% growth rate: “President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration contributed to a year-to-year drop in the nation’s growth rate as the U.S. population reached nearly 342 million people in 2025, according to population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.” [Source: Associated Press]
* TikTok is under new management, and it’s off to a rough start: “TikTok said on Tuesday that its app was facing technical problems after users accused the service of suppressing posts related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.” [Source: New York Times]
The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center, by Oren Peleg, writing for The New Yorker
“How immigration authorities have weaponized medical neglect to encourage self-deportations.”
On September 18, 2025, Karam stopped eating. Nearly three weeks earlier, he had been transferred to the California City ice Detention Facility, a remote facility deep in the Mojave Desert, from Mesa Verde, another ice detention center, in downtown Bakersfield. At Mesa Verde, Karam, who has a chronic stomach ulcer, had been receiving regular medication, was frequently kept on a liquid diet as prescribed by a doctor, and was able to see medical staff routinely. (Karam is a pseudonym, as he remains detained by ice and fears retaliation.) Karam had even been approved to see a gastrointestinal specialist for his condition, but he was transferred before the appointment.
When Karam arrived at California City, he informed a nurse who was conducting his medical intake about his ulcer, liquid diet, and the medications he takes daily—some of them multiple times a day. Yet, during his first twenty-four hours at the facility, he received no medication, and later, when he finally began to receive anything at all, they were the wrong pills and were provided with wild infrequency. [!]
As his health declined and his numerous requests for medication went unanswered, Karam decided to go on a hunger strike. By September 22nd, nearly a week into the strike, he was vomiting blood. The next day, he fainted, which triggered a “code blue”—a life-threatening medical emergency—that brought him to the medical clinic. There, according to Karam, he was kept for two or three hours as a health-service administrator named Ms. White took his vitals, and told him that it would be another two weeks before he could see a gastroenterologist for his condition. For the next three days, multiple staff members at California City told Karam that he would only get his medication if he ended his hunger strike.
About a week later, Karam ended his strike, and staff assured him that he’d be able to see a doctor and receive his proper liquid diet. But it would be more than a week until he finally saw that doctor, who not only told Karam that there would be no appointment with a G.I. specialist but that he should “go back” to his country to get the medical care he needs. [!]
In the three months since, Karam’s medical condition has continued to worsen and remains untreated. He told me that he has developed mouth ulcers, still vomits blood, and has blood in his stool. Karam has gone on three additional hunger strikes since September.
After speaking with several current and recently released detainees from the California City ice Detention Facility (C.C.D.F.), I have learned thatKaram’s experience of medical neglect there is pervasive. These detainees reported adequate care at other ice detention and processing facilities they were previously held at, and described the California City facility as unique in its mistreatment of those held in its custody. Time and again, detainees told me that they experienced extremely delayed appointments with health-care professionals, the denial of medications and treatment, experiences with unsafe and unsanitary living conditions, and a general antagonism by medical staff toward detainees.
“California City is extraordinarily isolated, it is extraordinarily brutal and cruel, it is extraordinarily deprived of adequate medical care,” Tess Borden, an attorney at the California nonprofit Prison Law Office, explained to me.
In November, Prison Law Office joined the firm of Keker, Van Nest & Peters, the A.C.L.U., and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice in filing a class-action lawsuit against ice and the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of those detained at California City. As noted in the filing, detainees refer to C.C.D.F. as a “torture chamber” and “hell on Earth.” In fact, Borden says, the conditions at the facility are so terrible that detainees are resigning themselves to self-deportation, instead of pursuing asylum and other immigration cases, and that “people are also trying to take their own lives.” […]
In a letter sent to D.H.S. last month, California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, warned that “the facility does not have enough medical doctors for its detainee population size,” and the staff it does have “appear to be inexperienced and lack basic understanding of civil detention management principles.” On January 20th, Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff toured the facility and spoke with the warden as part of an oversight visit. “Far and away, the biggest concerns were about lack of medical attention,” Senator Padilla told me by phone after his visit. He compared the facility’s conditions to what he saw during a tour of migrant detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay last year, explaining that it can take “weeks or months” for a detainee to receive care, “even for matters that, in my mind, seem pretty urgent.” […]
the central question raised during public comment was procedural: How was C.C.D.F. even allowed to open in the first place if CoreCivic appeared to be in direct violation of California state law and local municipal codes?
[…] This failure of municipal government to adequately address federal overreach in immigration policy is a pattern that ice is relying on across the country to push its agenda forward.
[…] staffing issues do not fully explain the lack of basic medical care at California City. “They do it so you give up,” Julio Cesar Santos Avalos, who was a detainee at California City from September to November, told me. When he arrived at C.C.D.F., Santos Avalos recalls a consistent push by staff for detainees to sign away their rights and self-deport. Instructions for how to self-deport are displayed prominently near phones where detainees communicate with their lawyers. Santos Avalos and many of the detainees and attorneys I spoke to believe the lack of medical care is part of that push. The detention center is aiming to make conditions so terrible that detainees stop fighting and decide to leave. Santos Avalos, who suffers from chronic pain owing to a foot deformity caused by childhood cases of polio and Guillain-Barré syndrome, was denied his pain medication and made to sleep on a top bunk until he broke under the pressure and self-deported to El Salvador.
Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, that told immigrants, “Do not come to this country or we will hunt you down, find you, and lock you up.” In August, Noem reiterated those comments when she told CBS News that “overwhelmingly, what encourages people to go back home voluntarily is the consequences.”
Mario Valenzuela views this messaging as the origin of much of the mistreatment in ice detention. “The officers and everybody that falls below them, they feel emboldened to be aggressive like never before,” he told me. With each passing month, those aggressive tactics test the moral and legal boundaries, only to be met with insufficient resistance, which, in turn, emboldens the federal immigration apparatus to push it even further. “It’s coming from the top,” Valenzuela said, “this feeling that they can do whatever they want. There’s no accountability.”
In the clearest sign yet that Tesla is pivoting away from its electric car business, CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday’s investor call that the company would discontinue production of its Model X SUV and Model S full-size sedan.
After wrecking his own car business Musk is having Tesla pivot into businesses where his reputation won’t hurt the company as much, they are going into AI and humanoid robotics. Tesla already had research in both fields but both are highly experimental fields where making a viable business has proven hard.
President Donald Trump’s mass immigrant arrest scheme suffered a huge setback on Wednesday, as a federal judge in Minnesota ordered a halt to any arrest and detention of lawful refugees not accused of committing crimes.
Senior U.S. District Judge John Tunheim ordered that the moves to arrest Minnesota’s 5,600 refugees, transport them to other states, and interrogate them in detention cannot continue — and that anyone who was shipped out to other states in this manner must be returned to Minnesota.
It’s a little more narrow then it sounds at first glance, it doesn’t stop ICE from arresting illegal immigrants but it stops ICE’s general sweep. It requires the ICE have an accusation of a specific crime before detaining refugees, which is not all immigrants, legal or illegal. It will completely mess up ICE’s current sweep the streets, grab as many as we can and then see if we can find some pretext to kick them out program.
I was Alex Pretti’s final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs filled with lifesaving solutions, and how to watch over every heartbeat, every breath, and every flicker of life, ready to act the moment they wavered. Techniques intended to heal.
Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera.
It does not surprise me that his final words were, “Are you okay?” Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well.
Alex believed strongly in the Second Amendment and in the rights rooted in our Constitution and its amendments. He spoke out for justice and peace whenever he could, not only out of obligation, but out of a belief that we are more connected than divided, and that communication would bring us together.
I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room, letting it guide and steady my hands as I heal and care for those in need.
Please honor my friend by standing up for peace, preferably with a cup of black coffee in hand and a couple of pieces of candy in your pocket, just as he would. He would remind you that caring for others is hard work, and we must do whatever it takes to get through the long shifts. Step outside with your dog, breathe in the world, hike or bike as he loved to do, and let yourself find peace in the quiet moments within nature. Stand up for justice and speak with those whose views differ from your own. Hold your beliefs with strength, but always extend love outward, even in the face of adversity.
Take one step, no matter how small, to help heal our world. Through these acts, carry his light forward in his name. Let his legacy continue to heal.
Bessent claimed Canada won’t let Alberta build a pipeline to the Pacific. “I think we should let them come down into the U.S., and Alberta’s a natural partner for the U.S. […] Albertans are very independent people,” Bessent said, adding there’s a “rumour that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.” […] “People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.”
[…]
The Alberta independence movement is collecting signatures to trigger a referendum. The question that referendum would ask is whether Alberta should be independent from Canada—not whether it should join the United States. Mitch Sylvestre, who is spearheading the petition for a referendum, said Friday he doesn’t think anyone in his movement wants to join the U.S.
Leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group of far-right separatists who want the western province to become independent, met US state department officials in Washington three times [covertly] since April last year […]
They are seeking another meeting next month with state and Treasury officials to ask for a $500bn credit facility to help bankroll the province if an independence referendum—yet to be called—is passed. […] The US was unlikely to provide any material support
[…]
A White House official said: “Administration officials meet with a number of civil society groups. No such support, or any other commitments, was conveyed.”
The person familiar with Bessent’s thinking said he neither supported nor opposed Alberta’s independence […] Bessent believes Alberta could deepen its ties with the US while remaining a Canadian province
[…]
The separatist party has adopted similar themes to the UK’s Brexit movement. It accuses Ottawa of squandering billions of dollars in oil revenue and touts conspiracies around Chinese influence, Christian persecution and the “globalists” agenda.
The interim head of the country’s cyber defense agency uploaded sensitive contracting documents […] last summer, triggering multiple automated security warnings that are meant to stop the theft or unintentional disclosure of government material from federal networks
[…]
especially noteworthy because the acting director […] had requested special permission from CISA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to use the popular AI tool soon after arriving at the agency this May […] The app was blocked for other DHS employees at the time.
[…]
sensors at CISA flagged the uploads […] there were multiple such warnings in the first week of August alone. Senior officials at DHS subsequently led an internal review to assess if there had been any harm […] It is not clear what the review concluded.
[…]
Any material uploaded […] can be used to help answer prompts from other users of the app. OpenAI has said the app has more than 700 million total active users.
Other AI tools now approved for use by DHS employees—such as DHS’s self-built AI-powered chatbot, DHSChat—are configured to prevent queries or documents input into them from leaving federal networks. Gottumukkala “forced CISA’s hand into making them give him ChatGPT, and then he abused it,”
[…]
this would not be his first security-related incident. At least six career staff were placed on leave this summer after Gottumukkala failed a counterintelligence polygraph exam that he pushed to take
[…]
And last week, Gottumukkala tried to oust Costello, CISA’s CIO, before other political appointees at the agency intervened to block the move.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Anders Leonard Zorn, Swedish Master of the Brush”
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
Ilhan Omar speaks out after town hall attack: ‘I am not one to be intimidated’. Rep. Ilhan Omar sits down with Chris Hayes for an exclusive interview one day after she was attacked by a man at a town hall in Minneapolis.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
‘I know who I’m dealing with’: Walz on why Trump really called amid ICE uproar. Gov. Tim Walz sat down with MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff for an exclusive interview. “Not once did they ever say Alex or Renee’s name. Not once did they ask how the people of Minnesota were doing. So look, I know who I’m dealing with, and I know the reason that he was calling me was he needed something from us,” Walz said on his call with Trump officials.
Video is 7:38 minutes
birgerjohanssonsays
Pay attention. Universal Basic Income is seriously discussed!
“The secretary of state said the administration is depositing the proceeds of Venezuelan oil sales into an account in the Middle East.”
On Jan. 3, Donald Trump ordered a military offensive in Venezuela, captured Nicolás Maduro and declared that his administration was “in charge” of the South American country. Three days later, the president announced his intention to sell Venezuelan oil to create a massive pool of money he would distribute at his own discretion.
Soon after, as oil sales began in earnest, Semafor reported something entirely unexpected: Revenue from the sales was going to a bank account in (of all places) Qatar, the Middle Eastern country that recently made headlines in the U.S. for giving Trump a free luxury jet. (The Republican soon after announced a NATO-like security guarantee for Qatar.)
Two weeks later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the reporting was accurate. As The New York Times summarized:
Venezuela’s interim government has agreed to submit a monthly ‘budget’ to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by the country’s oil sales and initially managed by Qatar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
But the plan drew sharp questions from skeptical Democrats, and Mr. Rubio conceded that it was ‘novel’ and hastily designed. The role of Qatar — a Middle Eastern country thousands of miles from Venezuela whose ruler has won President Trump’s favor — drew particular criticism from Democrats, who questioned its legality and transparency.
After the secretary of state made some references to oil proceeds being deposited “into an account,” the Florida Republican conceded during an exchange with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire that he was referring to an account in Qatar. [Video]
The circumstances are head-spinning — and vaguely reminiscent of the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal. The U.S. has seized control of a foreign country’s natural resources, is selling those natural resources and collecting revenue from those sales, and is putting that money into an offshore Qatari bank account.
Rubio made no effort to suggest that any of this was normal, just that it’s happening.
To his credit, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas sent Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a detailed list of questions about this highly irregular situation, including some obvious lines of inquiry, such as “You have stated that Qatar was chosen because it is ‘neutral’ territory. What criteria were used to determine this ‘neutrality’ and the preference of Qatar over other countries?” and “Why did the Administration not choose a country with much stronger banking laws and a history of robust management of oil revenues? For instance, Norway is considered the world leader in financial oversight of oil revenues. Why was a bank account thus not established under Norwegian jurisdiction?”
“When it comes to his 2020 defeat, what the president is doing is now more alarming than what he’s saying.”
Related video at the link.
When it comes to Donald Trump’s obsession with his 2020 election defeat, there are two broad categories to keep in mind: what the president says and what he does.
By now, Trump’s rhetoric is no doubt familiar to most Americans. He started lying about the 2020 race before Election Day even arrived, and his campaign against reality has been an ongoing crusade ever since. It would probably be a mistake to suggest that his lies are completely irrelevant — they did help inspire the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and they continue to erode Republican voters’ confidence in the country’s electoral system — but most reasonable people roll their eyes in response to his daily conspiratorial nonsense.
Then there’s the other side of the equation, and the realization that Trump is doing a lot more than just whining incessantly about his loss.
In October, for example, Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who has touted election conspiracy theories, joined the administration as a special government employee with one focus: investigating the 2020 election. A month later,The Washington Post reported that the president was “dialing up pressure on the Justice Department to freshly scrutinize ballots from the 2020 election,” adding that “in recent private meetings, public comments and social media posts, Trump has renewed demands that members of his administration find fraud in the five-year-old defeat that he never accepted.”
That’s the context for FBI agents’ execution of a search warrant Wednesday at the Fulton County elections office near Atlanta. MS NOW reported:
‘The warrant sought a number of records related to 2020 elections,’ Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said Wednesday afternoon.
According to a copy of the warrant obtained and verified by MS NOW, the federal government is seeking evidence of voter fraud, as well as violations of a misdemeanor federal statute requiring elections officials to retain records related to presidential elections for 22 months.
According to Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett and another Fulton County source, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution, the FBI took “pallets of ballots.” A New York Times report noted that the move “harnesses the investigative power of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. behind baseless claims by Mr. Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen from him.”
The developments come a month after Trump’s Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s largest county over records related to the 2020 election.
It might be tempting to shrug this off as a pointless political stunt. Fulton County, Georgia, has long been at the center of Trump’s delusional claims, but Trump’s conspiracy theories about the results have been thoroughly scrutinized and completely discredited.
If the White House wants federal law enforcement officials to waste their time rereviewing what we already know, that’s a shame for the officials who could be doing real work on behalf of the public, but in the grand scheme of things, it might seem trivial.
But it’s not quite that simple. For one thing, the president who controls the Justice Department is intent on prosecuting unnamed foes as part of his hysterical crusade, and the FBI’s latest efforts in Fulton County are another step down the same radical path. And as Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California explained well, this is also part of a larger effort by federal officials to interfere in local elections ahead of this year’s midterms.
The developments in Georgia, in other words, are a dramatic and unnecessary escalation that may very well come with lasting consequences.
“The mayor summarized existing law. For reasons that didn’t make sense, Donald Trump took great offense — and levied a new threat.”
Related video at the link.
As recently as Monday afternoon, Donald Trump appeared to have backed off his public offensive against Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The president published a brief item to his social media platform to say he’d just wrapped up “a very good telephone conversation” with the Democratic mayor, adding, “Lots of progress is being made!”
Alas, the detente didn’t last long.
Roughly 24 hours later, Frey issued a public statement, noting that he and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara had met with White House border czar Tom Homan, and that they had “a productive conversation.” As part of the same statement, the mayor noted, “I also made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws, and that we will remain focused on keeping our neighbors and streets safe.”
Evidently, this didn’t sit well with the president, who responded with an online statement of his own on Wednesday morning:
Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws.’ This is after having had a very good conversation with him. Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!
I’m mindful that Trump has long struggled with the basics of Civics 101, but in the United States, courts have long ruled that the federal government cannot force states to enforce federal laws. Frey’s statement wasn’t controversial in the least: It simply summarized existing law, which the president ought to have at least some familiarity with.
It’s not a “very serious violation of the Law” to operate within the law — and it’s certainly not illegal to acknowledge the basics of the law.
What’s more, as Politico’s Kyle Cheney noted, Trump’s menacing “playing with fire” warning is “exactly the kind of statement (‘retribution is coming’) that worked against the administration in court earlier this week.”
Frey, who worked previously as an attorney focused on civil rights law, responded to the president’s rant with his own follow-up item. “The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws,” he wrote in a message directed at Trump. “I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to [Minneapolis and] is from Ecuador. It’s similar to the policy your guy Rudy [Giuliani] had in [New York City]. Everyone should feel safe calling 911.”
Ideally, this brief tutorial for the confused president would have ended the exchange, but then JD Vance decided he wanted to keep things going a little longer. “How about federal law enforcement. Should they feel safe calling 911?” the vice president asked. “Right now, they don’t, because you’ve told your police officers not to help them.”
As is too often the case with JD Vance, his claims were misleading. Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney and an MS NOW legal analyst, explained via Bluesky, “There is a big difference between saying state resources can’t be used to enforce [federal] civil immigration policy and local cops refusing to assist [federal] partners in an emergency. Deliberately conflating the two is disingenuous.”
One presumes the vice president, a Yale University-trained attorney, knows this. As the White House returns to its misguided fight against Minneapolis’ mayor, he misled the public anyway.
It’s been five days since federal immigration officers shot and killed intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street in broad daylight. The deadly incident, however, was not the first altercation between the victim and federal agents.
Footage emerged Wednesday that showed another confrontation, which occurred 11 days before Pretti was killed. The video shows the Minnesota nurse in a tense run-in with different federal agents in which he kicked the taillight of one of their SUVs. [True]
It also showed agents exiting their vehicle and pushing Pretti to the ground.
A lawyer for the Pretti family said in a statement, “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted [by federal agents]. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
Evidently, Donald Trump doesn’t quite see it that way. As Newsweek summarized:
Although he did not comment directly on the video, Trump shared the footage on his Truth Social platform late Wednesday night, then later shared a screenshot appearing to show an X post saying ‘such a peaceful protester’ in response to the video. Another post in the screengrab described Pretti as a ‘domestic terrorist.’
The president’s online item didn’t include text that he wrote personally, but he did amplify the content.
One of the problems with this is that the line is simply untrue. Kicking a federal vehicle’s taillight is certainly an act of civil disobedience, but it does not a terrorist make. Indeed, The New York Times noted that the administration has been using the “domestic terrorist” label as a “cudgel against political adversaries,” in a way that doesn’t “match legal reality.”
The other problem is political: Trump didn’t exactly do his team any favors with his latest online antics.
In the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s slaying, the administration’s political operation kicked into high gear. The White House’s Stephen Miller, for example, said the victim was a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin.” Gregory Bovino, who helped lead Border Patrol operations in Minnesota, told the public that Pretti intended to “massacre” law enforcement personnel. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem peddled a variety of absurd lies, including her bizarre insistence that the victim was “brandishing” a weapon.
When this proved to be a political disaster, the White House tried to give the impression that it was shifting gears. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt put some distance between the president and the rhetoric used by prominent members of his team. Trump held a couple of polite conversations with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and, after rejecting some of Miller’s phrasing, told Fox News that he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit.” On Wednesday morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on CNBC and boasted about the president having “brought down the temperature on the situation.”
Roughly 12 hours later, Trump was back on his social media platform pushing a message that the victim was a “domestic terrorist.” To the extent that it ever existed in a meaningful way in the first place, it would seem the “de-escalation” phase is over.
[…] In Minnesota, Attorney General Pam Bondi showed up in person to tout the arrests of protesters for allegedly assaulting federal agents while still refusing to investigate the shooting deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. It’s an unmistakeable statement not just about who the current regime favors under the law but about impunity.
While attorneys general routinely tout high profile arrests, Bondi took it a step further: posting on social media photographs of many of the arrested protesters in violation of DOJ guidelines. That move drew a rebuke from a federal judge […]
In the administration of any other president, DOJ would not have let itself get dragged into such obviously politicized shenanigans, let alone lead the charge in fanning the flames of public reprobation against defendants and public suspicion about election administration. But Bondi has to churn out content at an increasingly frenetic pace to stay in the good graces of President Trump and his White House, creating an irreconcilable tension between her own fortunes and the independent administration of justice.
Bondi was quickly rebuked by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster during an initial hearing. “This conduct is not something that the court condones,” Foster said in court, describing herself as “deeply disturbed” by the move. But Foster said because the cases were not yet assigned to her, she couldn’t do anything about Bondi’s conduct.
The charges against the protesters arose from chaotic scenes around provocative immigration enforcement actions, including one at Roosevelt High School, and the Justice Department in recents weeks has often failed to win convictions in similar cases in other states.
The chief federal judge in Minnesota cancelled a contempt of court hearing after ICE finally abided by his order to release a detainee, meaning the acting ICE director will not have to appear in court personally. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who said the detainee could still seek monetary sanctions for his delayed release, blasted ICE for defying 96 court orders in 74 Minnesota cases since Jan. 1:
“This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” [!]
[…] U.S. District Judge John Tunheim temporarily blocked the Trump administration from arresting or detaining refugees in Minnesota who are seeking permanent status.
Revealing, from a different angle, Trump’s lies about tariffs:
A new government report explodes one of the key promises in President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
Last April, Trump announced a slew of tariffs that would hit nearly every country on earth—a move he said would stop companies from importing goods, bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, and lower the trade deficit.
But the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday released its monthly trade report, and it found that the trade deficit—or the difference between the amount of goods that companies import into the U.S. vs. export abroad—rose by 95% in November.
Yes, 95%—the biggest one-month spike in since 1992.
According to the BEA report, exports of American-made goods fell by $10.9 billion in November, to $292.1 billion. That’s a 3.6% decline from October. And imports rose by $16.8 billion, to $348.9 billion, making for a 5.0% spike since October.
That means American companies are still importing more goods than they are exporting, despite Trump’s claims that he was ushering in a new American manufacturing resurgence. [!] [Graph at the link]
In fact, manufacturing jobs in the United States declined in 2025, with factory workers losing 8,000 jobs in December, per a Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate released earlier this month. Indeed, since Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, factory employment has fallen by more than 70,000 jobs, according to Reuters.
What’s more, prices are still increasing—despite Trump’s claim to have “solved” inflation and that the cost-of-living issue is “done.”
Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, which measures consumer confidence, said in a Tuesday news release, “References to prices and inflation, oil and gas prices, and food and grocery prices remained elevated.”
[…] a focus on lowering imports in order to bring back manufacturing was never a sound strategy. American workers want higher-paying jobs, not jobs doing menial labor on assembly lines.
Yet that was Trump’s stated purpose for Trump’s tariffs, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a billionaire, saying at the time that Trump’s tariffs would ensure that Americans would work in factories “for the rest of your life” and like it. […]
Ultimately, Trump’s tariffs have done nothing but cause pain for the American people.
Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
Thursday’s 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday. But Trump said just ahead of the vote that “we don’t want a shutdown” and the two sides were discussing a possible agreement to separate homeland security funding from the rest of the legislation and fund it for a short time.
As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown.
[…] Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
[…] Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, has said that Congress should not send “another penny” to ICE until Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is fired.
And across the Capitol, House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they passed last week. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the Republican president and ICE.
“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.
[…] South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham posted on X that he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Democrats say they won’t back down.
“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”
Trump is leaving no part of the White House unmolested by his terrible taste. This time, it’s not just his fondness for tacky gold-plated decorations or his penchant for slapping his name on everything. Instead, what’s on display is his fondness for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Yes, visitors who walk through the Palm Room, which connects the West Wing to the White House residence, will be greeted by a large picture of Trump and Putin, taken when the two met in Alaska last August for what was supposed to be a peace summit to end the Ukraine conflict.
An aspiring authoritarian like Trump needs an inspo picture of his good buddy to remind him to keep grinding so that someday he can be just as much of a fascist. [social media post, with images]
[…] the Alaska meeting was the one where Trump fell all over himself to impress Putin, including rolling out a literal red carpet and clapping like a trained seal when he spotted his favorite autocrat. And despite being billed as a peace summit, Trump neglected to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. […]
The so-called summit lasted just a few hours and resulted in nothing for Ukraine or the United States. Putin, though, got much more out of the deal.
Trump treated the dictator to a showy flyby of fighter jets and a ride in the presidential limousine. And after the nothingburger of a meeting, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs bragged about how the event put the West in its place: “For three years they [Western media] have been talking about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet that greeted the Russian president in the United States.” [sheesh]
Trump did get one thing out of the summit, however: a cool souvenir photo that Putin gave him as a gift. Trump apparently loves that photo so much that it takes pride of place, hanging above a picture of Trump with one of his grandchildren at a NASCAR event.
[…] The pictures are just the latest indignity visited on the Palm Room, already a victim of Trump’s remodeling. Trump removed all the greenery—aka the “Palm” part of the Palm Room—and replaced it with a giant chandelier and a white marble floor. Now, it gives off the same generic rich-guy-with-no-taste vibe Trump has brought to the rest of the White House. […]
I, along with a bunch of other state prosecutors […] are rallying around Mary Moriarty, who is the prosecutor in Minneapolis. […] If we have to hunt you down, the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice. And we will do so under the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Pam Bondi’s X account has started posting mugshots of Minnesotans arrested for impeding ICE/CBP. Sharing a defendant’s photo publicly in this way is forbidden under DOJ rules.
“DOJ personnel should not voluntarily disclose a photograph of a defendant unless it serves a law enforcement function or unless the photograph is already part of the public record in the case.” [Justice Manual 1-7.610 F, Prejudice]
Scrolling through the photos of Pam Bondi’s “Minnesota rioters,” it’s just hero after hero. Every photo includes a cowardly DHS agent with their back to the camera.
“Do you want to be like the confident, hot lady or the ashamed dude in mom jeans and a windbreaker?” is maybe not the propaganda win AG Bondi is counting on.
Why is the scaredest and most innocent teen in the entire world flanked by not one but two HSI people too embarrassed to show their faces?
the older gentleman with his arm in a sling is wearing a shirt that simply states “Change the World by being an Example not just giving your opinion.”
Anyone who shows their DHS mugshot to any MN business would probably get free food, free drinks.
Kind of a weird line in DOJ’s press release about the 16 defendants arraigned yesterday for allegedly assaulting/impeding DHS: “As a felony trial cannot be held on a complaint, a decision to seek an indictment will be made in the near future.” So… they might not seek an indictment?
DOJ is not supposed to file charges against someone unless they believe those charges will hold up before a jury evaluating the case for guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Filing felony charges because you MIGHT bring an indictment (under the much lower standard of probable cause) is beyond bizarre.
Particularly because Bondi already posted their mugshots on X. So DOJ splashed people’s faces online (which they are not supposed to do) after filing charges against them that they are tacitly admitting might not actually hold up under scrutiny.
Rando: “So wait, the people whose photos they released haven’t been indicted and might not get indicted at all???”
Quinta Jurecic: “Correct. They’ve been charged via criminal complaint, which only requires an affidavit sworn by a law enforcement officer before a judge. That’s sufficient for most misdemeanors but a felony case (which many of these are) requires an indictment from a grand jury.”
Rando: “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that their strategy is to publicly smear people without bothering to actually try them for what they’re being accused of.”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@426 Militant Agnostic, @441 Lynna quoting MS NOW:
The video shows the Minnesota nurse in a tense run-in with different federal agents in which he kicked the taillight of one of their SUVs. [True]
Okay so I was actually at this encounter, filmed the aftermath, and am briefly visible in this video, and I would point out that what he does here is briefly kick a car twice. ICE beats him up, shoots pepper balls into the crowd, and launches tear gas at everyone else before leaving.
I didn’t realize that the person we saw was him, but I had seen a person striking an ICE vehicle and have mentioned it before. Don’t do that! They’ll attack you! But the overwhelming impression of this encounter was massively disproportionate force by ICE, to a truly shocking, jarring degree.
[Video clip] Before these videos were taken ICE had abducted someone—I followed the convoy back to Whipple and then returned and they were still, for some reason, deployed up and down Park Ave causing chaos. Impossible to overstate how much ICE’s goal seemed to be open incitement.
Also, it remains almost impossible that this incident somehow caused the shooting. It took journalists five days to figure out that this was the same guy, a bunch of Border Patrol who run into him on Saturday morning aren’t going to have some cross-reference done in seconds. Wrong place, wrong time.
Just realized I have a longer version of this video. At the start, you can clearly see the feds piling out of the cars to attack Pretti and then spray pepper balls, antagonizing the crowd.
It’s worth noting that Pretti didn’t seem to “spit on officers” but on the side of a closed car. He kicked a car twice and spat at it. Even the response AT THE MOMENT was shockingly disproportionate—attacking a whole crowd.
Rando: “Maybe I don’t know anything about law enforcement, but if someone damages a light on a LEO vehicle, are officers allowed to just beat them in retribution and not make an arrest?”
Sky Captain @450, Thanks for that additional information. Yes, that description fits with the rest of the reporting coming out of Minneapolis. ICE’s actions against protestors are shockingly disproportionate.
“While Clinton, Biden and Obama urged Americans to protect our civil liberties, Trump had nothing to offer but trash.”
In the wake of federal immigration agents shooting and killing Alex Pretti, former American presidents, who tend to say very little about current affairs, decided to speak up.
The day after the slaying, for example, Bill Clinton issued a lengthy statement that, among other things, warned Americans, “Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.”
Joe Biden soon followed with a similar statement that celebrated the Minnesotans who have protested the federal government’s immigration crackdown, noting that they have “reminded us what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this Administration.”
Barack and Michelle Obama also issued a written statement in the wake of the deadly violence. “It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault,” the Obamas wrote. They went on criticize the “unprecedented tactics” the Department of Homeland Security has employed, saying “people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city.”
The Obamas concluded that “rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed, the President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation — and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.”
Donald Trump didn’t respond to the substance of any of the former Democratic presidents. But the Republican incumbent, seizing on the FBI executing a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia, did take the opportunity to launch a ridiculous offensive against one of his Democratic predecessors. HuffPost noted:
In one post on his Truth Social site, he accused former President Barack Obama of ‘treason.’ … In addition, Trump shared a bizarre post claiming China, Iran, Italy, Merrill Lynch, the CIA, the FBI and others all worked with Obama to ‘install Biden as a puppet.’ [JFC!]
As part of the same overnight avalanche of weird and conspiratorial missives, the president also amplified one item, written by someone else, that insisted that Obama had “falsified evidence,” followed by a separate missive that concluded, “ARREST OBAMA NOW.”
Suffice it to say, the claims that Trump seemed eager to push were all quite bonkers, though the Republican’s online tantrum did offer the public a timely opportunity to appreciate the difference between the incumbent president and his modern Democratic predecessors: While Clinton, Biden and Obama urged Americans to protect our freedoms and civil liberties as they come under assault, Trump had nothing to offer but tiresome trash.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Clear footage of the spitting and kicking, as on NYT, except NYT edited out the pepper balls and tear gas.
[…] “This just looks like a way to use the might of the federal government to further Trump’s voter fraud narratives,” Hasen said. […]
At a press conference, Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said that the ballots had been “safe” in the county’s custody and defended its handling of the election as fair and accurate. But now that the ballots had been seized, he said, the county “can no longer satisfy … that those ballots are still secure.” [And that is exactly what Trump wants, ballots that he and his team can adjust or miscount however they please.]
Mo Ivory, a Democratic Fulton County commissioner, arrived on the scene shortly after the FBI agents and said that once an error on the warrant was corrected, they backed up lines of trucks to the elections warehouse and spent hours carting away boxes of ballots and other materials. The search began in the morning and was still going well past nightfall.
“This is not legitimate. This is Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election,” Ivory said. “This is his way to sow doubt that Fulton County doesn’t hold proper elections.”
Fulton County — which covers much of the Democratic-stronghold of Atlanta — has long been the target of attempts to call into question its election systems as a way to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 vote.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani accused election workers of rigging the vote with suitcases of ballots in his arguments to overturn the election — claims that were quickly debunked and for which he lost a nearly $150 million defamation lawsuit brought by two of the workers.
But this did not end the focus on the county by Trump’s allies, who inundated it with thousands of voter registration challenges and continued to make claims of voter fraud, as ProPublica has reported.
The Fulton County Board of Elections became a battleground, once the Republican Party appointed Julie Adams to it. Adams, ProPublica has reported, played a key role in trying to change rules around certifying elections in Georgia that could have allowed activists to dispute a Trump loss in 2024. […]
In advance of the 2024 election, right-wing activists also forced out a moderate conservative on the Georgia State Election Board, tilting its balance of power. Its new MAGA majority […] began relitigating the 2020 election. In October 2024, the State Election Board voted to issue subpoenas for 2020 materials, including ballots.
[…] Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to Fulton County officials demanding records and citing “anomalies” in counting votes during the 2020 election, according to a court filing.
Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander didn’t respond, and in December the U.S. Department of Justice sued her.
In a court filing, Alexander said that the federal government had no right to the ballots and documents, which were under seal because of ongoing cases related to the 2020 election.
Alexander said that if Bondi could “identify a legitimate basis” for accessing the 2020 election materials, then she should seek an order from a Fulton County Superior Court judge to unseal them.
On Wednesday, agents wearing tactical vests and jackets reading “FBI Evidence Response Team” arrived with a warrant. Shocked officials looked on as the boxes were paraded away.
Ivory, the Fulton County commissioner, said that while county officials had complied with the warrant, they expected to challenge the administration’s actions in court. […]
Experts said the action in Fulton County had triggered fears of federal interference in this year’s midterm elections. [!]
“It’s a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to expand federal control over our country’s historically state-run election infrastructure,” [!] said Derek Clinger, a senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative, an institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Don’t worry, Fox News is still keeping busy pretending that President Donald Trump isn’t royally screwing up everything he touches.
On Thursday, the right-wing propaganda network minimized a recent poll showing widespread dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy, with contributor Charles Payne arguing that the public simply doesn’t understand Trump’s brilliant work thus far. [LOL]
In the poll results released Wednesday, 54% of respondents said that the country is worse off in January 2026 than it was a year ago, when former President Joe Biden first left office. And 68% said that Trump hasn’t spent enough time addressing economic issues.
During a “Fox & Friends” segment, co-host Ainsley Earhardt expressed “surprise” at the poll and asked Payne—who was once fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for shady business practices [!]—to explain the negative sentiment in contrast to Trump’s purported economic successes.
“I think the poll really should be ‘Donald Trump’s not spending enough time messaging on the economy,’ that’s because he spent the last year trying to put the pieces in place,” Payne said. “That’s the behind-the-scenes stuff that most folks don’t understand.” [Video]
Payne went on to reiterate that the public simply doesn’t understand how “amazing that was” that Trump and congressional Republicans cobbled together the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which he argued would spark economic growth. The bill kept in place tax breaks for the super wealthy and cut health care coverage for millions.
“This is reigniting the greatness of America,” Payne insisted. [Nope. Not True.]
But Fox’s own poll shows that the public doesn’t agree with Payne’s spin […]
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee noted in a press release that the Fox poll shows Trump underwater with independent voters by 60 percentage points on the economy and cited the result as evidence that “the American people are turning on Donald Trump.” […] [Chart]
[…] Trump has seen his support steadily erode in multiple polls.
But Trump has refused to acknowledge this economic hardship and instead falsely bragged this week that inflation had been “solved.”
An economic report released Thursday reinforced the disconnect, showing that the trade deficit has increased despite Trump’s promise that tariffs would fix the problem. [See comment 444]
Fox’s decision to throw its own poll under the bus is just the latest example of the network stretching the truth and spouting lies in service of Trump.
For nearly 30 years, the right has marched in lockstep with Fox to hold on to power—and Fox’s willingness to ignore its own data reinforces that love affair.
“Rolling Stone reports that two-thirds of Melania’s New York crew requested that their names not be added to the film’s credits. […] Another told the publication they’re hoping the film – which required ‘really long hours,’ in a ‘highly disorganized’ and ‘very’ chaotic environment – ‘flops.'” […]
“One Melania crew member told Rolling Stone that [director Brett] Ratner was ‘slimy.’ […] Melania is the Rush Hour director’s first film following the sexual assault allegations that saw him ousted from Hollywood. He has denied any wrongdoing.”
Commentary:
[…] Trump is planning to premiere the film – which Bezos paid $40 million for the rights to, and another $35 million for promotion – at the Kennedy Center. Partly because Trump demolished the White House theater that was located in the East Wing, and partly because he’s using the Kennedy Center as his personal entertainment complex. Which is why so many entertainers have refused to perform there.
However, the film is unlikely to provide much, if any, return on that $75 million investment. Ticket pre-sales have been pitifully lacking and, in some place, almost nonexistent. Never mind Trump’s boast (aka lie) on his dedicated propaganda platform, Truth Social, that “the Movie is a MUST WATCH. Get your tickets today – Selling out FAST!”
It’s safe to assume that this history making documentary will not include much of Melania’s actual history. For instance, her many nude photo shoots, her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, her disparaging remarks about Christmas, her phony “Einstein” visa, her chain migration for her family members and anchor babies, nor the fact that she doesn’t live with Donald at the White House or Mar-a-Lago, preferring to spend most of her time in Manhattan.
None of that, though, will dampen the party for Trump and his MAGA cult comrades, who will gather to celebrate the fluff film in luxury while the rest of the country is struggling to make ends meet, suffering through a massive winter storm, and mourning the loss of two honorable citizens who were murdered by Trump’s ICE thugs. Which is business as usual for Trump, who has never shown any ability to relate to, or care about, the people he allegedly serves.
UPDATE: Pre-sales for the Melania movie are still in single digits. And now there is more evidence for why. She is ranked dead last in a survey of American First Ladies. A position she shares with her husband, who ranks last in surveys of presidents. [Video]
$496 million from June through December last year, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. […] if last year’s deployments were to continue through this year, it could cost taxpayers $93 million per month—which would amount to more than $1.1 billion in 2026.
[…]
The CBO estimate covers National Guard and active-duty Marine Corps deployments to Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Memphis; Portland; and Chicago. It does not include the deployment to New Orleans.
Commentary
Imagine if they had just given that money to the cities for public safety.
[The WH took credit for crime decline.]
Does that count the income lost from kidnapping thousands of tax paying workers?
During a predictably uninformative Cabinet meeting Thursday, President Donald Trump offered up some monumentally worthless remarks about the cost of housing in the United States.
“Existing housing, people that own their homes, we’re going to keep them wealthy. We’re going to keep those prices up,” Trump said. “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home.”
Having disparaged tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford to own a home in today’s economy—regardless of how hard they work—Trump offered up his nonexistent plan for affordability: lowering interest rates.
But if you can’t afford a 10% or 20% downpayment, don’t worry—Trump has no intention of making it any easier.
“I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, and they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen,” he said. [Video]
According to a recent study by loan platform LendingTree, renting is now cheaper than owning a home in every major metropolitan area. At the same time, Americans who already cannot afford to buy homes are facing rising costs on nearly everything—regardless of Trump’s delusion that he’s “solved” the affordability crises his own economic moves have exacerbated.
The good news, according to Trump, is that if you already own a home, he wants you to “feel like” you are “wealthy,” even if you aren’t.
As for the rest of us, I guess we can all start collecting cans.
The Trump administration’s controversial deployments of National Guard troops to six American cities since June cost about $496 million in 2025, and continuing the existing deployments as is would cost about $93 million per month, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that his boss in a high-profile speech to world leaders last week confused Iceland and Greenland, contradicting a denial from the president’s chief spokesperson.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Brad Heath (Reuters): “President Trump has filed a lawsuit against the IRS, in which he demands that the IRS, which he as president controls, pay him $10 billion.”
The civil complaint alleges that the IRS and Treasury failed in their obligation to prevent the leak […] Littlejohn, 40, is serving a five-year prison sentence after having pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of disclosure of tax return information. He admitted to leaking Trump’s tax records
[…]
Littlejohn, in a 2024 deposition, admitted disclosing “Trump information [that] included all businesses that he had owned” to the investigative news outlet ProPublica. […] records contained “versions of fraud.” [according to] one of a dozen real estate professionals interviewed by ProPublica who said they saw no clear explanation for “multiple inconsistencies in the documents,”
[…] “Defendants have caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations […],” the lawsuit says.
It’s all but unheard of for a sitting president to sue their own administration […] Trump sought $230 million from the Department of Justice as compensation for its past investigations into him.
VA officials in Washington […] initially blocked Minneapolis hospital employees from holding a memorial for Pretti, though that decision was later reversed […] Staff were also initially told not to leave messages of support for Pretti in some of the center’s public spaces
“Our local leadership I think is very good, they’re quite sensitive […] But they’re getting it from above,” the employee said. […] another service is scheduled for next week.
[…]
While VA Secretary Doug Collins has reportedly not issued an agency-wide statement about Pretti”s killing, he did blame Democratic leadership for his death on social media. “Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials’ refusal to cooperate […] and deport dangerous illegal criminals,” […]
“Really, that kind of got to me,” the employee said […] “And that’s our leader at the highest level.”
A review of DHS and ICE press releases since January 2025 […] indicates […] At no point in time has an officer been seen conducting his work, identified and subsequently attacked. While there have been threats issued against agents and incidents of off-duty harassment, there are no known incidents in which an officer was assaulted while off-duty because he was identified as a federal agent. […] The other assaults documented in DHS and ICE press releases all occurred when agents were either working at an ICE facility or attempting to execute an operation […] obviously identifiable as ICE agents.
[…]
It is fair to note that ICE’s policy of allowing agents to shield their identities might have done exactly what they claim: protected them from off-duty retribution. But it is also fair to note that, even when agents have been identified outside of work, they have not been targeted with violence. It is also fair to note that ICE has at times conflated “identification,” “harassment” and “violence” to suggest that even criticism and calls for accountability are unacceptable attacks on their employees.
See also: that drone-monitored armored cavalcade in May to serve a search warrant, over a guy stapling some fliers.
Nearly 2,000 products […] The recall, which was initially released on Dec. 26, was prompted after the FDA determined that the Minneapolis-based facility was operating under “insanitary conditions, including the presence of rodent excreta, rodent urine, and bird droppings.” […] could cause illness
[…]
Affected products were distributed to stores in Indiana, Minnesota and North Dakota. A specific list of retailers can be found on the FDA’s website here. […] cosmetics, drugs, pet food, household items and food and beverages.
Candies like Jolly Ranchers, Skittles and Sour Patch Kids were affected, along with other snacks like Pringles and Takis, were affected. Breakfast items were affected too, with boxes of Cheerios and Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Cereal among a long list of recalled cereals. A range of drinks including Gatorade, Coca-Cola, Smart Water and Arizona Iced Teas are recalled as well. Even pantry staples, including Heinz Ketchup, Crisco Oil and cinnamon sticks […] Pepto Bismol, Axe body spray, Q-Tip cotton swabs, Fancy Feast cat food and Gillette razors […]
A full list of recalled items with their exact UPC and SKUs is available on the recall notice.
Commentary
I am now officially paranoid about FDA statements when it is, according to the article, a “Minneapolis-based facility.”
RFK Jr: “I refuse to defer to the outdated notion that rat shit in your food is bad for you.”
54 retailers, majority in Minnesota.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Daily Show:
“Melania’s $40 Million Docu-Bribe Movie Premieres & Dems Make ICE Demands.”
Calls for King Charles to formally apologise for slavery after research shows crown’s role
.https://share.google/7qds45fXur32qnHcg
Sweden also participated in the slave trade for a period in the 17th century. (The king Gustav III considered to re-start Swedish participation in the slave trade but was assassinated by aristocrats as part of a power struggle)
Opting for a conventional choice to lead the Federal Reserve, President Trump on Friday nominated former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the central bank and succeed Jerome Powell.
The article goes out of it’s way to point out how “conventional” Warsh is. The office is not an open political appointment, limiting the list Trump had to work from. Anybody who qualifies will be conventional compared to many of Trump’s other appointments.
Warsh has been highly critical of the Fed, writing in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last year that the Fed should “discard its forecast of stagflation” and arguing that it is overlooking that AI will be a “significant” force that will boost productivity and push down inflation.
I’m curious what his logic is here.
Warsh has criticized Powell personally for making “unwise choices,” such as missing the persistence of post-pandemic inflation. Warsh rejects the belief that inflation is caused when the economy grows too fast and workers get paid too much. Rather, he argues inflation is caused when the government spends too much and prints too much money.
That is a dangerous position. Government spending too much will cause inflation but his position sounds dangerously close to the nut job position that government spending and money supply is the only thing that can cause inflation.
Renaissance Macro Research put it more succinctly in a social media post Friday morning: “Kevin Warsh has been monetary policy hawk his entire career,” the group said. “His dovishness today stems from convenience. The President risks getting duped.”
Shorter article on the same topic but brings up one interesting point. Warsh has been a proponent of higher interest rates up until recently when he was considered for nomination. This could be spineless behavior on his part or it could be Trump getting duped by somebody who knows they can’t be removed once they take office.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said Friday she feared Warsh “passed the loyalty test” to get Trump’s support, and she urged other members not to consider his nomination until Trump drops his legal action against Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
This could be a negotiating point during Warsh’s confirmation but I expect the Democrats will waffle and then fold. Unlike a lot of Trump’s other nominations Warsh is clearly generally qualified for the job.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
‘Sickening’: Trump’s new ICE man uses war jargon to describe Minnesota operations. “I had more stringent rules of engagement when I was in Iraq about what I could do to civilians there than ICE does with the citizens on the streets of our cities today,” says Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES
‘Playing Whac-a-Mole’: Hayes says Trump’s ICE ‘drawdown’ can’t be trusted. “There is no indication that this larger Trump immigration campaign of terror is ending. The intent appears to be to play Whac-a-Mole with American cities. Those 3,000 agents could simply be deployed somewhere else,” says Chris Hayes.
Confronted with a political backlash after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, Donald Trump told Fox News earlier this week that he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit.”
For those who believed that the president was sincere, I have some bad news.
Days after the White House tried to put some distance between Trump and his administration’s smear campaign against the shooting victim, the president has abandoned the pretense.
This was evident Wednesday night when he amplified an online message that described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” and it was reinforced roughly 24 hours later when Trump renewed his offensive against the late intensive care nurse. The New York Times reported:
President Trump called Alex Pretti, the nurse who was one of two Americans fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, an ‘agitator’ and possibly an ‘insurrectionist’ in a social media post early Friday, repeating efforts by his administration to blame the victims of the shootings.
The same online item said the victim’s “stock has gone way down.” [His “stock has gone way down”? WTF?]
The Republican was referring to footage that emerged this week that showed a separate confrontation between Pretti and federal agents that occurred 11 days before he was killed. The video shows the Minnesota nurse in a tense run-in with different federal agents in which he kicked the taillight of one of their SUVs.
It also showed agents exiting their vehicle, grabbing Pretti and shoving him to the ground as other officers fire tear gas and pepper balls into a nearby crowd.
Perhaps someone will discover a Pretti relative who votes Republican, which might encourage Trump to adopt a new tone, but in the meantime, any suggestion that the White House is trying to reduce tensions increasingly defies credibility. On Wednesday morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on CNBC and boasted about the president having “brought down the temperature on the situation.” Within a day and a half, Trump was using his social media platform to characterize Pretti again as a “domestic terrorist” and possibly an “insurrectionist.”
Notably, at a Kennedy Center event on Thursday night, the president told reporters, “We have to take criminals out of our country, so from that standpoint, nothing’s gonna change.”
When a reporter asked, “So you’re not pulling back [in Minnesota]?” Trump replied, “No, no, not at all.” [sheesh]
The “de-escalation” phase is apparently over, if it ever existed in a meaningful way in the first place.
There’s a hot new travel spot for American allies. Unnerved by President Donald Trump, a succession of Western leaders is heading to Beijing and reviving ties with the United States’ chief geopolitical rival.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday was the latest U.S. ally to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping […]
In Beijing, Starmer and Xi called for a new “comprehensive strategic partnership” intended to deepen the ties between the two countries amid global uncertainty. Left unsaid: Much of that uncertainty has been generated by the White House.
Starmer has plenty of company. The Wall Street Journal reported that longtime U.S. trading partners, who are “feeling burned by an unpredictable and transactional White House,” are “reassessing China in a drive to lessen their longstanding reliance on America.” The same report noted that officials in Canada and South Korea and throughout Europe are “scouring the globe” for alternative markets to the United States […]
The leaders of the European Union and India also announced a trade agreement this week. The New York Times reported that the deal became “more urgent for both sides as President Trump continues to upend the global order and test longstanding alliances.”
Two days later, Canada […] announced an agreement with South Korea to explore bringing Korean automotive manufacturing to the country. This came on the heels of the EU endorsing a sweeping trade pact with four South American countries […]
On Thursday night, the American president was asked about British officials forging new business ties with China, and he replied: “It’s very dangerous for them to do that, and it’s even more dangerous for Canada to get into business with China.” […]
In a win for […] Trump’s immigration crackdown,a recent court ruling has cleared the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to resume using states’ Medicaid data to find people who are in the country illegally.
The case is ongoing. But for now, immigrants — including those who are in the country legally — will have to weigh the benefits of gaining health coverage against the risk that enrolling in Medicaid could make them or their family members easier for ICE to find.
Last summer, 22 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration to block information sharing between ICE and Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that primarily covers people with low incomes. But at the end of December, a federal judge ruled that ICE can pull some basic Medicaid data to use in its deportation proceedings, including addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and citizenship or immigration status.
The court ruled that in the states that sued, ICE is not allowed to collect information about lawful permanent residents or citizens, nor records about sensitive health information. In the 28 states that didn’t sue, however, the court did not place any limits on the Medicaid information ICE can access. [!]
[…] U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria wrote that ICE and federal Medicaid information-sharing policies were “totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decisionmaking process.” [True!] He said the states had shown they would “suffer irreparable harm from these vague and likely overbroad” policies.
By law, federal Medicaid money cannot be used to cover people who are in the country illegally.
But in recent years, nearly half of states, including some led by Republicans, have chosen to use their own Medicaid money to extend coverage to certain groups of people, such as children and pregnant women, regardless of immigration status.
[…] In Chicago, for example, a patient at an Esperanza Health Center delayed her first prenatal visit until her third trimester because she worried enrolling in Medicaid could put her husband at risk of deportation, the clinic reported in a December court filing. By the time she received care, she had complications that could have been addressed with earlier health visits. Another patient refused to apply for Medicaid for her child, a U.S. citizen, because she worried that seeking benefits would allow ICE to locate her. […]
AN ABOUT-FACE
[…] “Previously the federal government has balanced immigration enforcement interests with the protection of health-related interests,” she said. “Now they’re weighing much more heavily the interests of immigration enforcement.”
[…] The judge’s order will stand until the case is resolved, as the judge considers what kinds of data can be released for use in immigration enforcement.
[…] Broder, of the National Immigration Law Center, said it isn’t clear whether the limited information the court has allowed the Department of Homeland Security to use can be cleanly separated from data belonging to citizens and lawful permanent residents. [!!] The ruling says that if that basic data can’t be separated from data that’s still protected, Medicaid can’t share it with ICE. […]
STATES STEP UP
In recent years, an increasing number of states have used their own money to extend health insurance coverage under their Medicaid programs to some noncitizens, such as people with green cards, refugees and those with temporary protected status.
For example, 14 states and the District of Columbia cover income-eligible children regardless of immigration status, while seven states and the district offer state-funded coverage to some adults with low incomes, regardless of immigration status. Nearly half of states — including a handful of red states — cover income-eligible pregnant women, regardless of their immigration status.
[…] In the past year, the Trump administration also has ordered states to hand over personal data from sources including voter rolls and food stamps, even as it consolidates information held across federal agencies into a trove of information on people who live in the United States. [Dangerous]
In November, a federal judge blocked the IRS from sharing taxpayer information for immigration purposes.
The Justice Department has completed its review of records related to Jeffrey Epstein and will release the documents throughout the day Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced.
“Today, we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in total, that means that the department produced approximately three and a half million pages in compliance with the act,” Blanche said at a press conference at 11 a.m. ET.
3 million more pages will be around half of the files at best and probably less, the exact total number of files is unknown but the low end figure is 6 million. This is just the announcement from Blanche, so it doesn’t say much. And with that much to go through it will take a couple of days for news agencies to digest it all.
It isn’t clear if this is the last of what the DOJ plans to release or not. They still have to provide Congress with documentation on why things were redacted but that is different then the actual Epstein papers.
Don Lemon and three others have been arrested in connection with an incident in which anti-ICE protesters disrupted a service at a Minnesota church […] The charges they are facing are not yet clear. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case has not been unsealed.
[…]
Lemon was at the protest as an independent journalist. […] Minnesota Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz also wrote to the 8th Circuit appeals court last week that Lemon and his producer were “not protesters at all,” and that “[t]here is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.”
Lemon livestreamed an anti-ICE protest inside Cities Church
[…]
prosecutors considered charging him under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), codified at 18 U.S.C. §248, which prohibits the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to interfere with a person’s exercise of religious worship; and under 18 U.S.C. §241, a Reconstruction-era civil rights conspiracy statute commonly associated with the Ku Klux Klan Act.
Sure, charge the gay Black man under statutes for abortion clinics and the Klan. /s
he showed up at a federal prison in New York City claiming to have a court order to release an inmate
[…]
In his backpack, BOP workers found a barbecue fork and a “round steel blade” that resembled a pizza cutter. […] he had been working at a pizzeria, the law enforcement source said.
Brad Moss (Natsec attorney): “Unless I’m forgetting something, the statute of limitations on a Privacy Act violation for unauthorized disclosure is two years so…”
Eric Columbus (Obama DHS/DoJ): “It appears the statute of limitations for such claims begins to run only when the plaintiff knew or should have known of the Privacy Act violation. The complaint alleges that date was precisely two years ago today.”
Brad Moss: “Yeah, good luck with that argument. They had reason to know the moment the media reports came out.”
* Screenshot of the complaint making that argument. On 2024-01-29, IRS notified Trump that the leaker had been charged.
Rando: “Why is it that presidents can’t be sued or put on trial while they’re presidents (partly because of potential distraction from their very important duties), but apparently they can sue anyone and everyone with no problem.”
Every president and major party nominee over the last half-century has voluntarily released their tax returns, except for the most singularly corrupt president in US history, who not only used taxpayer resources to fight their release, but now he wants us to give him billions bc they were leaked. The leaked returns showed, among other things, that a sitting president made up to $160 million from foreign sources.
Late last year, Paramount agreed to release the movie “Rush Hour 4,” reportedly at Donald Trump’s personal request. When CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last month about the propriety of such a move — pressing Paramount while the company was seeking the Republican administration’s approval on a merger — the Cabinet secretary didn’t deny the claims, though he did try to change the subject.
“I don’t know, the Obamas have a contract with Netflix. Is that appropriate?” Bessent replied.
On Thursday night, the subject returned to the fore unexpectedly. [video]
Trump spoke briefly to reporters outside the Kennedy Center at a showing of the documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million to produce that film, a sum that generated all kinds of unavoidable questions about the political motivations of the Jeff Bezos-owned company.
A reporter asked the president, “What do you say to those that are critical of the fact that Amazon paid $40 million to acquire the rights of this movie?” Trump, apparently anticipating the question, replied, “Well, I think they’d have to go and ask President Obama, who got paid a lot of money and hasn’t done anything.”
For now, let’s put aside the fact that Barack and Michelle Obama created a production company called Higher Ground, partnered with Netflix, and did quite a bit [!], including producing a documentary that received an Academy Award nomination.
Let’s instead focus on the central detail, which Trump and Bessent apparently don’t understand.
The Obamas partnered with Netflix after they left the White House. That’s the whole and entire point. No one is questioning the propriety of that deal because they are private citizens with no access to the levers of federal power.
If, on the other hand, the Democratic president were still in office and a corporate giant eager to curry favor with the Obama administration decided to throw tens of millions of dollars in his direction for a movie no one wanted to see, that would likely — and correctly — be seen as highly controversial for all the obvious reasons.
Except, that didn’t happen during Obama’s tenure — and it did happen with Trump, who inexplicably thought it’d be a good idea to bring all of this up while on the red carpet.
If Republicans are looking for some precedent to which they can compare Trump’s efforts to enrich himself and profit from the presidency, they should give up now — because in the American tradition, there is simply nothing to match the scale or brazenness of what Americans are seeing now.
[…] Trump is bringing back the most bizarre conspiracy theory for why he lost the 2020 election. It’s ItalyGate, which pins his loss to Joe Biden that year on an elaborate conspiracy in which Barack Obama and China teamed up to use Italian military satellites to zap the election away from him.
Trump boosted the idea this week in a series of posts on Truth Social. In one, he posted a link to a QAnon-promoting X account which laid out the very entertaining theory in detail. [social media post. Excerpt: “Italian officials at Leonardo SpA used military satellites to help hack U.S. voting machines, flipping votes from Trump to Biden using CIA-developed tools like Hammer and Scorecard. […] China reportedly coordinated the whole operation, providing the tech backbone and bribes to corrupt Americans.”]
The timing was propitious. Trump made the posts after FBI agents descended on Fulton County, seizing 2020 ballots and other records from the election that year. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was photographed peering out from the building, raising even more questions from the reality-based community about what the Trump administration thought was happening.
The usual crowd of 2020 dead-enders went out of their minds with joy at the searches. Michael Flynn, the former general-turned-martial law advocate, broadcast his excitement; Patrick Byrne, the ex-Overstock CEO who purportedly financed a series of increasingly quixotic attempts to investigate the 2020 result, said on Mike Lindell’s network, “I’m excited. It doesn’t surprise me that our illustrious DNI Tulsi Gabbard was involved…I’m very confident what they’re gonna find.” [JFC] [social media post, with photo]
Gabbard’s presence is interesting. The Wall Street Journal reported that she’s leading a government-wide charge to support conspiracy theories around Trump’s loss in 2020. The intelligence agencies that she runs, by law, are usually barred from conducting operations in the U.S.
[…] ItalyGate blew up on the internet in December 2020. Trump was grasping at straws for anything that would keep his bid to steal the 2020 election alive. […]
China oversaw the whole thing, according to the theory’s main proponent, a former Georgia lobbyist named Maria Strollo Zack.
She, TPM reported in 2021, claimed that she told Trump about the theory on Christmas Eve 2020. She had other ties to the conservative movement: [I snipped the details]
[…] Emails released in June 2021 showed that, in late 2020, Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed to investigate the theory. […] “Can you believe this?” then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen asked another top DOJ official.
Kash Patel Patel, […] the Jan. 6 Committee later found, used his position as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense to push for an investigation into the theory by the Department of Defense. It came up with nothing.
Trump’s return to the theory this week involved reposting to Truth Social a tweet from an X account called “The SCIF.” […] The account describes itself as a “Digital Intelligence Operator researching and exposing the satanic global elite and fighting against the human trafficking epidemic.” […]
“Trump’s EPA Having Real Hard Time Trying To Kill Climate Regulations […]”
“Science stubbornly insists on being real.”
In yet another sign that the Trump administration is as stupid and incompetent as it is evil, the Washington Post reports that White House officials and the Environmental Protection Agency are squabbling about continuing to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gases. As soon as he was confirmed to the job, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made it a top priority to roll back the 2009 legal opinion on the Clean Air Act that found greenhouse gases endanger human health. But now at least a few legal wonks in the White House are worried that the EPA’s proposal to repeal that “endangerment finding” is too slapdash to hold up to legal challenges.
[…] Just to review, the 2009 “endangerment finding” EPA wants to roll back formally summed up the scientific consensus — which hasn’t changed since then! — that greenhouse gases “endanger public health and welfare.” Under the Clean Air Act, that finding obligates the EPA to limit how much of those harmful gases are spewed into the atmosphere. Getting rid of it would end the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles and from power plants, which would be a huge gift to the fossil fuel industry.
In July of last year, Zeldin’s EPA actually rolled out its proposed rule to repeal the endangerment finding […]
EPA rules have to be based on the best available science, which is why the 2009 endangerment finding relied on more than 100 peer reviewed scientific papers on climate change, nailing down the evidence that climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, is not healthy for children and other living things. […]
Zeldin’s effort to undo the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases was based on a hastily-tossed-together Energy Department report barfed out by a “climate working group” of five fringey “experts” hired by Energy Secretary Chris Wright specifically for the purpose of undermining the endangerment finding. […]
That cherry-picked Energy Department report has been debunked as “fundamentally incorrect” by real climate scientists in dozens of publications since it was published […]
Which brings us back to that Washington Post story: According to two inside sources, the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is worried that because the Energy Department report it’s based on is shit, the EPA rule repealing the endangerment finding won’t stand up to scrutiny in federal courts. [Yep]
[…] [The Trump administration] to be confident that once a lawsuit results in the repeal being thrown out because the science is bogus, the Supreme Court will obligingly decide to tip the scales in favor of the EPA anyway […]
In addition, a spox for Office of Management and Budget, the parent agency of OIRA, insisted that “OIRA, EPA, and the entire administration are working in lockstep to execute on the President’s deregulation agenda,” like one big happy family. [Propaganda]
[…] Not mentioned in the Post story is that earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the release of internal documents confirming that the climate working group was created with the express purpose of producing a pre-determined conclusion supporting the repeal of the 2009 finding. Rather than producing an objective scientific assessment, the documents show that Energy Secretary Wright made clear to members of the working group that their assignment was to undermine the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases.
It’s pretty damning stuff, and will make it difficult to claim that the repeal has anything to do with science at all. See what happens when you take notes on a criminal conspiracy?
“Democracy Five-Alarm Fire Of The Day: North Carolina Considering Removing ‘Presumptive Noncitizen’ Voters”
“Checking in on the latest in GOP attempted midterm election-stealery.”
No one knows better than Republicans that if they can’t find a way to purge voter rolls of non-MAGA-inclined voters in swing states, November’s midterm elections will be the end of their control of the House of Representatives, and maybe even the Senate too. And that means […] Trump’s agenda will be dead in the water, or at least stalled […]
Along with all of the gerrydoodling map fuckery going on, Pam Bondi’s DOJ has thirstily been trying to get a hold of states’ voter rolls to “do maintenance” on them, including trying to extort Minnesota into handing over their voter rolls in exchange for ICE leaving. (MN is not a swing state, but Trump, Bondi et al. are hoping they can make it one!) So far Bondi’s pestered 44 states for their voter data, and 11 (Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming) have said they will cooperate and turn over information, including driver’s license and Social Security numbers. And Bondi is suing in 24 other states that have declined her generous offer. [!]
The situation is getting even stickier in the Tarheel State, where the Legislature has been slow-barbecuing Democracy by cravenly stripping any Democrats of any means of power since forever. […] in November and December of ‘24, after Democrats won the positions of governor, loot-gov, secretary of state, and attorney general, and Republicans continued to hold onto both chambers of their Legislature, a divided trifecta. So in their defeat, they […] hastily passing a raft of measures to cut the powers of the executive triplex.
Now North Carolina’s state supreme court has just given a greenlight for the MAGA-controlled five-member North Carolina State Board of Elections to give the Republican auditor the full authority to appoint an elections board of his choice, upending a 125-year precedent of the governor doing that.
Said Board is considering a new ploy to trim state’s voter rolls of infidels. They’re now trying to implement a plan that would let them challenge any voter flagged in any database as a “presumptive noncitizen” and remove them, then put the onus on the voter to appear at a hearing with proof of citizenship to get their right to vote back. […]
And the Board has already been working to snatch away campus voting sites, disgusting.
[…] time for more and increasingly pathetically desperate GOP “voter integrity” efforts like the ones they’ve been trying at since 2020: identifying voters they want to remove, like ones with addresses on college campuses, or foreign funny-sounding names. Or hey, why not people whose names don’t match their birth certificates, like anybody who’s changed their names after they got married, trans people, […]
Then Bondi will demand those states remove the voters on her shit list, and if a state doesn’t, they will cry fraud,[…]
It’s a risky move! White and Hispanic men are the only demographic where Trump’s approval has declined by less, and the plan risks disenfranchising a lot of ardent male Trump supporters with Hispanic-sounding names, like, say, Nick Fuentes or Enrique Tarrio.
[…] And all signs point to GOP election-stealing attempts getting way stupider and bolder […]
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning.
[Video clips: a masked DEA agent at her window with others surrounding the house at night with kids present; her surrender to a grand jury indictment]
Dan Mihalopoulos (Reporter): “They know they could have called her lawyer and she would have shown up at their office. But they ambushed her at home in the early AM.”
Jake Tapper (CNN): “The DOJ indictment v Don Lemon et al was just unsealed. [Screenshots]”
Cristian Farias (Legal journalist): “Only political appointees signed this. No career lawyers.”
One of the “overt acts” of the conspiracy [#23] was Don Lemon and Georgia Fort interviewing the pastor [“Lemon peppered him with questions”]
Rando 1: “My favorite ‘overt act’ is [#24] when Don Lemon caused the Pastor’s hand to hit him, and Don said, ‘Please don’t push me.'”
Dan Froomkin:
Watch the video of the interview, where Lemon “stood in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement.” Yeah, I’m not seeing it either.
* Age-gated, sign-in required.
Rando 2: “They tried to bring KKK charges against a gay Black journalist on MLK Day.”
Marcy Wheeler (EmptyWheel): “when the charges are dismissed Bondi and Stephen Miller will use it to incite attacks against the judge.”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Southpaw (Lawyer):
Reuters – Luigi Mangione will not face death penalty after US judge dismisses murder charge
It’d be helpful to put in your headlines that this ruling is in the federal case, not the state prosecution that’s in all likelihood going to go to trial first.
feds charged Luigi under (among other things) 18 USC §924(j), which makes it a crime to kill somebody with a firearm *during and in relation to* another federal violent crime—think murder during an armed robbery.
Feds said the underlying crime of violence here was stalking (they charged Luigi with 2 counts of that as well), but the court said neither of those stalking crimes necessarily require the government to prove the use of force, as the Supreme Court has defined it, sooo they’re not crimes of violence.
The judge, Margaret Garnett (Biden appointee), basically comes right out on page 3 of the opinion and says… This is very silly, and the Supreme Court’s fault.
the Supreme Court long ago adopted a “categorical approach” to determine whether a predicate offense qualifies as a crime of violence […] Under that approach, a court “focus[es] solely” on the elements of the crime of conviction, rather than the particular facts of the case. The categorical approach essentially considers whether the least culpable conduct that could satisfy the offense elements in a hypothetical case would necessarily involve the “use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another.” The defendant’s actual conduct is irrelevant.
If stalking can ever be charged w/o violence, then stalking is not in the category of violent crimes, even if sometimes a stalker kills.
NOTUS visited half a dozen hotels across Minneapolis this week, […] speaking to concierges and cleaning staff to hear from those caught between their customers and protesters. All said that, so far, federal agents staying at their hotels have been respectful—but each one said they had been shaken to the core when some agent inevitably asks, “Where are you from?”
[…]
[One] tries to book all federal agents staying at her hotel in rooms grouped together on the upper floors, to keep them from terrifying guests and to minimize interactions with staff.
[…] all hotel staffers described the same pattern: Federal agents leave the hotels before dawn in plain clothes, typically lugging around conspicuous black duffel bags, only to return after dusk in the same fashion. Those agents take white shuttle buses that ferry them back and forth to the Whipple Federal Building.
[…]
half the cleaning staff stopped showing up for work […] To protect the remaining three housekeepers from getting pulled over by deportation patrols on their commute in each morning, the hotel’s maintenance technician took it upon himself to be their carpool chauffeur—and the hotel is now paying the man extra […] housekeepers there said the work is still overwhelming, because three employees are making up for four missing coworkers. […] agents had detained a valet at a nearby hotel.
[…]
“When I see them in the hallways, they avert their gaze,” she said of the federal agents in her hotel. “They know what they’re doing is shameful. They’re nearly all Hispanic, but they don’t speak Spanish! They’re the children of illegals. But they forgot where they came from.”
A third woman […] observed what she called the “typical” racial labor dynamic: a few polite white supervisors commanding Latino men. “The supervisors are respectful. The agents—they […] are delinquents,”
[…]
managers offered the cleaning staff the opportunity to live at the hotel for free to avoid commuting, but the workers declined. They worried that it would only bring them and their children closer to the federal agents.
[…]
agents […] are subsisting on microwavable bowls of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, because it’s become so difficult for them to find restaurants willing to serve them.
[…]
The concierge at the third hotel said he has been periodically blocking government attempts to rebook another block of rooms weeks ahead of time, telling them that the hotel is at capacity.
Melania […] has led an undeniably fascinating life. [*snip*] this is all information I have extracted from Melania Trump’s Wikipedia page, because it is strikingly absent from the new Amazon documentary
[…]
To call Melania vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers. […] it is transparently not a documentary. Melania spends most scenes playing a staged version of herself […] somewhere between reality TV and pure fiction.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Hoping to calm nerves after his government arrested reporters Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, on Friday Donald J. Trump reassured the staff at Fox News Channel that he does not consider them journalists.
“It’s true that I’m engaging in a systematic attack on the First Amendment rights of journalists,” he told the Fox employees. “But obviously none of that applies to you.”
Offering further comfort, Trump added, “I would never have hired Pete Hegseth if I thought he was a journalist.”
In a sentiment widely echoed by his colleagues, “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy responded, “Mr. President, we weren’t really worried.”
At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that Trump had sent a similar message of reassurance to CBS News chief Bari Weiss.
The Department of Justice is pursuing a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti, reversing a decision that had drawn criticism, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday.
Might be good news. We’ll have to wait and see. Can’t trust what the DOJ says. Can’t trust what the DOJ does. Can’t trust the DOJ to follow through properly.
At least the DOJ does apparently realize that they fucked up when they first said they would not pursue a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti.
The Senate passed a bipartisan spending package to fund most of the government and keep the Department of Homeland Security running for two weeks while Democrats and President Trump negotiate restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown. The agreement is the culmination of an intense round of haggling between White House officials and members of Congress. It did not come together in time to avert a brief lapse in federal funding over the weekend, starting on Saturday morning. The House still must clear it for Mr. Trump’s signature, but members are not expected to return to Washington before Monday.
[…] The Senate voted 71 to 29 to pass the bipartisan spending deal to fund most of the government and keep the Department of Homeland Security running for two weeks while Democrats and President Trump negotiate restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown. It still must clear the House before it becomes law.
Iran will not engage in direct negotiations with the United States unless President Trump stops threatening it, its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Friday. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Istanbul, Mr. Araghchi said talks to calm tensions between Iran and the United States had to be based on a ‘fair and equitable’ approach and could not begin with threats.
“Despite protests in small towns and cities across the US, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with the purchase of warehouses it plans to convert into immigration jails in what could be the largest expansion of such detention capacity in US history.
The United States defended Greenland during World War II and the Cold War, and Greenlanders used to see Americans as protectors. But now the idea of joining up with the United States — a deeply divided nation with no universal health care, widening inequality and chaos on full display in the streets of Minneapolis — is not so appealing.
[…] White House aide Jared Borg said yesterday that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would speak at the annual meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS). Secretaries were told that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard would also join.
But as the session scheduled for 3 p.m. was set to begin, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, the chair of NASS, informed a packed ballroom that it wouldn’t be happening.
Some of the officials in attendance feared the Trump administration would use the gathering to berate the dozens of states that have refused to hand over state voter rolls to the Justice Department. The conference also took place in the wake of the FBI’s raid this week of a Georgia election center for ballots and records related to the 2020 election, which Gabbard was present for.
“It’s so on brand for this administration to inject chaos and confusion into everything,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, while leaving the event. “The NASS conferences have always been somewhat kind of mundane, right? We’re not supposed to have fireworks and debates over these types of things, but here we are.”
NASS had informed Democratic secretaries of state that they would not be permitted to ask questions of the Trump officials, which Benson said was an“insulting” decision from an organization that state officials pay into.
“This presumed panel, then canceled, created — sowed a lot of seeds of distrust,” Benson added […]
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Brandi Bennett (Attorney): “‘ICE ordered to violate the 4th Amendment’ should be the headline.”
The memo, addressed to all ICE personnel and signed on Wednesday by Mr. Lyons, centers on a federal law that empowers agents to make warrantless arrests of people they believe are undocumented immigrants, if they are “likely to escape” before an arrest warrant can be obtained.
ICE has long interpreted that standard to mean situations in which agents believe someone is a “flight risk,” and unlikely to comply with future immigration obligations like appearing for hearings, according to the memo. But Mr. Lyons [reinterpreted] it to instead mean situations in which agents believe someone is unlikely to remain at the scene.
“An alien is ‘likely to escape’ if an immigration officer determines he or she is unlikely to be located at the scene of the encounter or another clearly identifiable location once an administrative warrant is obtained,”
[…]
a former senior adviser at ICE [under Biden said] “It would cover essentially anyone they want to arrest without a warrant, making the general premise of ever getting a warrant pointless,”
This is to get around an increasing number of court orders requiring DHS to follow the plain words of the law which says administrative warrantless arrests are only for people “likely to escape.” So now they’re saying anyone who refuses to wait for a warrant to be issued is “likely to escape.”
As Americans watch in horror as immigration goons are jailing innocent kids and killing U.S. citizens who dare to exercise their constitutional rights, President Donald Trump is flooding the zone with so much chaotic and horrific news in an effort to overwhelm the public.
Trump has employed the chaos strategy for years, doing so many awful things all at once so his political opponents can’t craft a message to address it all or successfully organize to stop his obvious wrongs.
But it’s especially terrifying now, as the strategy is an effort to get away with literal murder, financial heist, and election rigging.
Let me explain.
The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis ginned up so much righteous anger that even Republicans felt the need to criticize Trump, finally saying that they are open to discussing changes to his immigration enforcement tactics.
It’s a shocking development as Republicans have otherwise let Trump do whatever he wants, no matter how evil and lawless.
But as his grip on the GOP faltered this week, Trump unleashed a new torrent of horrors to change the narrative and once again overwhelm his critics.
He had the FBI raid the offices of Fulton County’s election officials in Georgia on Wednesday, with agents taking boxes of ballots and voting equipment. It’s part of an obvious quest for Trump to muddy the waters with fake claims of voter fraud to justify making changes to the 2026 elections that could help Republicans steal the midterms.
Then on Thursday, Trump filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, seeking $10 billion of your hard-earned tax dollars—yes billion, with a “b”—in damages. Trump says he’s owed that enormous sum because his tax returns—which proved that he’s a tax cheat—were leaked during his first term in office.
To put that into perspective, $10 billion is one-third of the money needed to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies to millions of Americans for one year. It’s also worth 25 White House ballroom projects, which Trump now estimates will cost $400 million.
If you think that Trump won’t be successful in stealing your cash for his own personal benefit, remember that Trump has turned the Department of Justice into his personal revenge machine that does what he wants, no matter how lawless.
What’s more, the head of the IRS and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would cut the check. [!] Yes, the same toady who defends Trump’s every move.
Then on Friday morning, Trump announced his pick for Federal Reserve chair, choosing Republican sycophant Kevin Marsh, who will likely bend to Trump’s will on monetary policy.
He also had the DOJ arrest journalists for covering a protest in a Minnesota church, a gross violation of the First Amendment and his latest despicable perversion of justice to punish his perceived enemies.
[I snipped some discussion of polling on various issues.]
A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday found Trump’s approval falling to a second-term low of 37%, with even Republican support tumbling.
“Last year, 67% [of Republicans] said they supported all or most of Trump’s plans and policies. Today, 56% do,” the poll found. [Still 56% too much.]
But if Trump can flood the zone to get away with stealing taxpayer money and changing election rules to rig the midterms, then public opinion won’t matter.
We are long past a constitutional crisis.
There was also the release of more Epstein files, though still not all the files, and still not the transparency promised.
Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared on Fox News Friday, where she boasted about the GOP budget cuts that have successfully removed about 1.75 million Americans from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
But don’t worry, this is just part of President Donald Trump’s American dream.
“The American dream is not being on food stamp programs,” Rollins said. “We haven’t released it yet, but as of yesterday, we have moved 1.75 million people off of SNAP. 1,750,000 people that were on the food stamp program when the president was sworn in one year ago have now moved off […][ [video]
According to the Department of Agriculture, about 39% of SNAP recipients are children, meaning that hundreds of thousands of kids are getting what Rollins calls a “hand up”—though it probably feels more like a middle finger.
At the same time, experts say that the official unemployment rate fails to capture the growing number of “functionally unemployed” Americans—people actively seeking employment but who can’t secure a full-time job or are stuck earning “poverty-level wages.”
Trump’s chaotic economic policies have failed to bring back promised manufacturing jobs, destabilized the job market, and driven up the cost of living. […]
Photo shows Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins and Trump smiling and laughing.
Posted by readers of the article:
How any woman can smile about letting kids go hungry is beyond me. People are losing healthcare and food security, while Trump builds his ballroom and his Arc de Trump and his personal Gestapo that is trampling on United States citizens, all with the help of Congress! […]
————————
The american dream, according to the cult, is every marginalized group either starving,unaliving themselves or leaving the country.
Deputy Attorney General—and, of course, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney—Todd Blanche begrudgingly made a television appearance Friday to say that, fine, the Justice Department will release some Epstein documents. Happy now?
According to Blanche, after releasing 3 million of the 6 million Epstein files, the DOJ’s work here is done. That’s because, per Blanche, 50% of those documents were not “responsive” and therefore will not be released.
However, there is no provision in the Epstein Files Transparency Act for a determination of responsiveness. Put another way, the DOJ doesn’t have the leeway to decide whether something in its possession is relevant or meaningful enough to include. [!!]
Rather, the law directs the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices” relating to eight broad categories, including literally everything about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
[…] Blanche is a longtime defense attorney, and he knows full well what he means by using the term “responsive” here. Blanche is conveying, intentionally or not, that the DOJ has decided a full 50% of the Epstein files aren’t relevant to the law, based on a vague invocation of “responsive”—a criterion that he does not define.
There’s also the whole thing where the DOJ filed a status update with the court only three days ago, bragging that it made “substantial progress” and had “reviewed and redacted, as appropriate, several millions of pages.”
[…] You’d think that with taking six extra weeks and making up new criteria for what warranted release, the DOJ could have ensured that its efforts to protect Trump were airtight. But somehow it still didn’t manage to adequately scrub all mentions of him.
At the time of the release, the files contained a damning document detailing myriad grim sexual abuse allegations, many of which referred to Trump. An hour later, a link to what appeared to be the same document was dead, only to reappear intact shortly thereafter.
[…] The document beginning on EFTA01660679 has the same content as the document beginning on EFTA01660651, but with different redactions. One version, for example, has the criminal histories of people who made reports, while another redacts them. One version also redacted the word “daughters” for no discernible reason.
Whichever version you look at, it’s a difficult one, with callers alleging things like having been raped by Epstein and three brothers Oren, Tal, and Alon Alexander. The Alexanders, once prominent New York scene types, all now face sex-trafficking charges of their own.
Sure, these dueling documents could just be the result of some sloppiness, but extending that grace isn’t really warranted, since this is exactly what happened with the December release, when the DOJ removed at least 16 files after initially posting them.
Blanche might have wanted to check in with Trump before dropping these today, as it’s the tiniest bit awkward that his new pick for Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, makes an appearance in the files. [!]
Also in the files? Brett Ratner, who just directed the “Melania” documentary. And then there’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who planned a trip to Epstein’s private island in 2012, several years after he said he cut ties with Epstein and four years after Epstein had already been convicted of sexually assaulting minors.
Of course, we also have to mention former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, who practically begged Epstein to let him visit his island in 2013.
It’s tough to protect your boss when he’s surrounded himself with people like this, but the DOJ will continue to try its best.
Trump’s DOJ to investigate Walz and Frey, but not ICE agent who shot Renee Good
“The evidence suggesting the Justice Department is an institution in crisis is increasingly difficult to avoid.”
For the convenience of readers, here are some links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290501
After unveiling a pitiful health care ‘plan,’ Trump struggles to explain its merits
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290499
Reagan-appointed judge slams ‘unconstitutional conspiracy,’ calls Trump an ‘authoritarian’
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290477
The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, set up last week with the intention that it would oversee a ceasefire in Gaza.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290477
“Donald Trump links threats to seize Greenland to Nobel prize snub in letter.”
Additional links back to the previous set of comments on The Infinite Thread:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290446
ICE agents ate meal at a Minnesota Mexican restaurant—then arrested the staff who worked there
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290441
“This is such a cool illustration of how the Mercator map distorts the size of Greenland, which looks as big as the whole continent of Africa on that map but is actually the size of Mexico. [Video]”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290427
Jayden Scott, the 23-year-old MAGA hero who went viral for taunting protesters at the site where ICE shot and killed a woman, is now facing a warrant threat after failing to report for jail.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290414
EU explores €93B Trump tariff retaliation over Greenland threats
Link
Wales becomes the first country to sanction politicians who lie.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/1aaYkMcPts/
https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-martin-luther-king-day-which
“It’s Martin Luther King Day, Which Suddenly Seems Incredibly Relevant”
New York Times link
“Inside Minnesota Hospitals, ICE Agents Unnerve Staff”
“As federal agents swarm the Twin Cities, their presence has also grown in medical centers. Health care workers are pushing back.”
Denmark sends more troops to Greenland
“Denmark says its troops could stay in Greenland for one to two years.”
Good news concerning Trump losing, again, in the courts:
Link
More at the link. This fight, and similar court fights, are ongoing.
Kyiv Post: Ukraine to Launch New Offensives as Russia Eyes Massive 2026 Buildup – AFU Chief
Ukraine plans to go on the offense more in 2026. Except for the Kursk surprise distraction, Ukraine has made little attacks to blunt Russian attacks or to surprise under defended points of value. Syrsky avoids saying anything specific, only that Ukraine plans to take the initiative in some way. This could entirely be deception but I expect Syrsky is being honest. To force Russia into a reasonable settlement Ukraine has to go on the offense at some point or Russia has to collapse internally. Russia looks like it may be unstable but Ukraine can’t depend on Russia failing to win the war for them.
Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russia’s goals have not changed. They have not changed since the first year of the war, when Russia had to back off it’s quick attack and resort to a slow conquest so this isn’t really big news.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/nato-sprays-antipsychotic-medication
Obviously, The Borowitz Report is satire.
This line is particularly funny, since Trump just confused Norway and Denmark in his petty complaint (again) about the Nobel Prize:
Trump’s message:
Cartoon: If we were in the Epstein files …
Good news:
Link
Follow-up to comment 11.
New York Times link
[Video] Greenlandic politician shows mirror to Trump (8:36)
* That YT channel mirrored—and edited out b-roll—from Viory, a UAE news site.
* The YT channel also weirdly anonymized her as “Greenlandic Politician”. She is Tillie Martinussen, a former MP of the Cooperation Party she co-founded breaking from Democrats in 2018, of which she has been the only member to ever win a seat. The party aims to privatize public companies and deregulate.
Esquerda – Greenland 2021 election results (Left-wing news in Portugal via Wiki)
Sermitsiaq (Greenlandic national newspaper):
Study debunks Trump claims, shows no link between acetaminophen and autism
“Remember the president’s many rants about Tylenol? The latest evidence shows how wrong he was.”
Follow-up to comments 11 and 14.
404Media – How one guy crowdsourced more than 500 dashcams for Minneapolis to film ICE
Let’s Talk Elections
“Democrats’ Midterm Advantage Is BIGGER Than It Looks”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WF74Vhj7rKc
As I mentioned on the other thread, this Trump letter to “Jonas” should be grounds for convening an emergency meeting to invoke the 25th amendment. Each and every day brings more examples that the man is not fit to be in charge of his own affairs let alone the USA government and that his mental capacity is going down fast. That should be shouted on every news media 24/7 until something is done but of course nothing will be done.
About the boat thing being the only claim for Denmark over Greenland, there is actually a document about the US recognizing that right. This article explains it: In 1917 The US traded any rights to Greenland for Epstein Island. Literally.
Good news, as reported by the Washington Post:
Associated Press:
As Steve Benen noted, a symbolic move, but important.
Something for your flying cars?
Li-S batteries have far more energy by weight than lithium-ion batteries.
“Off-the-shelf kitchen chemistry could make Li–S batteries thinner”
.https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-shelf-kitchen-chemistry-lis-batteries.html
ProPublica link
New York Times:
This week on The Hill: Lawmakers scramble to avert partial shutdown
Strongest solar radiation storm since 2003 hits Earth, bringing northern lights and possible tech issues
Unfortunately, we have cloudy skies where I live.
Hackers target Iran state TV’s satellite transmission to broadcast exiled crown prince
“The death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 3,941 people, activists said.”
Twisting the legacy of Martin Luther King
.https://theonion.com/mlk-s-family-urges-nation-to-spend-anniversary-of-his-d-1824991630/
Trump wanted to rename today The Donald Trump – Martin Luther King Day.
Thao’s sister-in-law, via Marisa Kabas’ thread of screenshots:
The Handbasket – ICE snatching a half-naked, elderly Hmong American
* The family GoFundMe said Thao was traumatized but not physically harmed. The large red patches on his face, torso, and legs were severe psoriasis. His health has declined since the attack.
Commentary
Seth Meyers: We are living in a cocaine snow globe.
Trump’s Bonkers Message to Norway Over Greenland; Nobel Committee’s Responds to Trump.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=r5EL_cmM7YY
Carville Says Democrats Could Flip 45 House Seats
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UY9URtIDQdQ
The retaliation should be aimed squarely at Trump’s techbro sycophants: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Pichai, Altman… block their social networks, sales outlets and AI tools. Sure, no block will be fully effective, because of VPNs and Tor, but it’ll hit them in the advertising revenue, and these are the guys with real influence, not American small businesses dependent on European sales to stay solvent.
Borowitz is right to call out Starmer’s sycophancy (he fancies himself a “Trump whisperer” although the trade and investment deal he thought he’d negotiated turned out to be made entirely of froth). But unfortunately he’s by no means alone in NATO: leaders of Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Czechia are all Trumpist in political orientation – while Starmer is not, but is simply putty in Trump’s hands.
Yesterday was the birthday of both Dolly Parton and Edgar Allan Poe.
I found this verse on Zuckerbergbook.
.
Working 9 to 9
For a man whose eye is ceeepy
That’s why I decide
To assault him when he’s sleepy
But his heart still beats
In the floorboards where I set it
It’s enough to drive me
Crazy if I let it!
Trump takes issue with the British Chagos island deal as performative sabre rattling.
.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ByvVEEVqDKI
Putin’s Endgame Has Begun… Grab the Popcorn (economic stagnation meets war of attrition)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=OHZfnf_Gxak
Happy 92th birthday Tom Baker, The Doctor!
Robyn: From Pop Puppet to Independent Icon [seen in the wider context of the music of the 1990s onwards]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=A37w5qcShyM
Trump LEAKS Macron’s Private Messages – USA in Crisis Over Greenland
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YOw1LDKec50
.
Trump’s ICE Narrative Craters as TRANSCRIPTS EXPOSE HIM
.https://youtube.com/live/MOQ_0iRpi8g
The shooter was not seriously injured, and the injured woman still had a pulse when the ambulance arrived.
Hossenfelder alert
“The Geothermal Advantage Nobody Talks About”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jCb8Y1sqz-Y
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/activists-troll-trump-with-naked-doodle-card-on-jeffrey-epstein-s-birthday-2482217539621
Video is 3:36 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/moral-principles-drive-faith-leaders-to-speak-out-against-trump-on-immigration-foreign-policy-2482209859921
Video is 11:46 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/towns-reject-ice-as-agency-looks-to-place-immigrant-prisons-throughout-united-states-2482205763841
Video is 8:22 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/for-trump-s-opponents-a-model-for-finding-their-fight-to-stop-him-2482072131955
Video is 50:11 minutes
Billionaire on billionaire fight!
.https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/20/elon-musk-buying-ryanair-ceo-tesla-michael-oleary-starlink
On multiple fronts, Team Trump tries to exert greater control over media outlets
“The administration doesn’t just want to criticize parts of the media, it also wants to control parts of the media — even if that means exceeding legal limits.”
At least in part, Trump wants only the Army-Navy football game on TV because that is the game that he and Marco Rubio plan to attend.
By threatening France with a tariff on wine, Trump gives away the game
“Remember the pretense that the White House’s tariffs policy was the result of ’emergency’ conditions? That’s gone now.”
Related video at the link.
Wall Street Journal link
“Americans Are the Ones Paying for Tariffs, Study Finds”
“Research contradicts President Trump’s claim that foreigners are footing the bill, and could weaken his hand in the dispute over Greenland”
I do not have access to this article.
Link
GOP furious after Newsom gives them taste of their own medicine
Cartoon: Sparky gets ICEd, part 2
Judge bans Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan from ‘masquerading’ as top federal prosecutor
“The judge said he would allow Halligan to avoid attorney disciplinary proceedings for now ‘in light of her inexperience.’ ”
Good news: https://www.wonkette.com/p/virginia-gov-abigail-spanberger-launches
“Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Launches De-Youngkinization On Day One”
“With a big middle finger to ICE and Trump, too.”
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-the-epstein-files-in-greenland
More at the link.
Washington Post link
Washington Post link
‘Unconquerable’: What a visit to frigid Ukraine convinced me, by David Ignatius
DOJ serves subpoenas to Walz, Frey and other Minnesota officials amid immigration crackdown
“The subpoenas widen the federal investigation into whether Minnesota officials conspired to impede law enforcement during the Trump administration’s immigration operations.”
Related video at the link.
Trump admin. reveals to court: DOGE members may have misused Social Security data
“For those concerned with the integrity of the Social Security system, the latest allegations are extraordinary — legal accountability or not.”
Related video at the link.
Oh, great—Elon Musk is trying to buy elections again
Cartoon: The first 365 days
Politico link
AP News – At-home STD tests offer new options for screening and treatment
Lynna @50:
Eric Columbus: “The funny (?) thing is that Halligan’s temporary gig would expire today even if she had been validly appointed. [Screenshot]”
Sky Captain @61: LOL. The whole thing comes off as a farce. I also interpret the judge’s note about Halligan’s inexperience as a thinly-veiled burn.
Associated Press:
Associated Press:
Link
Trump marks first year back in office with cruelty and lies
Follow-up to comment 66.
What the hell is Trump talking about?
Link
Link
@61 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain: The timing is surely not an accident. Part of the whole point of this argument is that Pam Bondi can’t just keep appointing people as temporary interim US Attorneys over and over as a way around getting Senate approval.
@63 Lynna, OM: The US seizing these ships is violating international standards and possibly illegal but on the plus side it is cutting off one of the ways Russia was escaping from sanctions. Russia was shipping oil to Venezuela and then passing it off as oil from Venezuela, letting them sell it to a wider audience at higher prices.
German spoof article: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student – they don’t want to get blamed again”.
ICE is Kavanaugh stopping and drawing guns on Minnesota cops now.
Minnesota twin cities’ police chiefs held a press conference (28 min)
That excusing is delusional. The admin is flamboyantly white supremacist, reveling in reckless force without regard for law. Also the specific orders for ICE occupations have been documented.
WSJ – The White House marching orders that sparked the LA migrant crackdown
But if one were to single out a small group of the worst…
EmptyWheel – Time to ask if Stephen Miller has authorized assault and murder of peaceful ICE observers
Marcy Wheeler (EmptyWheel)
Austrian cows: We are the herrenrasse of cows!
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ZipTnnmxy/
Mother Jones – ICE has stopped paying contractors for detainee medical treatment
KING GORGE.
Jimmy Kimmel: “Trump on Verge of War Over Nobel Peace Prize Snub & He Celebrates His First Year In Office.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=22TJbqBCQA0
My walking carefree through the Con.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Xo6EnMWpm/
The billionaire Ronald S. Lauder originally presented Trump with the idea of purchasing Greenland.
“Complex building blocks of life form spontaneously in space, research reveals”
.https://phys.org/news/2026-01-complex-blocks-life-spontaneously-space.html
For cooking suggestions you can log in at The Guardian free of charge and go to the “Food” department.
“Kenji Morimoto’s recipe for miso leek custard tart with fennel slaw”
.https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/jan/20/miso-leek-custard-tart-recipe-fennel-slaw-kenji-morimoto
A free market with 2 billion people?
“India-EU “Mother of All Deals” Near! Von der Leyen Drops Big News at Davos”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/38of9ZYiaBs
Happy – I hope and let’s try to find and make happiness please – Penguin Awareness Day folks :
Source : https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/world-days/penguin-awareness-day
This like World Tapir Day should be more of a thing and global public holiday I reckon!
As Colbert noted here in hisd monologue here – One Exhausting Year | Americans Pay For Trump’s Tariffs | No Obligation To Make Peace – 12 mins.
Also Bernie interview brilliance here & here plus here too
Oh and also here as well – He Took On The Establishment And Won – Sen. Sanders On New York City’s Mayor, Zohran Mamdani (7 mins long.)
Poem. Truth. Meme seen on fb
Typed out off desktop screen, any typios mine.
@ 82 StevoR
Is this a black tie affair?
“Trump Attacks World Then Forgets How To Speak … Leaders Go Silent!”
(You can just fast forward to the bits that show Trump)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=p5nOoWROsUM
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/f-off-world-hits-back-as-trump-s-aggression-shocks-global-leaders-2482434627692
Video is 9:47 minutes
Martin Shaw turns 81 today. He has played many roles from The Professionals, and the successor of Roy Marsden in the role of inspector Dalgleish. Wikipedia:
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shaw
For all of the president’s boasts about his expertise, he can’t seem to overcome his economic illiteracy.
Follow-up of sorts to comment 91.
Link
Link
Trump says ‘people will soon be prosecuted’ for 2020 election outcome
https://www.ms.now/news/pentagon-soldiers-military-police-ft-bragg-minneapolis
“Pentagon orders more active-duty soldiers to ready for possible Minneapolis deployment.”
“The department has issued a ready to deploy order for a Army military police brigade stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”
Trump’s racist BS about Somali immigrants, as presented in Davos:
Link
Media lauds Trump’s Davos speech as ‘very strong’ as world cringes
Re: Lynna, OM @ #94…
In one sense, its possible that, had That Felon in the White House, been elected in 2020, the Russian war on Ukraine might not have happened. It would have been because Trump simply forced everyone to hand Ukraine to Putin.
Trump repeatedly confuses Greenland for Iceland
Petty:
Newsom denied entry to USA House at Davos forum
https://www.wonkette.com/p/rfk-jr-must-be-so-proud-south-carolina
“RFK Jr. Must Be So Proud: South Carolina Racks Up 646 Measles Cases In Latest Outbreak”
“Clearly this is all going according to plan.”
https://www.wonkette.com/p/after-the-american-age-tabs-wed-jan
Excerpt from Paul Waldman’s post:
Excerpt from Paul Krugman’s post:
Excerpt from Arc Digital:
More at the links.
David Gura (Bloomberg):
Commentary
Don Moynihan (Policy prof):
New York Times link
HOW TRUMP HAS POCKETED $1,408,500,000
More at the link.
Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95
“From segregated Virginia to global impact, her mathematics quietly changed how the world finds its way.”
BREAKING NEWS, Updated 31 minutes ago, Trump pauses Greenland-linked tariffs on 8 European countries
“He said he had agreed on “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” and the Arctic with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.”
Related video at the link.
Doubting U.S. resolve, Europe looks to bolster its own nuclear arsenal
“The discussions have taken on new urgency as President Trump escalates his criticism of Europe. Germany and Poland already have suggested France’s nuclear weapons could be expanded to defend their countries.”
Link
Photo at the link.
Bezos’ Blue Origin to deploy thousands of satellites for new communications network
“Jeff Bezos’ space company announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space, jumping into a market dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”
Arin Dube (Economics prof):
Wikipedia – Trump Always Chickens Out
Scott Horton (Harper’s): “Bovino and other DHS leaders are touting their success in rounding up serious criminals. But […] the serious criminals had in fact been apprehended by Minnesota police, whom the ICE and CBP leaders mercilessly disparage.”
MPR – Some criminals ICE takes credit for arresting were already in Minnesota prisons
Trump advances bizarre conspiracy theory about Venezuela, 2020 election
“The president was given an opportunity to knock down one of the dumbest ideas about his 2020 defeat. True to form, he did the opposite.”
What happened to the 10% credit card rates Trump promised?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17zpvkddpzo
“‘Europe is at a total loss’: Russia gloats over Greenland tensions”
According to a source at Youtube a Russian retired general named Kovalchuk has defected to Ukraine.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/you-cant-fire-lindsey-halligan-two
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):
AP News – Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says
Washington Post link
“Federal officials launch ICE operation in Maine and begin arrests”
“Everyone is on high alert,” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said. His city and nearby Lewiston have seen an influx of migrants and asylum seekers in recent years.
Sky Captain @117, in a week with tons of shocking news, that is even more shocking. From text you quoted: “authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS’s own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!” Unbelievably bad. Good to see the Associated Press and others providing coverage.
In other news: “Judge blocks government from searching data seized from Post reporter” [Good]
The seizure “chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm,” The Post said in statement. [True]
Washington Post link
MS NOW:
Yahoo News:
The American Prospect – Jeffries won’t whip vote against ICE funding
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/denmark-offers-trump-ownership-of
States brace for disastrous winter storm as FEMA flounders
Re Lynna’s post @93:
I highly recommend listening to Prime Minister Carney’s full speech (video[17 min] and transcript here)
It historically marks the end of the international rules based system of the past 80 years and the start of the new world order.
Politico: Judge denies lawmaker request for ‘independent monitor’ to oversee Epstein files release
The judge is more or less saying that a special master should be appointed but he doesn’t have the power. It would have to be a judge in a case over that specific law, not an unrelated Maxwell case. The judge even points out that the lawmakers clearly have the right to sue.
Let’s Talk Elections
“BREAKING: Republicans LOSE House Seat in New York”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y0sRBnwNHGI
By canada’s PM Carney – big claim but still
The Most IMPORTANT Speech Of The Century? yt clip & discussion by Novara media, 35 mins long.
Rando 1:
MPR – ICE detains 5-year old Minnesota boy; lawyer says agents used him as ‘bait’
Rando 2: “Stop saying ‘Bait’. The correct word is ‘Hostage’.”
Double Down News The Palestinian Genocide: The Ultimate Evidence – 17 mins long.
Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/earth-was-just-hit-by-the-strongest-solar-radiation-storm-in-over-20-years-heres-what-it-means
Zeteo Inside Trump’s War on Minneapolis — What We Saw on the Ground – 11 and a half mins long.
MN Attorney General – Federal Action Reporting Form
MS NOW – Appeals court temporarily allows DHS to continue MN surge (5:31)
Rando:
Matt Novak (Gizmodo): “Border Patrol agents are very sad that everyone in Minnesota hates them. [Screenshot]”
Rando 1: “So many questions. 1. Did this even happen? 2. Were they actually spit on? 3. Did they piss themselves? 4. How doctored is the ice footage gonna be? 5. Where’s all the protestor vids at? 6. What the fuck did they expect?”
Will Stancil (Lawyer):
TNR – CBP chief and his goons shamed out of Minnesota gas station
Rando 2:
I think this may be the oldest kind of human-animal cooperation, potentially long predating the domestication of dogs in Eurasia.
“Humans use local dialects to communicate with honeyguide birds, research shows
.https://phys.org/news/2026-01-humans-local-dialects-communicate-honeyguide.html
Follow-up to comments 415, 424 on the broomstick / leg shooting incident.
This article is mostly an FBI agent’s narrative synthesizing interviews, I guess.
MN Star Tribune – FBI reveals how mistaken identity by ICE led to chase, shooting of Venezuelan immigrant in north Minneapolis
It contradicts DHS in major ways. Sosa-Celis, the guy who was shot, wasn’t who ICE was after. ICE wasn’t even after Aljorna, the friend, who was chased on wheels then on foot into their shared duplex. ICE had looked up the friend’s car’s license plate, and the previous owner had been flagged as being in the US illegally (though that owner had no serious criminal history or federal cases), which kicked off a traffic stop, the friend fleeing, and the pursuit. The friend almost made it to the duplex but fell, and the ICE agent tussled with him. Sosa-Celis came out to rescue the friend and bring him inside.
There’s disagreement between the FBI and the two immigrants. About whether the broomstick was wielded to bludgeon the agent or was picked up and tossed as chaff in passing. And about whether the door was closed just before or after the agent shot Sosa-Celis. The door was boarded up before a reporter could check.
There was another man whose mugshot DHS waved around as someone allegedly arrested in all this. However, he didn’t appear in the affidavit, and the Tribune couldn’t find any involvement. He had no criminal record in Minnesota. Currently in Texas detention, not charged with any crime.
* 415, 424 on the previous page.
Corroborating 135.
RawStory – Border Patrol chief has bag of chips dumped on him at a gas station
Gramscini writing about cultural hegemony predated Noam Chomsky by half a century.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/1G45pj4mbd/
@ 133 StevoR
Pissing on the graves of the Rats of Tobruk.
Fucking nazi scum.
A grammar question from an uncultured foreigner.
-Is the right form of this phrase “an advanced stage”, or is it the first letter of the noun that decides if it is an “a” or “an” ?
Whether to use “a” (before a consonant or /j/) or “an” (before a vowel or silent H) depends on the word immediately following the indefinite article. It’s all about euphony.
A different bias:
“Trump Chickens Out on Greenland Tariffs”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=mBFP5Ij7PwI
Bluerizlagirl @ 143
Thanks.
It is probably the silent H that trips me up most.
A Republican claims USA “owns” the Moon.
Meh. Myself I own the sub-glacial parts of Antarctica, the mid- Pacific abyssal plain and rule a grand duchy on Mars.
.
Immigration Officers Assert Sweeping Power To Enter Homes Without A Judge’s Warrant, Memo Says
.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-memo-asserts-sweeping-power-enter-homes-without-warrant_n_69714a7ee4b0dfed77982f7e
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/they-re-following-us-ms-now-report-on-violent-ice-car-chase-2482678339658
Video is 8:55 minutes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/taco-returns-trump-isolated-and-humiliated-by-greenland-saga-says-hayes-2482666563865
Video is 9:01 minutes
Jimmy Kimmel:
“Pure Donsense!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=84aa__f8yF8
Mike Johnson backs impeachment of judges who ruled against the White House
“The crusade had been largely driven by the Republican fringe — until the House speaker endorsed the radical campaign.”
Related video at the link.
This counts as attempting to intimidate federal judges.
White House insists Trump didn’t say what everyone heard him say about Iceland
“So many Republicans see the president as infallible that even inconsequential slip-ups must be denied in Orwellian fashion.”
Follow-up to Sky Captain’s comment 117.
Link
Excerpt from the analysis by Stanford University law professor Orin Kerr:
Much more at the link.
Trump Unleashes FCC on TV Talk Shows
The weaponized Federal Communications Commission is now targeting network talk shows, contending that they no longer enjoy a carveout for news programs and must provide equal airtime to political candidates
New York Times link
@142 birgerjohansson: Elaborating on euphony…
StackExchange – When should I use “a” versus “an”
This will vary somewhat with accents of the region and era.
Meriam-Webster – An Indefinite Article Guide
Trump administration orders review of federal funding in more than a dozen Democratic states
Cartoon: Gun nutsNRA guns ICE
Link
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug presents Percival Dunwoody, Idiot Time-Traveler from 1909
From Trump’s speech in Davos, Switzerland:
Mobster.
Trump in Davos:
German is the main language of Switzerland.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein all speak German.
Trrump speaks Arrogant Stupidity.
Live updates: Jack Smith defends Trump probes in first public testimony
Snark on the Davos speech.
Southpaw:
David Frum talks with Fiona Hill
The David Frum Show Jan 21 |
Why Trump Sides With Putin
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=04rPMPwVjdk
Follow-up to 106.
Lindsay Beyerstein (Journalist):
Lindsay Beyerstein:
NYT
Rando: “Okay. So we self immolated ourselves on the international stage so we could keep the defense framework we established with Greenland 70 years ago.”
@162 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain:
This makes the mistake of assigning a coherent rational motivation to Trump. It’s likely that whoever suggested taking Greenland to Trump had some rational idea but Trump may not. I get the impression Trump has taken the idea and run in some weird direction of his own. He may be obsessed with owning Greenland because he is thinking about his place in history if makes a historically large expansion of the US, or he may have a property developers obsessions with clear ownership of the land, or he may think he is banking against global warming by providing the US with land that will be critical down the road and the ice melts.
You see the same thing with Venzula, where he is talking about oil market dynamics that date back to the 80s and drug cartel stuff that is just wrong. His obsession with getting a Nobel Peace Prize that is obviously jealousy that Obama got one has led him all kinds of weird directions.
Adam Schwarz (Political commentator):
* I couldn’t source the the hi-res image at the link. It has extra distortions that didn’t appear in other renderings: missing California, wavy latitude lines.
Daily Beast has photos of two versions used on stage. The gold-on-white version was also tweeted by the White House, currently on Wikipedia. All have messy laurel leaves.
Commentary
Key CDC leader calls measles outbreaks the ‘cost of doing business’
“Deputy Director Ralph Abraham appears unconcerned that the U.S. is losing its measles elimination status. Public health experts aren’t pleased.”
Related video at the link.
Not that there was any serious debate about his authoritarian impulses, but the president keeps piling on the evidence.
Judge rejects Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against Don Lemon
https://www.wonkette.com/p/take-our-money-please-400-millionaires
House passes sprawling spending package as Democrats split over ICE funding
“The House voted separately on DHS funding and another package of bills to avoid a partial shutdown and repeal a law that allows certain GOP senators to sue DOJ for $500,000.”
David Attenborough observes goths in their element.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Ddq28oWKt/
NYT – Musk’s chatbot flooded X with millions of sexualized images in days, new estimates show
The Guardian – Trump’s board of peace is an imperial court completely unlike what was proposed
Anthony Kreis (Constitutional law prof):
Rando: “It’s like a family foundation, but for someone whose family is barred by New York State law from being on the board of any charity.”
Southpaw (lawyer): “I think any straightforward reading of the foreign emoluments clause forbids the president from personally taking a lifetime office and title like this without Congress’s consent fwiw.”
Sky Captain @172, I agree with this text you quoted identifying the so-called “Board of Peace” as “a corrupt NGO that Trump controls in a capacity independent of the presidency.” It’s a scam that Trump is using to put money in his pockets … and, as The Guardian noted, to weaken the United Nations.
MS NOW:
Wall Street Journal:
Marco Rubio is also undoubtedly pushing hard for this.
Reuters:
Oh dear heavens to betsy.
MAGA women think lip filler and having a million babies makes you hot
I think that headline paints with too broad a brush.
Follow-up to comments 172 and 173.
Link
DailyKos quoted at @176:
WaPo – What is making Gaza ‘uninhabitable’? Unexploded bombs and more. (2025)
^ DailyKos quoted at @178.
Svante Pääbo and his disciples keep delivering.
“Ancient DNA Finally Solves the Mystery of the Teotihuacan People”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cxQoj2sutzM
The heritage of the original Americans gets less mysterious.
Russian minister Lavrov is talking trash about the Baltic states.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/1DNCjpMWRV/
What Canadian PM Carney did not say.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1PHryr4M1k/
IT’S JUST NOT TRUE!
Ian Hislop On How Nigel Farage & Co Are Trash Talking London
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2v_traWNung
Conservatives painting London as an unsafe hellhole.
Prototaxis: Scientists may have discovered a new extinct form of life.
.https://phys.org/news/2026-01-scientists-extinct-life.html
Politico: Top federal prosecutors ‘crushed’ by Epstein files workload
I think the original Dec 19th date was impossible given the number of files that turned up but the DOJ is also stalling release. They are not releasing files at a reasonable rate and the files that have been released are over redacted. The DOJ is not providing useful information such as how many files have been redacted, released, unprocessed.
The DOJ is presenting itself as disorganized, with a big pile of documents to redact and no specific information on how many have been dealt with. I find this unlikely but possible given how badly the DOJ is managed right now.
The correct analog for ICE is not a foreign organisation like Gestapo. The most apt one is the slave patrols that were everywhere in the South until 1865.
NBC News: Federal judge appears skeptical of DOJ’s argument for White House ballroom construction
Roth is DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth. The Trump administration suddenly likes that irreparable harm issue. It’s really BS in this case because the government did the demolition without approval and is now trying to claim they can’t stop as a way to try and get around review.
I don’t expect the judge will block construction forever but there are other things he could do. Hopefully the judge at least forces some sort of real review rather then the planning committee that Trump has stacked with his yes men.
CBS News: White House posts an altered photo of Minnesota protester’s arrest to make it look like she was crying
Scum. This is excessively tacky in general, posting it from the official White House account is terrible.
re JM @189: I have a great idea for a meme. The Orange Turd in an orange jumpsuit with shackles and chains on his arms and legs being led off to the El Salvadoran torture prison.
The GOP’s narrative around Jack Smith has become incomprehensible
“Republicans offered prepared speeches and hostile questions that not only ignored Smith’s prior testimony, but often ignored his presence altogether.”
Good videos at the link.
JD Vance on the Titanic:
Link
Link
I have been highly critical of a lot of aspects of texass recently.
However, the article immediately below is only one example why I consider Jasmine Crockett a 5 star person.
https://crooksandliars.com/2026/01/rep-crockett-calls-out-trumps-and-ices
Rep Jasmine Crockett spoke to the events going on in Minneapolis and the overall overt racism and fascism of Trump and his ICEtapo goons as only she can
my criticism of texass:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/18/uatx-is-crumbling-fast/comment-page-1/#comment-2290513
@32 shermanj
19 January 2026 at 11:29 am
All these people and that ‘institution’ are Just more reasons why the 1 star of the lone star state is their rating: 1 out of 5 stars.
and
It’s rather sad because there are two honest 5 star businesses we deal with in Austin, tx
Tweeting All the Way Through the Fascism
Quote of the Day
“We are in a much better place today than we were at the beginning of this week. But of course, the very fact that we are relieved that a NATO country is not going to attack another NATO country tells us that we are somewhere where we never thought we would be. And that, in itself, will linger.”—Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide
Link
More at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/lets-all-enjoy-watching-aoc-just
YouTube link to Former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s opening statement.
Video is 5:19 minutes. It is great.
YouTube link to Rep. Jasmine Crockett questioning Jack Smith.
From the comments:
Link
Link
Meidas Touch:
“Trump GETS SCARED as Gavin Newsom CHASES HIM OUT of Davos Summit !!!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BesbTvsewNY
The California governor has proven himself to be a formidable adversary to Trump, unlike the Dem leadership in DC.
Link
CompulsoryAccount at 381 on the previous page:
Thank you! This helped me figure it out.
@203 birgerjohansson
‘The California governor has proven himself to be a formidable adversary to Trump, unlike the Dem leadership in DC.’
and he’ll lose a general election. he’s pro-billionaire and anti-trans, he likes clearing out encampments of unhoused people and platforming the worst talking heads the right-wing has to offer.
the trump trolling is cool, his team should just stick to that.
Related to 165’s “the cost of doing business” callousness.
Remember that Mengele scare about RFK Jr funding the African antivaxxer study and the relative sigh of relief when it turned out to be exploitation rather than sadism? Time to suck that sigh back in… while it’s still safe to breathe.
Elizabeth Jacobs (Epidemiologist): “RFK Jr. appointee Kirk Milhoan has just clearly stated, out loud, that he wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread.”
STAT – Top CDC vaccine adviser questions need for polio shot, other longstanding recommendations
Boston Levenson (Sci writing prof): “We know what measles does w/o vaccine protection. The vaccine came in 1963, AKA living memory. We’ve seen outbreaks since in unprotected settings. Just as there was no mystery about syphilis solved by the racist Tuskeegee experiment there’s nothing here to be discovered beyond suffering and sorrow.”
Dan Jago (MBBS, MPH): “99 were hospitalised in Texas in 2025. 3 died. Is that enough for him?”
Elizabeth Jacobs: “Nope.”
Commentary
Wikipedia – Nuremberg Code:
Reuters – Moderna curbing investments in vaccine trials due to US backlash
Elizabeth Jacobs (Epidemiologist):
Sky Captain @207, thanks for including these points (after chronicling the astounding callousness of Kirk Milhoan):
Follow-up to Sky Captain 2129.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/how-did-any-democrats-vote-to-fund
“How Did Any Democrats Vote To Fund DHS Nazis? Just Asking For Liam, Age Five.” [photo at the link of Liam Ramos, age five, being detained by ICE creeps outside his home Tuesday. He and his father were then flown to an ICE prison in Texas]
Weather:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php
Washington Post link
U.K., including Prince Harry, voices outrage at Trump’s Afghanistan remarks”
“President Donald Trump’s inaccurate belittling of the British role in Afghanistan recalled previous occasions when he has insulted injured or fallen soldiers.”
Trump will be excoriated on social media, one of his favorite methods of communication.
I wonder if Trump will blame Canada for the cold…
Trump withdraws Canada’s invite to his ‘Board of Peace’
Related video at the link.
Spare me. Is there no end to this particular debacle?
Link
Link
New York Times:
MS NOW:
Steve Benen notes that this “sounds like a death sentence.”
New York Times:
New York Times:
New York Times:
That was close! Almost good news …
WTF?
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2014486428697399387
Video at the link.
Another WTF moment.
Vance Endorsed Slashing Civil Liberties Protections During Minneapolis Visit
“The VP said that the executive branch should be able to issue its own warrants to enter homes.”
Re: 214
I get the impression that most of the US allies are holding out for a polite excuse to not join Trump’s “peace board”, while only few have accepted the invitation and some have openly declined.
Canada was apparently just offered an excuse to not join (hah). Sweden, Norway, UK and France have declined. Germany and Italy are reportedly now saying their constitution does not allow joining international orgs where one country has power over others. Finland is still holding out, hoping that Trump forgets he invited us.
Follow-up to 30.
MN Star Tribune – ICE detained a St. Paul man in his underwear. The suspect agents were looking for was already in prison. (unlinkable live post, Jan 23 at 12:38pm)
Forbes – Microsoft gave FBI keys to unlock encrypted data
Matthew Green (Cryptography prof):
Rando 1:
Rando 2: [Commandline instructions to discover or delete one’s BitLocker recovery key, and how to generate another key if desired, though it should continue to work without one.]
Rob Pegoraro (Tech journo): “This got me to check how Windows 11 Home handles Bitlocker recovey keys. And while it does back them up automatically to your Microsoft account, you can save a copy elsewhere (like in an e2e-encrypted password manager) and then delete the uploaded key.”
Lynna @197
regarding pepper spraying directly into the eyes of a person who was pinned on the ground
should read “a blatant act of torture”
This act is only done for one or both of 2 reasons
Sadist pleasure or to induce fear in other protestors.
.
MN Star Tribune – Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure
MN Star Tribune – Agents detain and send 2-year-old girl and her father to Texas despite court order to release toddler
Posted on another thread so linking to that here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/22/the-least-we-can-do-do-better-university-of-minnesota/comment-page-1/#comment-2291005
Messy split oin the LNP coalition with the Nationals leaving the agreement – which hopefully menas neither mob willhave any ower for a good long time.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-24/how-the-coalition-split-played-out/106263654
^ For Oz.
Allison Gill: “Last week, when we learned DoJ was investigating Renee Good’s partner, I said they’d probably investigate Good herself if she hadn’t died. Turns out…”
Chris Hayes: “THEY TRIED TO GET A WARRANT TO CRIMINALLY INVESTIGATE THE WOMAN THEY SHOT DEAD.”
MS NOW – DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-20/antarctic-penguin-breeding-cycles-changing-climate-change/106247472
CNN – Don’t say ‘Watch out for ice’: FEMA warned storm announcements could invite memes
wesinjapan (Disaster sociologist): “These fuckers are out of their minds. They do not care about safety in the least. Just to be clear: Watch out for ice AND Watch out for ICE. Both are cold and slippery and will kill you for no reason.”
Samantha Montano: “I 100% believe that it will be a meme that eventually takes this godforsaken administration down.”
Follow-up to comments 117, 146, 151, and 222.
WIRED: US Judge Rules ICE Raids Require Judicial Warrants, Contradicting Secret ICE Memo” Good news.
“The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent.”
I don’t have access to the rest of this report.
Source : https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/nasas-artemis-2-moon-rocket-is-on-the-launch-pad-whats-next
Wired – US Judge Rules ICE Raids Require Judicial Warrants, Contradicting Secret ICE Memo
Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/a-mystery-object-is-holding-this-120-million-mile-wide-cloud-of-vaporized-metal-together
Democracy Now yt channel “Emperor” Trump’s So-Called Board of Peace Erases Palestinians from Gaza Governance – 20 mins long.
Owen Jones Trump HUMILIATED – But West Still in CHAOS – 15 mins long.
Novara media and No Justice Liberal Democracy Is Closer To Collapse Than You Think – 16 mins long.
@ 237 StevoR
Very obviously the death star after Luke used the force. I mean the light from 3,000 light years is “a long time ago”.
Palate cleanser – Perijá Metaltail, Metallura iracunda, Serranía del Perijá, reserva Chamicero del Perijá – 17 seconds but great close up footage of an endangered hummingbird species.
Follow-up on California becoming a medical authority to fill the federal vacuum.
California joins WHO public health network following US exit, a first for any state
Follow-up to 111, regarding ICE exaggerating its street arrests and justifying the dragnet by claiming the detention facilities are releasing inmates onto the streets rather than cooperating to transfer them to ICE.
Minnesota Department of Corrections refutes ICE claims on number of arrests
So the county jails—not governed by the state DOC—a subset of which use their autonomy to refuse administrative detainers—had too few instances to justify complaining about. And even then, that refusal is ICE’s fault for not bothering to involve a judge.
ICE officials acknowledge the Minnesota DOC is actually cooperating
Follo-wub to @266 birger
Of course they did.
Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges
The new party leader shows how far you can go by offering voters someting new beyond the cliches of the labour-conservative debates. (Yes I know Labour is a million times better than the tories but Keir Starmer is still a huge letdown)
“UK Green Party Stuns With Huge Surge & Brilliant New Political Ad”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UEj0zQkaREo
“Scientists observe a 300-million-year-old brain rhythm in several animal species”
(amniotes, but not amphibians?)
.https://phys.org/news/2026-01-scientists-million-year-brain-rhythm.html
Follow-up to Sky Captain @231.
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/exclusive-doj-sought-criminal-probe-of-renee-good-after-her-death-sources-say-2483160643705
Video is 13:15 minutes. Excellent presentation of the facts and context.
Federal officers shot another person in Minneapolis amid immigration crackdown, governor says, by Associated Press.
Cartoon: Technically not lying
Washington Post link
Live updates: Federal agents shoot another person in Minnesota, governor says.
Another ICE murder in front of Glam Doll Donuts, Video at the link below.
Reddit link
From Daily Kos:
Man shot during Minneapolis immigration crackdown has died, hospital record shows, by Associated Press.
Follow-up to comments 250, 252, 253 and 254.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ice-just-killed-another-neighbor.
From Washington Post live updates, as referenced in comment 252:
DHS shares picture of gun it says belonged to person who was shot
Photo at the link. The gun appears to be placed on the seat of a vehicle.
NBC live updates
Winter weather in the USA, as reported by NBC:
Ukraine, Russia conclude second day of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi
“Zelenskyy says trilateral negotiations were constructive, with more meetings possible next week, despite massive Russian airstrikes overnight.”
Link
That evil murderous barbaric narcissistic egomaniacal pile of excrement and his fascist and plutocratic magat followers have proven that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
https://apnews.com/article/puerto-rico-trump-us-solar-energy-projects-cancelled-81250b7eea3f1d15902b44c0e16a1e97
By DÁNICA COTO Updated 5:33 PM MST, January 22, 2026 Leer en español
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled solar projects in Puerto Rico worth millions of dollars, as the island struggles with chronic power outages and a crumbling electric grid.
SHERMANJ COMMENT; that project was to have helped the low income people there in their battle against a huge corrupt corporation !
Follow-up of sorts to comment 259.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/god-punishes-trump-by-turning-us
@259 Lynna, OM 24 January 2026 at 1:39 pm told us about winter weather in the USA, as reported by NBC; which provided some of the disastrous implications.
I say, this inability for any of magat hordes or the orange pile of excrement or the main slime media to say ‘All this suffering, death and chaos is caused by human influenced climate change’ proves that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
The latest ICE murder is worse than you think
Follow-up to comment 265.
More details
Follow-up to comments 265 and 266.
Updates from The Washington Post:
Follow-up to comments 265, 266 and 267
Updates from the New York Times: Minneapolis Live Updates: Videos Appear to Contradict Federal Account of Killing
An I.C.U. nurse shot by federal agents was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun.
More details from The New York Times analysis:
New York Time link
Reiteration of 268, 269.
In the pink coat footage, an agent shoved a woman to the ground and wielded a can of pepper spray, Pretti stepped in to deflect the agent’s arm and turned to shield her from the spray with his back. Then multiple agents tackled Pretti.
Bellingcat:
Southpaw (Lawyer): “The federal government’s official story […] is that DHS killed a guy for simply having a gun. This is the gun rights lobby’s nightmare scenario, and they likely won’t utter a mumbling word of opposition.”
Follow-up to comments 211 and 259.
Washington Post link
Sky Captain @270, thanks for adding the information posted by Bellingcat.
Follow-up to comments 265, 266, 267, 268, 269 and 270
Kristi Noem lies … again:
The quoted text referring to Noem’s statements was posted in the Live Update section of The Washington Post.
Emily Farris (PoliSci prof):
The Tennessee Holler: “[Video clip] Closest one claps after the shots.”
Follow-up to comments 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270 and 272.
More on the response from Trump’s lackeys, as reported by the New York Times:
More details regarding the response from Minneapolis’ elected leaders:
Aaron Rupar:
Rando:
https://bsky.app/profile/hamiltonnolan.bsky.social/post/3md6pjlr5ns24* Velshi said the long guns are canister weapons loaded with tear gas.
Jen Bendery (HuffPo) with video clips and photos:
Rando: “[A couch.] Damn they’ve started setting traps for the vice president.”
MS NOW on YT – Velshi (12:15)
Acyn: “Protester in Minnesota: I’m 70 years old, and I’m fucking angry!
[*grabs a bottled water and disappears as gas envelops him*] [Video clip]”
Derek McCaw:
* Sounds like ‘Project Syria’ and ‘Use of Force’ by Emblematic, but I couldn’t find a story about the CoD man to tie it to them.
Alejandro Ramirez (Nashville Scene): “Call of Duty is probably best known for its multiplayer, but I can’t help but think [ICE/CBP]’s actions reflect the infamous ‘No Russian’ mission. The player infiltrates a terrorist org that rampages at an airport and the player can choose to join the slaughter or not.”
Southpaw (Lawyer): I keep thinking about how [Alex Pretti] was a federal employee too. Even that doesn’t stand in the way of the vicious posthumous defamation from Trump admin mouthpieces.”
Will Stancil:
Seth Klamann (Denver Post): “ICE […] issued a rare condemnation”
Denver Post – ICE investigates after Colorado group says agents left ‘death cards’ in arrested immigrants’ abandoned cars
The spokesperson will probably be sacked.
WIRED link
“The Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti”
“Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.”
Washington Post link
WaPo quoted @278:
You do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to them”.
NRA:
NRA (12 minutes earlier):
MPR – Protesters interrupt St. Paul church service, say pastor works as ICE director in St. Paul field office (Jan 19)
DoJ said it was investigating the protesters. Let’s see how that’s going.
Anna Bower (Lawfare):
Judge Schiltz, via Anna Bower:
Another Schiltz letter via Eric Columbus.
Eric Columbus: “no career DOJ attorneys agreed to sign the [mandamus petition]. Just the political appointees. Extremely unusual.”
Rando 1: “Either they refused or the politicals didn’t even ask.”
Rando 2: “When you’ve lost the 8th Circuit… Chief Judge Schiltz is pissed off.”
* The 8th Circuit was previously characterized as 10/11 Republican-prez appointees.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-2/#comment-2290241Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):
A moment from the crowd in the aftermath near Alex Pretti’s shooting @275.
Anjali Dayal:
Follow-up to 129.
TX Public Radio – Protest breaks out at Dilley immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos
“The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards” – Heather Cox Richardson.
The actual response to Dachau was to stand the guards against a wall and shoot them, then force all the residents of the town to tour the camp.
EU demands ‘Nigel Farage clause’ | Outside Views on Brexit and the UK
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Up6UhMlJAYY
Vale Rob Hirst and thankyou. Rest in power & love the music you made.
Tribute to Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil) – 9 mins~ish.
Outdoors cat shelter
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1ayFEdJs97/
The Onion: Trump boys put Nobel peace prize in microwave.
“Trope Talk: Precursors”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=N_IP7WEhzyU
Recommended. Obviously, both Lovecraft and Tolkien feature a lot here.
Federal judge blocks DHS from ‘destroying or altering’ evidence after fatal Minneapolis shooting
Bondi outlines terms for Walz to ‘restore the rule of law’ in Minnesota after fatal shooting
I will point out once again that Walz’s team in Minnesota has been investigating and prosecuting people who committed fraud long before Trump latched onto this problem in order to paint all Somali immigrants as criminals. Walz’s team sent some fraudsters to jail. The leader of the fraud ring was a white woman. Trump exaggerates the amount of fraud every time he mentions it.
See also: Is Minnesota’s Medicaid fraud scandal an ‘outlier?’ Experts say the answer is complicated.
See also: Key figures in the long-running controversy over alleged fraudulent safety net programs in Minnesota
More at the link.
@291 Lynna, OM:
There is of course a normal procedure for doing that. The problem for the DOJ is that it one way or another it would end up in front of a judge. That would mean providing evidence and rationals for the investigation. Which doesn’t work because the rational is helping Trump rig the vote and the evidence is “Trump thinks states that voted against him have more fraud then states that voted for him”.
JM @292, True.
In other news, The Washington Post has now caught up to other media outlets reporting this: Federal agent secured gun from Minn. man before fatal shooting, videos show
Josh Marshall:
Link
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5c6cw3veuqruljoy5ahzerfx/post/3mdbbk4lfpk2b
Statement from Barack Obama.
Full statement is available at the link.
Follow-up to comment 295.
The statement is from both Barack and Mishelle Obama. Here is more text from that statement:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-you-okay
Will Stancil:
ICE 101—How Trump changed ICE and CBP into a fascist secret police
Similar audio interview.
What a Day podcast – E1527 A Brief History of ICE (23:54)
The Hill: FBI agent who sought to investigate ICE officer in Minneapolis shooting resigns: Report
Hopefully somebody is keeping a list so the next president can rebuild these agencies by offering jobs to all the people pushed out by Trump.
Forget civil rights investigation, it’s too early to pin it down. A US officer shot an American citizen, it should be investigated on principle. In this case it might turn out to be straight up murder charge eventually.
Olga Nesterova:
Rando: “This is a good way to show the people of Minneapolis that the Guard is on their side while not having them engage directly with ICE.”
Brandon Friedman (Dallas police oversight board): “For one thing, protesters are safer in the presence of National Guard soldiers by orders of magnitude. Second, the approach […] makes ICE and CBP look so incredibly small and weak.”
Will Stancil:
Follow-up on the corporate silence over ICE et al., after the general strike.
Catherine Rampell (The Bulwark):
Kyle Cheney (Politico):
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “This is ‘Operation PARRIS,’ a top reason that DHS is in Minneapolis. The goal is to arrest 5,600 lawfully present refugees and take them to detention centers in Texas to be interrogated about their status. There is NO investigation first. They are arresting everyone; grab first, question later.”
Jared McClain (Civil rights lawyer): “Some have had to find their own way home once they win their release.”
Joseph Morris (Lawyer): “‘particularly craven’ are not words frequently put together by federal judges to describe the federal government.”
Lets Talk Elections: “NEW DATA: Voters Are Fed Up With Trump Over ICE!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=tidCkCOtZiQ
Colorado launches new system for reporting misconduct by federal agents
Cancer tumors may protect against Alzheimer’s by cleaning out protein clumps using Cyst-C protein.
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-cancer-tumors-alzheimer-protein-clumps.html
Frieren in a Nutshell (parody)
Hero vs demon: Stark Pulls Out His Master’s Forbidden Technique
.https://youtube.com/shorts/Pys9Lx1Onn0
We could all use the odd overpowered hero right now.
(short)
“I joined a union twice in Japan after I joined a traditional Japanese company”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/EvxqubwDH44
Unions rock!
“South African San rock art reveals trance dances and initiation ceremonies”
I would add that the rock art of the San (aka “Hottentots”) was the oldest human continuous culture tradition, and was wiped out by the Afrikaaner intrusion less than two centuries ago.
.https://phys.org/news/2026-01-south-african-san-art-reveals.html
Idiot AI says “dramatic” instead of “germanic”. Also, the genetic continuity coupled with cultural assimilation is exactly whay you can expect from elite domination.
.
“Slavic Origins The Forbidden Genetic History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=C98D2oarZ1c
Richard J Murphy:
“Why America, China and Russia are all built on the same fatal flaw”
.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NJM_9Pw_zxI
Counterpoint to the smoke grenade thread by Dan Kaszeta (CBRN expert):
A hexachlorethane canister was recovered in Oregon last night.
Alissa Azar (Journalist):
* Her canister read: “CM Large Style Maximum Smoke HC Defense Technology”.
* Manufacturer tech specs for a similar canister says “Hexachloroethane (HC)”.
^ To be clear, Alissa Azar said HC smoke was “dark grey”—not the green misinfo.
Republican Commenter on BBC Calls Boris Johnson LEFT-WING?! Defends ICE Brutality!
(Hell just froze over)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=6bgs_mDOYtQ
I found this on internet.
Is it true or AI-made bullshit?
“Judge Caldwell Orders Arrests After Witness 14 Tape Leak.”
I also found claims that there is talk about a third impeachment, but until confirmed by major news sites I regard this as yet more internet BS.
Paul Fellows
“Once Around the Moons of Mars”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=3eoqEq-5x-c
(ENGLISH CAPTIONS) Finnish police chasing a half naked drunk bicyclist
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=S2WS-G5j23w
The Indian Express: As China purges top military general Zhang Youxia, the key theories around the extraordinary move
There has been rumors Zhang Youxia had been contesting control of the military with Xi but there are a lot of rumors floating. The CCP’s internal politics are really obscure. The important thing is that this effectively puts Xi in direct command of the military.
That stated corruption charges don’t matter. He is surely guilty of some degree of corruption but that is a given in China’s military which runs on bribery to a greater degree then Russia’s did pre-invasion of Ukraine. An official of that high rank will only be arrested for political reasons.
Over the short term it will give Taiwan some protection as China will have to reorganize the military command before doing anything significant. In the long though Xi has been a promoter of invasion. It’s tempting to draw some comparison to Putin as both are aging dictators who may want to cement their place in history but China has more a history of slow drawn out political border disputes then military invasions.
Follow-up to comment 291.
Minnesota quickly rejects AG Pam Bondi’s request for the state’s voter rolls
Minnesota’s secretary of state accused Bondi of making an “unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security.”
Apparently, innocent American citizens have to be murdered in the streets before the GOP wall cracks.
Link
In reading all the credible, authenticated news here and on other honest sites, I can only state emphatically:
In so many ways, those ru(i)nning this country are pushing it down a death spiral in which I will not participate.
The evil, murderous, barbaric, narcissistic, egomaniacal, pile of excrement and his fascist and plutocratic magat followers have proven that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
Is that statement clear enough?
The link below is to an article that is extremely complete and concise. And, I am terrified by what it portrays:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/kenny-stancil/116052/ruling-class-control-of-ai-is-making-things-more-expensive-and-you-poorer
Link
Link
Revealing Extent of Blowback, Trump Plays Nice with Walz
Link
(Crossposted)
The Trump chaos and the Maga movement can be explained as an “extinction burst”!
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1GwCi82B1R/
Link
There also seems to be a streak of sadism running through too many elected Republican leaders. They are applauding.
Link
Complaint accuses Trump’s criminal attorney of ‘blatant’ crypto conflict in his role at DOJ, by ProPublica
Cartoon: America 2026
NBC News EXCLUSIVE: Alex Pretti’s fatal killing was recorded on body-worn camera video, DHS says
Link
Dan Kaszeta responded to Alissa Azar’s hexachlorethane smoke canister photo @311, though it’s unclear whether he saw her live thread of symptoms.
Dan Kaszeta (CBRN expert):
Unhealthy like toxicity, carcinogenicity, lethality. Some of his other PSAs…
“Tear gas and smoke may be used to push people into vulnerable positions or be a distraction from something actually lethal. It’s an old tactic. Be mindful.”
“Tear gas and smoke grenades are not pressurized spray cans. They are burning at stupidly hot temperatures, like 800 deg C. That’s C. Not F.”
“literally too hot to handle […] hot enough to cause house and car fires. And if you put one in a dumpster or something, the burning plastics etc are a real not imaginary poison gas.”
A thread on nerve agents – “People have often claimed that CS tear gas is a nerve agent because it triggers a pain response in the nerves. That’s literally not the definition of a nerve agent”
“Do not use milk, antacids, honey, lemon juice, onions, vinegar, urine, baking soda or anything other than clean water to deal with tear gas or pepper spray. Most of the time it’s best to just do nothing. There’s no reason that saline solution is bad. But you should save that for other things.”
Governor Walz:
Commentary:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/tim-walz-has-some-words-about-donald
Qasim Rashid (Human rights lawyer):
New York mag
Frieren anime : The duel with the clone.
“This is how the fight would sounds like if you were there” | Total sound re-design.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CpjmHsYw_7k
@321 shermanj:
The entirety of this blog post is very, very good.
Our Neighbors in Minneapolis
Margaret Killjoy (the blog author):
Trump responds to deadly shooting in Minneapolis in a typically Trumpian fashion
As Pretti’s slaying jolted American politics, the president shifted his attention to other matters, like his ballroom.
New York Times link
MN Star Tribune – Chris Madel ends GOP bid for governor, says he can’t support federal ‘retribution’ against Minnesota (Jan 26)
* CBS video – Chris Madel alleges Minneapolis mayor is inciting MPD to fight feds (Jan 18)
New York Times report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Also from the New York Times:
New York Times report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Associated Press Report, as summarized by Steve Benen:
New York Times:
In Range podcaster Karl Kasarda reads a pro-gun children’s book written by a gun nut.
“Why Mommy Carries a Gun” by Lt. Col. Grossman
[A hilarious look into an extremist’s mind]
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4vRJgCEWUXE
Jacob Frey (Minneapolis Mayor):
Atlantic – Greg Bovino loses his job
Rando: “Commander at little.”
@339 Lynna, OM:
Trump probably doesn’t even see an issue here because he is so used to saying things in public that are different then what his lawyers are saying in court. As a private citizen he could get away with some of that, as president the situation is different because everything he says is now to some degree an official statement of the US government. His (and other senior officials) jumping the gun statements and bogus claims are going to be a problem for a bunch of the really controversial court cases if they ever make it too court.
Jon Stewart on Alex Pretti’s Killing, DHS vs. Video Evidence & MAGA’s Gun Rights Surrender
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=I-eNduwugmY
This should just be played on a loop.
Long but powerful read raising some good questions & points here. Will those named listen & more importantly act? I sure hope so! Seen on fb today :
Source : https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10100377884715056&set=a.576206303046
Anton Petrov yt clip with a photosynthetic focus here – Complex Life Around Most Milky Way Stars May Be Impossible a good just over 15 mins long discussion albeit alien life – even microscopic – might be able to find a way to do more than we now think, I suspect. Still, yeah, discouraging. Except for the bit about the K type orange dwarf stars anyhow..
From tonight’s 7.30 Report :
Plus then :
In addition to :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-27/australia-day-marked-by-protests/106275740
Democracyu Now “An Abomination”: Yanis Varoufakis on Trump’s “Board of Peace” & Threat to Democratic World Order – approx 20 mins long.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-26/australian-of-the-year-katherine-bennell-pegg-on-space-and-stem/106269082
Here in Adelaide, we had a record breaking low of 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 fahrenheit) overnight last night. Yes, it sucked.
But in other parts of my state :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-27/renmark-sets-new-record-amid-extreme-heat-49-degrees-celsius/106274980
49 C = 120.2 F.
Yeah, this ain’t normal even for our Aussie Summers. Yes, this is Global Overheating – &, no, we’re still doing nowbere near enough about it and not enough people are joining the very obvs dots.
Source : https://www.space.com/astronomy/venus/venus-may-get-a-huge-meteor-shower-this-july-thanks-to-a-long-ago-asteroid-breakup
Wish I was there to see it..
(Thinks about a fifth of a second about the conditions on the Cytherean surface .. )
Oh wait, no, no I don’t.
PS. Also from that linked space dot com story :
Colbert’s monologue tonight as seeable here is – superb truth nailed spot on & lasts a dozen mins.
Can we not as human beings be decent human beings to all other human beings and the world we all live in and have to share?
Seems so very simple.
Yet somehow seems too hard.
Ethics axiom # 1~ish?
Interview on Colbert “They Have Agency In This Moment. They Can Walk Away.” – Maria J. Stephan’s Message To ICE Officers – almost 5 minutes.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/ban-on-deporting-u-s-citizens-removed-from-dhs-funding-bill-congresswoman-warns-2483600963726
Video is 3:34 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-doors-close-on-ice-as-locals-say-no-to-immigration-prisons-2483597891851
Video is 4:17 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-trump-in-retreat-as-disastrous-anti-immigrant-campaign-becomes-political-catastrophe-2483596355613
Video is 8:49 minutes
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-americans-flexing-democratic-muscles-are-stronger-than-trump-2483596355901
Video is 5:02 minutes
https://www.ms.now/the-last-word/watch/mary-moriarty-hennepin-co-has-substantial-evidence-to-decide-on-charges-2483587139858
Video is 4:37 minutes
Owen Jones This Gaza Fact Will Sicken You – Media Covers It Up – approx 17 mins long.
Lawmakers ask why the agent who shot and killed Alex Pretti is still on the job
“It defies common sense — and is completely inexcusable — that the agent who killed Alex Pretti … is already back in the field,” one key congressman said.
@338 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote: 26 January 2026 at 5:00 pm — @321 shermanj: humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
I reply: You quote me out of context, distorting my comment. I did praise this blog by saying: “In reading all the credible, authenticated news here”.
And, if you examine the world down through history and even today, it is filled with genocide, hatred, corruption, destruction of the environment and stupidity. Those of honesty and caring are a minority and relatively powerless to stop that destruction. So, overall, compared to the potential for humanity to be peaceful, helpful, honest and good stewards of the environment, I still can only posit that humanity is a HUGE uncivilized failure!
@364 shermanj: “You quote me out of context”
321:
364:
Goalposts. Then civilization was a failure long before, and magats didn’t finally prove it. A death spiral falls from a height.
They are not powerless to mitigate the damage, help each other survive it, and imspire others to be better.
Let us examine these issues more carefully. There are no goalposts. Human society has always been varying levels of barbarity. A death spiral can begin from a low and modest height of civilized society, since it has been shown, time and again, throughout history, that there is no bottom to the well of depravity into which the death spiral may carry us. The magat infestation has just been the most recent one proving society hasn’t significantly improved.
And even those that are being helpful, and I work, locally, as part of them and always support them; they/we only mitigate the destruction, they do not stop it from continuing to occur or from increasing in severity.
Hello.
In the aftermath of the Greenland standoff, Danish public broadcaster made a 1-minute satire video (in English, joking about Donald Trump while jabbing more seriously on Denmark’s own newfound love of Greenland) that became a viral hit. Video embedded in this Finnish news story:
https://yle.fi/a/74-20206765
@36 shermanj:
Alt-Right Playbook – I Hate Mondays (15:35)
Used to be worse, hasn’t improved.
The Swedish Defence has started its first ever Equality Conference. The goal is to overcome the inertia that is blocking integration.
For instance, there is still not military underwear available suited to female body types, and women are instead issued money to purchase their own underwear.
Re: StevoR at 355 and 356
I think Adelaide should be astronomically in good position for observing the Moon during the upcoming Artemis II mission, as the waning Moon rises high above southern hemisphere. Also meteorologically, notwithstanding the extreme heat. Should be less cloudy than on Venus. Here in Helsinki the Moon will barely rise above horizon for a few hours a day, and the southern horizon will be almost guaranteed to be obscured by clouds.
HouseofEl: Volkswagen CANCELS USA Factory – Trump’s Chaos Killed 20-Year Investment.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=54djbyey-Kk
Americans flex democratic muscles to show that, together, they’re stronger than Trump, by Rachel Maddow
“The administration’s threats appear to have had the opposite of their intended effect: People are turning up with more resolve and more emotion.” Video at the link.
New York Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Associated Press:
Associated Press:
Associated Press:
Link
Not sure Homan reporting directly to Trump will improve matters much.
Link
Daily Beast – Jeff Bezos’ underlings are ordered to prop up Melania
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-threatens-100-percent-tariffs
“Trump Threatens 100 Percent Tariffs And Fighter Jet Flyovers For Canada”
“Is it TACO Tuesday yet?”
DW – Spain to grant legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants
Sky Captain @380, sounds like punishment.
In other news, as posted by Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/goodbye-greggers-tabs-tues-jan-27
@368 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote about the Alt-Right Playbook – “You can’t regulate all evil.” […] Does it matter that these shootings are far less deadly and happen far less often? Does it matter that making guns harder to get has saved tens of thousands of lives?
I reply: that’s an interesting point, a different angle that I have not thought about.
and Sky Captain expressed: “Used to be worse, hasn’t improved.”
I have to agree with you. But, as you pointed out, we must try, in our own limited way. to help others to avoid being casualties.
@380 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain and @383 Lynna,OM both wrote about tRUMP and bezos pushing attendance at the movie ‘melania’. I found the link below and a few other articles were similar:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/01/27/melania-trump-75-million-movie-empty-theaters/
Martha Ross, Features writer for the Bay Area News Group is photographed for a WordPress profile in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Thursday, July 28, 2016. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) By Martha Ross
The film is opening in around 1,500 to 2,000 theaters nationwide Friday, according to the Daily Beast. That’s a wide release, which is unusual for a documentary, a genre that usually plays in arthouse theaters or on streaming platforms.
. . .
“Not a single ticket sold for the opening night 9:55 p.m. showing of ‘Melania’ at the busiest movie theater in the metro Jacksonville area,” Travis Akers, a former naval intelligence officer turned community activist, posted on X Monday evening. He also shared an image of an empty booking screen. As of Tuesday afternoon, just two seats had been sold.
I’d intended my second part @368 to be ironic, making plainer the contradiction in the quote. Because if things used to be worse, by definition, that would mean they HAVE improved since then. Wordplay really. Linear language flattens the many different ways each bad phenomenon can be made more/less bad.
(Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, which purports to make a rosy comparison between past and present, was a shoddily researched, hack job of a book, btw.)
Glad my first part was helpful. That was the important bit =)
In can ICE get any stupider? news
ICE Idiots attempted to enter the Ecuadorean consulate in Minneapolis
Needless to say they didn’t get very far. I wonder if they were acting on a tip from a prankster.
Lynna @376
What the hell could ICE even do at the Winter Olympics? This is like something from one of those Ignorant Americans who don’t know anything about the rest of the world compilation YouTube videos.
The Onion: Police Ask For Public’s Help In Falsifying Report
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nVYWtbA1g8E
Maddow: “Trump in retreat as disastrous anti-immigrant campaign becomes political catastrophe”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WCGHVGSx1NE
AOC Leaves Healthcare CEO Visibly Shaken After Exposing His Scheme
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=m962pkMCyA8
Star Trek: How Away Teams Should be Picked
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=484tYE4k5kE
@388 Militant Agnostic: They would naturally have a small role in checking Visa/Passport/records. The press release from the White House says that will be what they are doing, but of course that could simply be BS. Given the way the DHS budget has been inflated I can see them trying to use ICE for security, something they are not remotely trained for.
Zeteo’s mehdi Hasan interviews Antoinette Lattouf here – She Was FIRED for Criticizing Israel — Then This Australian Journalist Fought Back and Won – 20 mins long.
Not for teh squeamish and bets not towatch whilst you’re eating especially given the discussion of how they used to do it in Apollo days but Scott Manley talks on the “bathroom ” aboard Artemis II craft here – The First Toilet To Fly Beyond The Moon! A New Era In Lunar Luxury! – 20 mins long.
UniSQ astronomer discovers ‘potentially habitable’ planet candidate (HD 137010 b -ed.) 5 mins 15 secs long. 150 ly away, very possibly too cold and not officially confirmed but still. Around a G type yellow dwarf like our Sun.
See also NASA page :
Source : https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/discovery-alert-an-ice-cold-earth/
Rachel’s Song – BLADE RUNNER // Tuva Semmingsen & Danish National Symphony Orctestra
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=SBceH6IX9CM
Space ZoneEverything About Crazy Journey of Artemis II to the Moon You Should Know – 25 mins long.
Militant Agnostic @388, everyone is telling ICE that they are not welcome at the Winter Olympics.
In other ICE-related news: ‘Caring is political right now’: Hayes rides along with Minneapolis ICE Watch
Video is 12:41 minutes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/history-is-being-made-here-chris-hayes-reports-live-from-minneapolis-2483791939878
Video is 8:30 minutes
Good news for Democratic politicians in Minnesota, as summarized by Steve Benen from a New York Times report:
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-chuck-grassleys-weird-answer-about-ice-and-judicial-warrants-matters>Why Chuck Grassley’s weird answer about ICE and judicial warrants matters
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-falls-into-coma-during-screening
Bottom starts to fall out for DHS’ Noem as Democratic leaders eye impeachment push
“It has reached the point at which House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told MS NOW, ‘Kristi Noem is a despicable, corrupt, pathological liar.’ ”
Cartoon: Another MAGA flip-flop
NPR: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules
The article is long and goes into the details of the changes but removing 2/3 of the safety and environmental regulations tells you everything you need to know.
As a somewhat amusing side note, it removes the requirements that guards get firearms training. This White House seems to think people armed with guns don’t need training at all.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/did-tim-walz-do-antisemitisms-to
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-softer-side-of-ice-tabs-wed-jan
The Five Farcical Principles of the ‘CBS Evening News’
CBS is now Trump TV. I really think that Dokopil takes his job seriously, but he is not backed up by an organization with integrity. He can’t win. I think this can only get worse.
More at the link.
Germany warns its citizens about visiting ‘violent’ US
https://www.wonkette.com/p/vizier-tom-homan-presents-regimes
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-administration-demands-to-know
European leader spoke of shock at Trump’s state of mind after Mar-a-Lago meeting
“The Slovak PM, a Trump ally, told leaders at last week’s EU summit he was concerned about the way the U.S. president spoke to him, European diplomats said.”
There are definitely two contradictory accounts of conversations between Trump and the Slovak prime minister.
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen, who writes for The Maddow Blog:
The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center, by Oren Peleg, writing for The New Yorker
“How immigration authorities have weaponized medical neglect to encourage self-deportations.”
More at the link.
Rebecca Watson has a new yt clip out here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/13/scott-adams-is-dead/comment-page-1/#comment-2291539
linked on the Scott Adams thread.
Five minutes long new song Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
Jonathan Pie Terror in America – 5 mins long – on the murder of Alex Pretti by ICE.
Polling Shift in Iowa Signals Major Trouble for GOP in 2026
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cc9kr0Tx_OA
The Guardian: Tesla discontinues Model X and S vehicles as Elon Musk pivots to robotics
After wrecking his own car business Musk is having Tesla pivot into businesses where his reputation won’t hurt the company as much, they are going into AI and humanoid robotics. Tesla already had research in both fields but both are highly experimental fields where making a viable business has proven hard.
Raw Story: ‘Huge news!’ Expert cheers as judge shuts down Trump’s scheme to arrest thousands
It’s a little more narrow then it sounds at first glance, it doesn’t stop ICE from arresting illegal immigrants but it stops ICE’s general sweep. It requires the ICE have an accusation of a specific crime before detaining refugees, which is not all immigrants, legal or illegal. It will completely mess up ICE’s current sweep the streets, grab as many as we can and then see if we can find some pretext to kick them out program.
Climate Adam Climate Scientist Reacts to AI Overlords – 22 mins length.
@421 JM: Aw, now his cars won’t spell S3XY.
From the article:
OR, instead of Bikini MechaHitler and teleoperated marionettes / taxis, he could focus on distributing the wealth he has so egregiously hoarded.
Elizabeth Warren reads heartbreaking letter from Alex Pretti’s student
Video at the link.
Here’s the text of the letter:
This might be a little tinfoil hat, but,
Alex Pretti’s killing may have been targeted
ICE had broken one of his ribs a few days earlier.
Patrick Chovanec (Economist) on Jan 24:
‘We should let them come down into the U.S.’
Financial Times – Trump officials met group pushing Alberta independence
Politico – Trump’s acting cyber chief uploaded sensitive files into a public version of ChatGPT
“Anders Leonard Zorn, Swedish Master of the Brush”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nRUJSt9qLhw
(Here in his native land, he is more famous for a prolific production of nudes)
.
“At 66, Robert Smith Names 10 Bands He Could Watch Forever”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=F951cFvFna8
Something for Anglophile readers: “Brideshead Revisited- 75 years old”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-334W_F4RO8
Jimmy Kimmel:
“Joe Scarborough on Killings in Minneapolis Being a Turning Point & the Last Time He Spoke To Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lbVaI9TjPzc
A Different Bias:
“Kemi Badenoch [Tory leader] Just Handed the Lib Dems the Blue Wall”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ARNqDq47tyI
We Just Crossed the Debt Death Spiral | 128% Debt-to-GDP and 2-5 Years Until Collapse
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_EjnkbBZiWM
“Trump Threatens to Invade Canadian Airspace?! Shocking Weapons Sales Escalation”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=OwQW0fb4exw
.
“ICE Arrested a Native Elder on His Own Land”
(Yes, yes, I know, Facebook = Zuckerberg)
.https://youtube.com/shorts/YV0g1bHw0hY
For once, Kazuma displays a smidgeon of competence as fantasy hero.
“She Was A Monster In Disguise”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/krh5Z-LXDIw
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/ilhan-omar-speaks-out-after-town-hall-attack-i-am-not-one-to-be-intimidated-2484052547540
Video is 10:47 minutes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/i-know-who-i-m-dealing-with-walz-on-why-trump-really-called-amid-ice-uproar-2484048451835
Video is 7:38 minutes
Pay attention. Universal Basic Income is seriously discussed!
“AI Is About to Force the UK’s Hand on UBI”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZhFkwQ-CK-0
Rubio sparks new questions by admitting funds from oil sales are going into Qatari account
“The secretary of state said the administration is depositing the proceeds of Venezuelan oil sales into an account in the Middle East.”
As the FBI searches Fulton County, Trump’s 2020 election fixation has escalated beyond whining
“When it comes to his 2020 defeat, what the president is doing is now more alarming than what he’s saying.”
Related video at the link.
Why the White House’s latest fight with Minneapolis’ Jacob Frey was a misguided mess
“The mayor summarized existing law. For reasons that didn’t make sense, Donald Trump took great offense — and levied a new threat.”
Related video at the link.
Trump steps on his own team’s message, amplifies post calling Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
Link
Same link as in comment 442
Revealing, from a different angle, Trump’s lies about tariffs:
Link
Senate Democrats block government spending bill over ICE funding
Link
Putin photo gets place of honor in Trump’s White House
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug’s ‘The Magas’ squint away the murder
[Video] Philly DA vows to prosecute ‘wannabe Nazi’ ICE agents (1:43)
Quinta Jurecic (Atlantic):
* Photos and More Photos
Commentary
Quinta Jurecic:
Rando: “So wait, the people whose photos they released haven’t been indicted and might not get indicted at all???”
Quinta Jurecic: “Correct. They’ve been charged via criminal complaint, which only requires an affidavit sworn by a law enforcement officer before a judge. That’s sufficient for most misdemeanors but a felony case (which many of these are) requires an indictment from a grand jury.”
Rando: “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that their strategy is to publicly smear people without bothering to actually try them for what they’re being accused of.”
@426 Militant Agnostic, @441 Lynna quoting MS NOW:
Will Stancil:
Will Stancil
Rando: “Maybe I don’t know anything about law enforcement, but if someone damages a light on a LEO vehicle, are officers allowed to just beat them in retribution and not make an arrest?”
Sky Captain @450, Thanks for that additional information. Yes, that description fits with the rest of the reporting coming out of Minneapolis. ICE’s actions against protestors are shockingly disproportionate.
In other news: Trump renews ridiculous offensive against Obama, calls for Democrat’s ‘arrest’
“While Clinton, Biden and Obama urged Americans to protect our civil liberties, Trump had nothing to offer but trash.”
Clear footage of the spitting and kicking, as on NYT, except NYT edited out the pepper balls and tear gas.
The News Movement on YT – Alex Pretti filmed interacting with federal agents (2:55)
Mediaite – BBC Confirms Authenticity of Viral Video Appearing to Show Alex Pretti Kicking Agents’ Car 11 Days Before Shooting
Follow-up to comments 438 and 451.
FBI’s search of Georgia election center is ‘dangerous,’ experts warn, by ProPublica
Fox News slams its own Trump polling, says Americans are just dumb
As reported by The Guardian:
Commentary:
Link
CNN – Trump’s National Guard deployments have cost taxpayers nearly $500 million
Commentary
Can’t afford a house? Too bad, says Trump.
NPR:
Roll Call:
USA Today:
Brad Heath (Reuters): “President Trump has filed a lawsuit against the IRS, in which he demands that the IRS, which he as president controls, pay him $10 billion.”
CNBC – Trump, two sons, Trump Org sue IRS, Treasury for $10 billion over tax records leak
WaPo – VA leaders have barely acknowledged Alex Pretti’s death
TheNewRepublic – VA officials tried to block a memorial service for Alex Pretti
Philip Bump – ICE’s excuse for wearing masks has never actually manifested
See also: that drone-monitored armored cavalcade in May to serve a search warrant, over a guy stapling some fliers.
People – Thousands of products recalled for exposure to rodent waste
Commentary
54 retailers, majority in Minnesota.
The Daily Show:
“Melania’s $40 Million Docu-Bribe Movie Premieres & Dems Make ICE Demands.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2J9cRSDS5g8
Jimmy Kimmel:
“Trump Celebrates Melania’s Movie Premiere, Has New BFF Nicki Minaj & Government Shutdown Looms”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jWrEsPjZ8LY
“Are you gonna tauntaun that guy?”
Frieren in a Nutshell 2: Frieren Encounters the STRANGEST Elf Ever
.https://youtube.com/shorts/WxRI0t3elu4
“The Crown’s Silence”:
Calls for King Charles to formally apologise for slavery after research shows crown’s role
.https://share.google/7qds45fXur32qnHcg
Sweden also participated in the slave trade for a period in the 17th century. (The king Gustav III considered to re-start Swedish participation in the slave trade but was assassinated by aristocrats as part of a power struggle)
Yahoo: Trump nominates Kevin Warsh to be next Fed Chair
The article goes out of it’s way to point out how “conventional” Warsh is. The office is not an open political appointment, limiting the list Trump had to work from. Anybody who qualifies will be conventional compared to many of Trump’s other appointments.
I’m curious what his logic is here.
That is a dangerous position. Government spending too much will cause inflation but his position sounds dangerously close to the nut job position that government spending and money supply is the only thing that can cause inflation.
CNN: https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/fed-chair-nominee-kevin-warsh-01-30-26
Shorter article on the same topic but brings up one interesting point. Warsh has been a proponent of higher interest rates up until recently when he was considered for nomination. This could be spineless behavior on his part or it could be Trump getting duped by somebody who knows they can’t be removed once they take office.
This could be a negotiating point during Warsh’s confirmation but I expect the Democrats will waffle and then fold. Unlike a lot of Trump’s other nominations Warsh is clearly generally qualified for the job.
Newsroom: This character is channeling PZ !
“Can you say why America is the Greatest Country in the World?”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/O_a7DV36hcw
“The Staggering Cost of Losing Europe’s Arms Market”
At the 1.38 mark you can see a table of dead per country in Afghanistan, and dead per million inhabitants of that country.
Britain comes very close after USA. Denmark has more than USA. Georgia (the Asian/European country) has even more.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=q55K_gLdLTk
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/sickening-trump-s-new-ice-man-uses-war-jargon-to-describe-minnesota-operations-2484300355898
Video is 6:21 minutes
https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/playing-whac-a-mole-hayes-says-trump-s-ice-drawdown-can-t-be-trusted-2484299331721
Video is 7:52 minutes
Link
Longtime allies turn to new partners while leaving behind the Trump-led U.S.
Link
CNN: Justice Department is releasing millions of pages of documents in Epstein investigation
3 million more pages will be around half of the files at best and probably less, the exact total number of files is unknown but the low end figure is 6 million. This is just the announcement from Blanche, so it doesn’t say much. And with that much to go through it will take a couple of days for news agencies to digest it all.
It isn’t clear if this is the last of what the DOJ plans to release or not. They still have to provide Congress with documentation on why things were redacted but that is different then the actual Epstein papers.
Follow-up to 280.
ABC – Former CNN journalist Don Lemon arrested in connection with Minnesota protest
Wikipedia – Don Lemon
Sure, charge the gay Black man under statutes for abortion clinics and the Klan. /s
NBC – Man accused of posing as FBI agent in apparent attempt to spring Luigi Mangione from prison
* Photo of the fork and cutter.
Rando: “Dear God: Please let his legal name be Mario.”
How an Arctic Resort Builds a Hotel From 30K Tons of Ice and Snow
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=6VBS-pBnENo
Follow-up on Trump’s $10B IRS lawsuit @461 over leaks in 2019 and 2020.
Brad Moss (Natsec attorney): “Unless I’m forgetting something, the statute of limitations on a Privacy Act violation for unauthorized disclosure is two years so…”
Eric Columbus (Obama DHS/DoJ): “It appears the statute of limitations for such claims begins to run only when the plaintiff knew or should have known of the Privacy Act violation. The complaint alleges that date was precisely two years ago today.”
Brad Moss: “Yeah, good luck with that argument. They had reason to know the moment the media reports came out.”
* Screenshot of the complaint making that argument. On 2024-01-29, IRS notified Trump that the leaker had been charged.
Rando: “Why is it that presidents can’t be sued or put on trial while they’re presidents (partly because of potential distraction from their very important duties), but apparently they can sue anyone and everyone with no problem.”
Robert Maguire (CREW):
A follow-up regarding the “Melania” documentary:
Link
Trump reposts theory that Italian military satellites zapped his 2020 victory away after FBI seizure of Georgia ballots
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-epa-having-real-hard-time
“Trump’s EPA Having Real Hard Time Trying To Kill Climate Regulations […]”
“Science stubbornly insists on being real.”
https://www.wonkette.com/p/democracy-five-alarm-fire-of-the
“Democracy Five-Alarm Fire Of The Day: North Carolina Considering Removing ‘Presumptive Noncitizen’ Voters”
“Checking in on the latest in GOP attempted midterm election-stealery.”
Follow-up to 280, 478.
Various:
Dan Mihalopoulos (Reporter): “They know they could have called her lawyer and she would have shown up at their office. But they ambushed her at home in the early AM.”
Jake Tapper (CNN): “The DOJ indictment v Don Lemon et al was just unsealed. [Screenshots]”
Cristian Farias (Legal journalist): “Only political appointees signed this. No career lawyers.”
Dan Froomkin (Journalist):
Rando 1: “My favorite ‘overt act’ is [#24] when Don Lemon caused the Pastor’s hand to hit him, and Don said, ‘Please don’t push me.'”
Dan Froomkin:
* Age-gated, sign-in required.
Rando 2: “They tried to bring KKK charges against a gay Black journalist on MLK Day.”
Marcy Wheeler (EmptyWheel): “when the charges are dismissed Bondi and Stephen Miller will use it to incite attacks against the judge.”
Southpaw (Lawyer):
* New York state doesn’t do death penalty.
Madiba Dennie (Balls&Strikes)
SCOTUSblog
If stalking can ever be charged w/o violence, then stalking is not in the category of violent crimes, even if sometimes a stalker kills.
NOTUS – Minneapolis’ hotel workers are on edge
The Independent – Melania review—First Lady is a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness
Trump Reassures Fox News That He Does Not Consider Them Journalists
MS NOW:
Might be good news. We’ll have to wait and see. Can’t trust what the DOJ says. Can’t trust what the DOJ does. Can’t trust the DOJ to follow through properly.
At least the DOJ does apparently realize that they fucked up when they first said they would not pursue a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti.
New York Times:
New York Times:
Bloomberg Law:
New York Times:
NBC News:
Brandi Bennett (Attorney): “‘ICE ordered to violate the 4th Amendment’ should be the headline.”
NYT – ICE expands power of agents to arrest people without warrants
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council):
Trump floods the zone with chaos to get away with murder—literally
There was also the release of more Epstein files, though still not all the files, and still not the transparency promised.
Agriculture chief brags
Photo shows Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins and Trump smiling and laughing.
Posted by readers of the article:
Trump’s incompetent DOJ makes a mess of latest Epstein files drop