As the American people continue to express their fury over the violence of federal agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere, officials from the Trump administration today tried to shift the public narrative to shore up their softening base and silence their opponents.
ICE is the new KKK. This time it is an official federal agency with a budget in the billions and protected under various federal statutes. You can’t make this stuff up. Praise to the people of Minnesota for standing up for justice. We will all get our turn.
How in the world did we end up with masked agents? Security for the agents? Police have never worn masks. Why are Republicans allowing this? Oh right, because ICE is only targeting people of color … so white people stay silent. Shame.
How did we get here? We were dragged here by 77 million of our fellow Americans, including a significant majority of white voters. Those voters sought persecution of people they don’t like and retribution against people who voted for fair treatment of those people. They got what they voted for and are reveling in every act of persecution and retribution the Trump regime carries out. One or two percent of them may have qualms about the murder of white American citizens, especially white Americans who are not gay, but close to 40% of Americans like what they see. That 40% almost certainly stilll includes a majority of white Americans. The Republicans in Congress could remove Trump from office but will not because most white voters are still egging Trump on. Not in Minneapolis, though. People in Minneapolis have exhibited brave and persistent decency throughout this debacle. They deserve the profound thanks and the strong support from all Americans with a shred if decency in their souls.
I share your anger with the people who didn't vote because their (choose one: vote doesn't matter, I don't care about politics, I forgot to change my address, I forgot, or excuse de jure); I have sympathy for those who could not get time off to vote, had no way to get to a polling place, who couldn't get child care or who found themselves expunged from voter rolls. The ones I really blame are those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman.
And let's not forget the "both sides are equally bad" voters, and the single issue voters who will sit out an entire election because their local, state, or Presidential candidate doesn't agree 100% with their pet issue.
This is a Democratic Party problem, not a Republican one. No matter how bad their candidates are, Republican voters ALWAYS vote if they can.
Ally, and a woman of color too. I also blame those who thought they would be safe like certain Latinos and Arab Americans and so voted for death star. No one here in Oregon has much of an excuse except the address change. Don't even need a stamp.
Most states had early voting and many Republican states always had mail in ballots. I cut them no slack in those states. They wanted this mayhem if it got them the cultural hatred they embrace.
That is why all American should vote by the method used in Oregon!!! I was not a fan at first. and still a fair percentage of Oregonians don't vote, but voting at your Kitchen table, with the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet, and League and Women's Voters guide on the table..and then dropping it off in the safety of a DropBox.
Paper Ballots, easy to scan and recount with a paper record for review...did I mention Motor-Voter and day of election registration as well. This should be the method for all Federal Elections...
I like a 'Voting Rights act' and a Constitutional Amendment to protect the 'One person, One vote' right, and get rid of gerrymandered districts.
And perhaps we should think long and hard about why 41,000,000 people in CA get two senators, while that same number of people in the collection of low population states (23 states, 42 million) get 26!!! Wyoming gets 1/300,000!!! CA gets one per 20,500,000
Of New York, Florida and Texas all get screwed too!
My solution is to make all areas with low populations territory's so no representation at all...till they combine to get to at least 5,000,000 the Senators of the Great Plains.
We still have the freedom of speech. I have increased my emails and calls to Senator Collins and my other representatives.
But they are getting more blunt and accusatory every day. It seems to be helping because Collins was able to get Kristi Noem to back off mostly out of ME. Now, she needs to do that in MN and other places these ChristoNazis are pushing their agenda.
“Sen. Susan Collins said she has gotten ICE to shut down their operation in Maine: “I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in Maine. There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here. I have been urging Noem and others in the admin to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine.”
… Amazing how differently things are handled in swing states where a Republican is facing a tough reelection battle.”
If voting didn't matter, GOP would not constantly work to disenfranchise voters. That's a lot of effort for something that "doesn't make a difference."
VOTE?? Everyone who is assaulted by ICE, or chased by ICE or shot by ICE is labelled as a terrorist. With all these terrorists running around don't you think someone will invoke the INSURRECTION ACT just before the election!!??
Joan, it's likely we will ALL have multiple chances to vote this year. There will be primaries in every state and many states will have statewide elections. Trump may try to stop these elections, but the courts will prevent that from happening. So vote every chance you have in 2026. And attend meetings of the candidates you support AND their opponents if you can. Speak up when you are at these meetings but if you can't do that, support those that speak the truth and boo the ones that don't.
Our county has a very strong Democratic Party that holds monthly meetings. At each meeting they invite one or two candidates to speak for 10 minutes and then let them answer questions. The format works for them.
And take the time to verify you voter status with your local election office. Many counties periodically purge their voter roles and many are highly partisan.
Don't wait until November, to vote because that's part of what got us into this mess.
Yes, but if you vote by Mail drop your ballot into the mailbox or ballot boxes nearest you to ensure there’s not equivocation on the part of any government to disallow your vote.
He will use the insurrection act months before the midterm elections, anytime now, he will declare Martial law to suspend the midterm elections. If we don't start a revolution like Ukraines Orange Revolution now, we have little chance of saving our democracy.
Janice, I think you and Karen Close are referring to two different kinds of education. The U.S. is sorely deficient in both.
The "educated voters" you reference are voters who are familiar with the issues and cognizant of the consequences of their votes, one way or the other. Unfortunately, an unacceptable percentage of U.S. voters are unwilling to engage in discussions of the issues for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is a lack of ability to think critically.
Where does that ability come from? It comes from the •other• kind of education, scholastic education, which has been distorted and stunted in the U.S.
During the past half-century, educational leaders decided that science, technology, engineering, and math would be the only important subjects in the society of the future. They shifted curricula to emphasize these subjects and left the humanities behind. STEM education is important because it teaches the processing of facts, but it does not teach students how to evaluate or interpret those facts as they affect our lives. One needs critical thinking for that, and critical thinking comes from studying language, literature, visual and aural art.
Among my friends are several teachers who teach middle school or above, all of whom I love. Only one of them can spell or construct sentences above what used to be a Sixth Grade level. I don't blame them; I blame the faulty education system that produced them. But blame isn't the point. How can we expect emerging generations of U.S. citizens to choose wisely, when their teachers can't?
Dale, I am a long retired educator, but I do know a few who are still in the game and i assure you that they can spell, think critically, and even speak another language. When I taught, I did teach critical thinking. Just this week, I had a conversation with an ex-student over messenger who thanked me for doing that. Also here in Oregon there are rules in place about cell phones. I do not know how kids can learn anything when they are glued to their phones. Science should be an area where critical thinking is essential. Also I do not think that it is just STEM that is the problem, but also the pervasive negative influence of sports.
I agree, it is a matter of uneducated voters, that’s why they shut down the Department of Education and are attacking schools, and institutions of higher education.
What makes more sense, Robin,? What you wrote here or that the election was tampered with? Do you believe that Trump is above doing something like this? How about Elon with his money and Dominion voting machine...? Personally, I know I received a confirmation for registering to vote and never received a ballot. I don't live in America but I am still an American citizen...imo, the election results should have been further scrutinized...it's too late now...but it's not too late to reconsider what you have written here...
Of those, studies indicate most would’ve supported Trump, but the rest could’ve prevented this fascist takeover. Therefore, I’m pissed at about 2/3 of the electorate!
There is no way that he got 77M. No way a candidate campaigns the way he did and wins in an honest, fair election. He "won" in 2016, LOST in 2020 due to the massive voter turn out and "won" in 2020 due to a large massive number of suppression tactics, bomb threats in specific heavy democrat areas, reduced polling places in heavy democratic areas and with the assistance of Muskrat and his techie rats, most likely electronic manipulation. There is no other explanation. P25 authors will do ANYTHING to implement their agenda as Roberts said "a new revolution that will remain bloodless if the left allows".
In CD2 in Maine (rural and red) for the few weeks preceding the Nov election, exceedingly false and atrocious LIES were spewed into every home 24/7 via televisions that are always on. It was nonstop and it was blatant egregious lying. How does that happen without repercussions??? 🤯🤷🏻♀️ a key rule of propaganda is repetition. This is in YOUR HOME! That matters!! Citizens United and Super PACS turned “free to spend” into “free to lie”. Probably the majority of people who live in rural red America are not going to question the veracity of what gets spewed from the black boxes.
Last week Susan Collins received $40 million from a dark money PAC to be spent in August, September and October. It worked to get her reelected in 2020 and will likely work again unless we can counter every ad from every source. She is trying desperately to distance herself from Trump and the administration. Hopefully, it turns out to be a fools errand.
She is good friends with Russell Vought and Leonard Leo and she has paid her dues by approving nominations of dozens of their Fascist friends.
We need to send out multiple mailings to every Republican in Penobscot, Washington, Hancock, Knox and Aristook every week starting in August. She cannot be reelected because she supports the nominations of every ChristoFascist in public office.
She is very good at targeting pockets of her constituents with pet projects that benefit them and then making sure she gets credit for doing something good for them. Quid pro quo. She bows to fascism as long as she gets her goodies to appease her lily white constitutents. You might wonder how Aroostook forgives her for their latest obstacles getting back and forth over the border.
“Yes, Maine-Canada border crossings have become more difficult and scrutinized in 2025-2026, with significantly higher scrutiny, increased interrogations, and longer, more rigorous screenings reported. Stricter immigration policies and increased security, including new vehicle barriers, have resulted in a roughly 25-30% drop in crossings, with many travellers facing longer, more intense, or hostile questioning.” A lot of that are Canadians not coming here but I imagine that there are numbers of extended families separated by the border. It’s a lot of border!
The Dems have got to start branding their GOP opponents as Fascist and the GOP as the Fascist Party now. The fact that it is true is more than enough to do so.
Why are you arguing this bizarre, ridiculous point in January 2026 when people are being arrested, persecuted, the Constitution is being violated every day? It is the exact same thing as Trump obsessing over those 11,780 votes in Georgia. What is the point? What does this get you at the end of the day? How does it help you deal with the present?
There is certainly another explanation. It happened. A cult took hold and it voted. And now we pay the consequences.
There is absolutely nothing bizarre about questioning election processes when it’s our only democratic means of escaping this HELL. We have to understand how it happened if we want to know how to avoid the same outcome repeatedly. I am suspicious of the motives of anyone that calls this a ridiculous point
Rickey Woody, we need your energy to deal with the here and now. We need to all work to prevent a debacle from claiming the elections this year. You may be right or wrong about the 2024 election, but we need to hold strong in every state to make sure the elections this year take place and are fair.
trump's been described as the most dangerous con artist ever and a superior propagandist. If maga had any education, esp. in economics, which I don't know if our schools teach, they would have understood the effects of tariffs which trump was peddling during his campaign speeches.
Mr. Woody, I at least feel the way you do. I am not an investigatve journalist but I still have real doubts about trumps ear being shot in Butler Pennsylvania as well as having doubts about the 2024 elections. All I can find in the investigative flies of the incident is the failure of law enforcement to adequately protect trump and the crowd. I can't find any reports that prove the ballistics came from each gun. Questions remain about the healing of trump's ear. We know now trump and his entire regime have zero compunction against killing whoever they want to achieve their goals.
But knowing that, what do we do about the midterms, or as someone mentioned earlier, what about all the elections in 2026. Lord knows that maga has so influenced the negative effect on the rest of the world that if the House and Senate aren't flipped relations to the rest of the world will be permanently damaged and that's not to mention the increase in tyranny within our country itself. I don't know what election officials are doing ahead of time to help insure a fair and safe election but I do hope they are being proactive about the likely hood of trump violence during the election. We all know there is no Department of Justice left and only individual judges with integrity left, is that enough to save us?
I wish, hope for strategies to come out to either prevent the violence or to combat the violence to be made public. If we don't win this election.......
No one wants to think that 77 million of our family, friends and neighbors are Christonazi white supremacists. So we all say 'can't be true'. 'He didn't get the votes.'
But honestly I won't be surprised if he did get the votes. Not because all 77 million of them are horrible people but because they are too stupid to actually be able to sift the truth from the lies. They live in bubbles of bs created by Faux News, vile social media and Trump himself.
I have a friend, she's Canadian. She's been living here for decades. She's married to an American and has been for many years. She's a loyal and caring person. She was a social worker for years before she retired. She would give you the shirt off her back. And she still thinks that Trump hung the moon. Everything we say to the contrary is 'fake news'. She won't believe it until they have her in a camp. And even then she will blame Noam and not him. We just don't 'understand him'. "He's a good man who's had to work hard his whole life." There is nothing I can say to get her to change her mind because she feels that I am the deluded one who doesn't know 'the truth'.
I limit my time with her and console myself with the fact that she can't vote.
So I guess.. long story short. I believe they voted for him. I just really think that they are too fucking stupid to understand what they voted for.
BLB, I agree they failed to understand what they voted for.
Stupidity played a part. So did greed. Racism, misogyny obviously. Childishness.
I think some of it was just they wanted a change, no matter what kind of change it was actually advertised to be. “I will be your retribution!” Is that word even in their vocabularies? The wealthy get tax cuts, I get cuts to the safety net, but I get Retribution, so it’s OK.
In support of Ricky expressing an opinion that some vehemently seem to want to shut up, I am adding a few supporting links.
“InsightsPod failed because accessing Twitter data cost more than the business model could sustain. Khan was trying to build by paying for limited API access while harvesting enough data to make election predictions work.
Elon Musk eliminated that problem entirely when he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, because owning the platform means owning the data stream, the recommendation algorithm, and the ability to determine what billions of people see and when they see it. His first moves after acquisition are worth examining. He dissolved the Trust and Safety Council in December 2022, gutted the Civic Integrity team responsible for monitoring election manipulation, and eliminated it entirely by September 2023 while restricting researcher access to the data that had enabled independent study of how information spreads on the platform.
He did all of this before spending $290 million on the 2024 presidential election through America PAC, before appearing at Trump rallies, before advising the campaign, and before taking a position in the administration.”
“The right wing is absolutely using litigation to advance a larger strategy. Republicans know exactly what they are doing. They know their policies are unpopular, and they know their only chance to stave off a major defeat in 2026 is to rig elections through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and election subversion.
Third-party voter challenges are among the most harmful tools in the voter suppression toolbox. Republican activists have built private voter databases to submit lists of voters they want removed from the rolls or hassled at polling places. In practice, third-party voter challenges do not uncover voter fraud. There is no legitimate reason to allow these right-wing activists to file mass voter challenges.”
Loren … I know how we got here, and everyone needs to know. Authoritarians have learned how to hack the brains of their followers. There’s only one way to stop this. We need people of good faith to understand how the bad guys do it.
The bad news: it’s hard. The good news: it’s simple. We just need to start a public conversation on a simple brain science experiment described in a paper published in 1983 by American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet.
Unfortunately, Libet misinterpreted the data from his own experiment, and the mistake remains uncorrected in the field of psychology’s body of knowledge. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to understand. The hard part is the willingness to be skeptical of your own unspoken assumptions about how the mind works.
Warning: the authoritarians “know” we haven’t figured this out yet and they’re using their knowledge against us.
The alliance between the extremely uneducated white poor fundamentalist christians, and the ultra wealthy is held together by racism and born of racism, and is long standing. Among the most racist wealthy are the republicans, especially ones in congress. Racism runs deep, and I dare say it was and may still be at the very bedrock that holds up the foundation of our government. We didn’t arrive here suddenly. We have always been here. The current human rights abuses are happening because actions and ideas that are necessary to root out or find a way to create a government not rooted in racism have been actively fought by those who want to get or hold on to power.
You are right: Trump didn't create this latest round of virulent racism/anti-immigrant. He unleashed and legitimated it, made race hatred patriotic. But this is how America has treated nonwhite immigrants throughout history. The question is whether it's who we want to be in the future....
Sheri, Doc Blasé's explanation is correct, but failed to mention how it affects elections.
When poorly educated, low-wage earners believe they might someday become millionaires, given just the right break, they are willing to vote against their current interests to protect the interests of the wealthy, in hopes that they'll one day be among them.
The Horatio Alger myth refers to the belief that anyone can achieve success and upward social mobility through hard work and determination, as illustrated in Horatio Alger's novels.
These stories often depict impoverished youths who, through perseverance and luck, rise to prosperity by helping wealthy individuals.
The use of modern technology of Social media and the algorithms to understand how to manipulate Social media users became a major tool during 2015 when trumps campaign and the UKs Brexit movement used Facebook data and algorithms to manipulate people to believe the big lies and vote against their own best interests. As the tech evolves, it gets better at manipulating the vote.
OK, but Trump and Trump voters didn't come out of nowhere. Two just-published books focus on Bernhard Goetz's 1984 shooting of four Black teenagers in NYC to explore the rise of "white rage" from the Reagan administration onward: FEAR AND FURY, by Heather Ann Thompson (Pantheon), and FIVE BULLETS, by Elliot Williams (Penguin).
And Trump continued to publicly demean the "Central Park 5" long after they were acquitted - including by placing a full page ad in the NYT. And Trump's father was prosecuted for discriminatory rental activity. The slime goes way back in time.
And blame others for what you, yourself, are doing...both, courtesy of his mentor, Roy Cohn...consider what this might mean, in terms of the '2020 and 2024 elections...
Ms. Sturgis...It goes back far beyond Subway Vigilante Goetz, at the very least to the end of Reconstruction in 1878. Please see the "How did we get here" information I posted in response to Mr. Page. (Yes, with its included documentary film on USian support for Hitler, it's a bit of a study, but it is absolutely vital information, which is why I will continue posting it, in company with four other vitally informative posts, as long as I am able.) And yes, I was in Manhattan when Goetz shot those robbers -- and astonished, then appalled (as were my friends), by the outpouring of anti-Black hatred. It was painfully eye-opening, as we had all believed New Yorkers were better than the bottomlessly hateful bigots we knew dominated "out there in white America."
Of course it does. That's why I keep posting comments here and elsewhere urging people to learn, or re-learn, some U.S. history. Can't remember whether I posted this on "Letters to an American" or elsewhere, but here's a sample:
"At this point I'll agree that some comparisons to Nazi Germany are warranted, but can we please pay a little more attention to the antebellum U.S. South and especially to Jim Crow, which rose in the wake of the Confederate "defeat" and reigned till the mid 1960s? Hitler and his cronies were inspired by Jim Crow in developing their own race laws. ICE has a few things in common with the slave patrols and the later Ku Klux Klan, whose members included plenty of elected officials and law enforcement officers.
"The activists in Minneapolis and elsewhere are worthy successors to both the pre–Civil War abolitionists and the civil rights workers of the mid-20th century."
Elsewhere I and others have commented on how the white Southern Democrats kept the New Deal and the GI Bill out of reach for most Black people -- before they left the Dems after the civil rights advances of the mid-1960s, helping turn what was once "the party of Lincoln" into the party of aggrieved white people that elected Reagan, two Bushes, and finally Trump. "Anti-Black hatred," IOW, was festering long before Bernie Goetz did his thing ("shot those robbers"? You mean "shot those teenage panhandlers"?). L-O-N-G before -- you're familiar, of course, with "the Lost Cause" and "the South will rise again"?
There's also the internment (and dispossession) of Japanese Americans in 1942, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, etc., but that's more than enough for one comment.
As you'll see from the "Outside Agitator's Notebook" links I posted, we're at least partly on the same page. Suspect you'd also agree with my hypothesis about why history is the most despised subject in USian K-12 schools, hated by brains, socialites and hoods alike. (I was a brain -- managing editor of me school paper, club photographer for the annual -- but I hung with the hoods.)
Reason history was so despised? The bureaucrats insisted it be taught by the coaches -- the most moronic, fanatical anti-intellectuals on the faculty -- and they taught it accordingly: an infinitely boring exercise in rote-memory recitation of names, events and dates. Zzzzzzzzzz.... (One of my high-school girlfriends -- overworked and under-slept by the necessity of parenting of her younger sibs mandated by a broken family -- used her history classes for napping; she was bright enough to make all As, and she did so in history because she was adept at memorizing -- you guessed it -- the requisite names, events and dates in a night or two of pre-exam cramming.) Me, I was raised on history; my boarding-school-educated father turned Marxian by the crash of '29, and my interest in history the reason I sometimes got ousted from high school history classes but also part of my interdisciplinary BA and a lifelong reading topic, 50-odd volumes in my personal library. In fact I am always a bit turned around whenever I hear somebody say they think our species' story is boring. Your sample is excellent work. Please continue; the more people we awaken, the better chances we have of winning.
(Oh and I stand corrected on calling those kids "robbers." Thank you for pointing out my error. My recollective power remains good as I approach my 86th and almost certainly final year -- according to the cardiologist I should be already dead -- but it's not perfect. Apropos longevity, they said my father'd be dead by '43, and he made it to '71, so maybe that genetic history is also working for me too.)
Some are. On MSNOW, one of them pointed out the hypocrisy of Trump, Patel and others declaring it is wrong to bring a gun to a rally.
But apparently, it's ok for Proud Boys and other Trump Fascists to bring AR15s into the US Capital and the Michigan and Wisconsin state capital buildings.
Of course, we've already determined there is no red line for Trump Christonazis, but the 2nd amendment???? Really?
Our Dem Governor doesn't even join us when our protests happen on the State capitol grounds. NO Kings I? Nothing. May Day? Nothing. Hands Off? Nothing. No Kings II? Nothing.
I know this because I was at every one.
I didn't vote for the puke, either. That was my first vote for a Repub in 43 years (because I knew he had no chance to win in the first place and second, would have been a better Governor than this useless sack of protoplasm.)
I did. My measly contribution was not hitting Starbucks and grilling stuff I'd already purchased for dinner. I did not go to the scheduled protest last night (being mobility limited at the moment I did not want to run the risk of the chowderheads turning into a riot, which they did, although the PD called it a "riot" it didn't seem that way to me; it was pretty rowdy, however.)
I have a sister who is/was a trumper. Her son, my nephew had a major stroke in 2020. He is pretty much disabled. He is a Navy vet. He had benefits like a caregiver etc. which just got taken away. Now my sister is paying attention to what the government is doing as it is affected her life in “life changing” ways as she now has to figure out how to take care of my nephew and also work. FAFO, I guess.
I am sorry about your nephew and sister. This is not an easy road. I see no reason to say things like she got what she deserved. Accept her turn away from Trump with grace. We need every vote we can get.
I hardly feel like she or my nephew deserve this. However, I wish She had paid more attention to Project 2025 and what the far right wants to do to dismantle the government and its services. This is what is affecting her and my nephew and so many others now. They put their ideas out there and no one believed them (at least Trump voters).
P2025 specifically mentioned veterans services. I think she is not alone in either paying no attention to or even hearing of P2025. So many people did that. My husband reminds me often that most people are not as deeply into politics as I am (and have always been).
But I do struggle with people paying NO attention. And unfortunately many find out the really hard way, like your nephew. It's so sad.
I don’t remember where I read this, maybe it was Dr. Richardson, but the almost 40% (I think it’s actually 38% as of now) is really close to the bottom of the curve because of the Christofascists that will never be persuaded otherwise.
One thing I find equally disturbing is the percentage of African-Americans following the Black Conservative Movement that still support this regime.
Regardless…I will continue to stand and shout…they can’t kill us all! I learned a long time ago at the hands of an abusive father to take a stand by laughing at my aggressor. These fools can kiss my granny behind!!
Rex, I get it. I've seen the other suggestions for you here. But before you do all of that, please just go to you tube and watch Mayor Pete's recent town hall in Wisconsin. I was very moved by it. It might renew your faith in our fellow citizens a little.
What good do comments like this do to Help us heal and Move Forward to create the UNITED STATES we want for our children’s Future? Please.. a. Lot of our friends and families are understanding that they were Lied to and they are being Courageous and and deserve Respect as they join us in the Streets ! Please.
I'm sure you all have seen the movie Zone of Interest. Similarities: Nazi personnel knew how to suck up to their superiors; the apathy and indifference by the family living right next to the ovens roaring 24/7; deportations; murder; Nazis enjoying elegant parties; main character (Hoss) having sex with a domestic worker; the covetousness of the women pawing through the clothes and other personal items that once belonged to the Jews. Similar behavior and attitudes exhibited by maga and government officials.
Never heard of The Zone of Interest. I'll check it out.
Edit to add:
Wow, that was (in HCR's terminology) a rabbit hole for sure. Rudolf Höss was a real person, commander of Auschwitz. The movie is based on the book by Martin Amis.
Throughout the history of our country a stubborn, sinister strain of racists and fascists have been a disturbing component of the US electorate. Their influence has been ignited by the likes of Peter Theil, Elon Musk, and a gaggle of other billionaire techbros, their objective being to use this perverse aggrieved strain in our electorate to nullify our constitution so a select few billionaires can establish a kleptocracy.
This aggrieved strain loves the chaos and gratuitous cruelty of the Trump regime. Most poll show that ~35% of the electorate are proud to have Trump as president! We have work to do!! We must push back relentlessly to force the techbros, fascists, racists, and others in the constitution demolition horde to slither back under their rocks.
The aggrieved have their own sources of information. On News Hour yesterday, “conservative” Gary Abernathy pointed to a DHS website with the rap sheets listing all the murderers, rapists, etc., they have deported. This was his response to the statistic that 90 percent or more of those ICE arrested had never been charged with any crime.
I think it should be more widely noted that crossing the border without permission is a misdemeanor. Not a felony.
Our trash can at our local PO overflows with those mailings every election cycle. Folks don’t even take them home. We need geniuses to come up with alternative ways of defeating the propaganda. How do we create a thirst for truth over fake fuckery? Like their love of fake gold spray painted everywhere, the eye-catching, fast moving, emotional hook of drama from their black boxes is the cyanide in the koolaide.
Trump's supporters are white faux Christians who support a white Christian [sic] theocracy, replacing the current democratic process. Racism is at its core, though there are some Christians who aren't racists who still support the idea of a Christian government. Trump's racism, and his pitch to the "Christians," are Trump's "ace-in-the-hole" for his support. At the Believers' Summit on 7-27-2024, hosted by Charlie Kirk, Trump told those gathered there: "Vote this time, Christians. Just vote this time. You won't have to ever do it again. In four years it will be fixed. You won't have to vote again. I'm a Christian."
Exactly! I’ve said all along that our fellow citizens support Trump because he says out loud what they have been thinking. He’s given them license to do the same. We are in this place by our own choice!
Rex, a good number of Latinos also voted for death star and some are now regretting that. All of our white friends are absolutely against this. I am not saying that we do not have a lot of white racists in the country, but I am not going to bring out the broad brush. And yes, I have encountered several people who are denying what is front of their eyes. For centuries in this country white people enjoyed being top dogs just because of skin color, nothing else. For nearly as long women were basically chattel and gay people were mostly in the closet. This is the politics of resentment for any gains these groups have made.
True. Probably misogyny. Anyone who voted for Trump committed a crime against humanity. I haven’t tracked down the demographic fractions in the Trump-voter population, but I’m confident over 90% of Trump voters were non-Latino white people. White people are the problem.
Well, those masks certainly aren’t being worn because of their sudden concern for Covid! It’s really quite ironic that these reassigned Proud Boys and other proto-Fascists are suddenly willing to wear masks. These masked ICE agents are cowards, the lot of them!
"We need to go out into the street. Protest, put our bodies on the line, strike, organize, be ready to engage in community self-defense, and not just rhetorically. We need to actually do it. Believe me, if enough of us go, if all who oppose fascism get motivated and activated, then we can shut this shit down."
Matthew Foresta, you are so right. What a great quote. Everyone reading, please act! There are protests around the country today. Go to one. Help prepare for No Kings 3 on March 28. Things are happening. Be part of it.
Maybe when you go out there and protest, you could have signs that suggest your alternative policies. I doubt it, you have not suggested ANY alternative policies except: Resist. Keep doing this without alternative policies and we will have President Vance. You are just presenting a bunch of Noise.
It is the masks which prompted my comparison to the KKK. It terrorizes, hides their identity,lessens accountability, and makes for maximum violence against citizens. But the comparisons to the Gestapo, SS, SA are also valid. A private army accountable only to t.
Noem says they must wear masks to protect themselves from protestors. However, they are ones with the weapons! The protestors are NOT brandishing weapons at ICE. They are however using their words and signs to express their disgust and like the old saying goes…sticks & stones may break my bones but words will really hurt me. Guess those words being ‘thrown” around are really hurtful, eh?
I read an article in The Atlantic yesterday in which Enrique Tarrio was interviewed about the apparent lack of activity from the Proud Boys. He said the government (ICE and CBP) is doing their work now.
CathyW- “Private detention centers and for-profit prison companies are positioned for massive financial gains under the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which prioritize expanded detention and mass deportations. Roughly 90% of immigrant detention in the U.S. is handled by private, for-profit corporations, with billion-dollar contracts fueling the industry.”
It's also worth noting that these for-profit prison companies profited handsomely from the "war on drugs," which instituted mandatory sentences, tended to target people of color, and led to a huge increase in the U.S. prison population. THE NEW JIM CROW, Michelle Alexander's 2010 book about mass incarceration, is good on this.
They are NO-BID contracts also which make them highly suspicious. The people who own those prisons are all people within the felon’s inner circle. Hmmmm…kinda smells funny, don’t you think.
Maybe when you go out there and protest, you could have signs that suggest your alternative policies. I doubt it, you have not suggested ANY alternative policies except: Resist. Keep doing this without alternative policies and we will have President Vance. You are just presenting a bunch of Noise.
Thanks so much for your positive response to my note. I completely agree we need to be working on a platform for the government to stand on. What are your ideas? No doubt we all have ideas. I wish the Dems were providing some leadership on this. However, if we aren’t demonstrating and resisting at the same time, we aren’t going to have the opportunity to mount our platform, no matter how good it is.
Ideally cong should hearings to see whether they have criminal record and what their qualifications are. When public officials murder 2 people and have masked you'd think someone sitting in the Capitol would ask their backgrounds. Apparently congress is going by fascist rules as well.
It was not Murder, they both impeded the lawful ICE agents doing their jobs and should have retreated instead and would be alive. I dare you to watch this: https://youtu.be/QePoawDA_48 and learn something about protesting and the right to carry.
Huh, George Dunn, thanks for expressing up your opinion. You have the right to have weird ideas, just like any American, if you are one. If you look at the videos you can see that they were not in the way of the ICE agents. I would love to see the agents come to trial so we could get a judge and a jury of their peers to look with care at the facts. Do you think the agents could receive a fair trial? I’m not sure they would, if you look at Trump’s record for the last 50 years of using the courts to harass his workers and other miscellaneous people he was trying to con or take advantage of. Plus, the attorney general and president both have already decided the outcome. So I doubt the agents could get a fair trial.
All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress.
JBR you are absolutely, even if they don’t have a day in court they surely will suffer, and none of us gets out of this life without paying for our transgressions!
The $50,000 accepted by Tom Homan in the 2024 sting operation was allegedly in exchange for promising to steer government contracts to businesses once he joined the Trump administration as "Border Czar". To securing influence over future immigration-related government contracts for detention (concentration) centers.
Homan is worse than Bovino he’s the kind of creature that sees “maximum pain to get maximum results”. Bovino is for the optics -Homan is willing to cut deeper and use children to get more results…
"Police have never worn masks"?? Beg to differ. As a marshal at many anti-Vietnam War and other demos in D.C., I saw the CDU (Civil Disturbance Unit) cops wearing gas masks that disguised their features and taped-over name tags to conceal their identity. This wasn't unique to that time and place either. We could also get into the law enforcement officers who were known to wear Klan robes and go night-riding, but that's a little different.
Cathy, I saw what Susanna was talking about on television. It's true. And surely you've heard of the KKK. You have access to the internet. You could look it up.
Right. Masks are not new when violation of rights are going on, such as the KKK. Of course, the KKK is not local law enforcement. In my personal experience, I have never seen local law enforcement in my area in my lifetime wear masks.
Guess what Cathy Wampler? I have never seen that in person either, but I saw it on television as I said. But I can see that you are cynical and I don't know how I could show you that it's true. Whatever! The more important point is that it's happening now, and it's cowardly. It's unconstitutional. It's immoral. Trump's domestic army is trying to destroy our great democracy. It's not too late to stop this. If you don't believe this then I wish you farewell.
Cathy, that's my #1 point. If you'd said "I haven't seen police with masks," that would have been fine. But you wrote "Police have never worn masks." That's different. It denies the experience of those of us who've seen otherwise, on TV or in person. Fwiw, I grew up in a very white suburb of Boston. Police officers were friendly and often neighbors. In 1969 I moved to D.C. for college. My view of "law enforcement" in general expanded PDQ. I learned about "the talk" that young Black kids, especially Black boys, get when they're 6 or 7, about how to relate to law enforcement without getting arrested or shot. I realized how sheltered I had been as a white native-English-speaking female in the suburbs. I also learned that once I got involved in antiwar and student activism, being a white native-English-speaking female wasn't going to protect me 24/7. Nothing I've seen or learned in the decades since has disproved those lessons. What's happening in Minneapolis is horrifying, but we've been headed in this direction for a long time -- since the founding, in many ways. But this time the whole world is watching in real time.
There is a difference between a gas mask (which is really freaking uncomfortable to wear and engage in any sort of activity while wearing and is an absolute necessity if you're deploying irritants, chemical or otherwise) and a neck gaiter pulled up over your mouth and nose to disguise yourself.
Indeed, Ms. Sturgis. I was in both Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam-War movements, so I can attest equally to the badge-taped NYPD cops, the taped-masked DC cops and the Ku Klux Kops of the 1960s Southron Klanfederacy. You might find these of interest:
to be more specific - conservative leadership. I know a lot of good people that are conservatives who are not happy with the Constitutional trashing and they are getting fed up. They have become open to voting for democrats. Not enough of them, but they are beginning to see that those tax savings are turning into their costs which leads to a shrinking pay check wiping out those savings.
I "liked" you for your "masked agents...targeting people of color" comment, but Vietnam-era protests were often suppressed -- no matter whether under Democrat LBJ or Republican Trickster Dick -- by gas-masked thugs with nameplates and badges covered with tape to prevent identification.
That's right Loren. And sometimes we forget that some people are too young to remember what happened at the Democratic Convention in 1968 in Chicago. Actual police officers literally busted a lot of heads. 1968 was a horrible year. We survived that and maybe that's your point. And I know that the tide of public opinion has turned, but it we don't do whats necessary 2026 could be even worse. This is Trump, not Johnson and Nixon. Once again: Now is the time to come to the aid of our country.
But the persistence of those protests finally convinced LBJ that that stupid war had no support in the American public. At least LBJ was willing to listen to the will of the people. Trump seeks to crush it.
Remember that DHS came out of 9/11, formed in 2003. During a period of racism, xenophobia and “must get the terrorists at all costs,” we were willing to make an agency that didn’t have appropriate checks/balances… that is how we have gotten to where we are, specific to DHS. And this is why we must abolish it. Experts warned us that DHS could be turned back around on us… we didn’t listen.
L M, I voiced that concern in 2003 while I was still employed (and in the middle of what is often the most influential part of a law enforcement career, the 3rd quarter). A number of local cops took a year leave of absence to go train people in Kuwait, some resigned and took active duty military positions, and a lot had reserve deployments to the Sandbox.
The true escalation of force in law enforcement coupled with the acquisition of military surplus equipment and a number of GWOT veterans entering civilian law enforcement happened between 2014 and 2020. This is when the BLM movement was kicked off in 2015 with the killing of Michael Brown in Saint Louis and culminated in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
I have always regarded 9/11 as our Reichstag Fire, and have called it that in blog-print and comments more times than I can count. (Which is, of course, why I am now about as welcome in the halls of mainstream media as a kielbasa-sized turd in a debutante-cotillion punch-bowl.)
We got here because of racism, hatred and ignorance. And great numbers of white people are NOT staying silent. ICE is targeting anyone who gets in their way, not just people of color. The only ones staying silent are the racists who harbor hate and remain ignorant to the fact that they will be on the menu if it suits the nazis, too. That applies to the republicans in Congress who are failing the country by not acting to get these ctiminals out of office.
Respectfully Celeste, this is not true: 'The only ones staying silent are the racists who harbor hate.' I have white friends who are too afraid to speak up.
Thank you, Marj, There are many people who, either through fear or learned passivity, are not speaking up. But we can’t let that slow us down. There is great urgency here, today, now. Act!
White people in Minneapolis (or, to some extent, any big city) are not representative of white Americans as a whole. Roughly 40% of white Americans are decent human beings. The other 60% aren’t.
I keep asking and will keep asking that same question: Why the masks? Why are ICE agents masked when police and military are not masked? Definitely a KKK thing going on there.
I can’t understand this post. Do you disagree with Heather’s words? What color are the two people shot and killed in Minneapolis? I am not saying this is not driven by racist motivation, but this post is out of touch.
250 years ago the Founders/Framers of our radical "experiment" in democracy created a republican/representative form of governance in which the governed rule through the election of representatives. Giving "We the People" the power of self rule was radical and antithetical to Kings, British royalists and white ruling elites. Since then we have struggled, fought a Civil War and brought political pressure on our system to expand the rights of "equality" to Black Americans, women and multitudes of immigrants from around the world. For the past year We the People have been attacked and at War. Our constitutional traditions of self rule governed by clear laws have been attacked by an autocratic POTUS, his many racist and elitist, corrupt advisors and syncophats and his rouge army of lethal foot soldiers. We have been fighting back in limited ways since the war began. Now the Resistence and pushback is growing everywhere across America. The vast majority of Americans, regardless of party, are appalled by the Fascist behavior going on all around us. POTUS's approval has plummeted. We have entered the "Fog of War". The enemy's propaganda wing has gone into overdrive pretending to modify its Fascist behavior as a result of negative public opinion. DO NOT BE FOOLED! They are trying to splinter our Resistence. They will fail if we accelerate our fight. A national Strike, economic botcotts on businesses that support Trump, use the National Guard to protect people in BLUE STATES under attack by ICE, join local marches, make "good trouble", accelerate the pressure on public officials to just say "NO" and so forth. The Fascists will lose this war, not because they are weak, but because the People are stronger. The Fascists cannot imagine the devotion of the People to our liberty and our laws framed 250 years ago. They cannot imagine our persistent idealism. We will win and they will go back to their caves to wait for their next opportunity.
The flood of new Epstein Files speaks loudly about the deep panic the Trump Regime is feeling. When Mad King Donald would rather shift attention back to the Trump-Epstein Files, rather than have the focus on Minnesota and the ICE murders, it tells us everything we need to know!
We should recognize the sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate predecessor, perhaps even a test run, of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal ChristoNazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
Thank you, Loren, for sharing this vital document ! Remarkable that in your final days here you are fighting for justice and truth! We all can be inspired by your example, and can each do what we can to save this damaged democracy and to protect the vulnerable from predators. I wish you peace and loving support on your final journey- it sounds like you have already done so much for all of us!
Meidas Touch reported on this yesterday aft and I have seen NO mention in MSM.Then Meidas /Ron Filopowski reported later in the day that DOJ put it back up but who knows for how long. Meidas has a downloadable PDF of the doc should DOJ attempt to take that down as well.
“The Trump Department of Justice has done it again. The DOJ just abruptly removed a document from today’s Epstein Files release after our social media post, which included screenshots of the document, went viral. The document contained numerous complaints and allegations involving powerful individuals, including Donald Trump.”
ICE is the Republican Guard and our leader is Ayatollah Trump. Vance, Hegseth, Noem, Bovino, Gabbard, Kennedy, etc... are all Mullahs. Trump is turning our country into the IRAN-USA!
Minnesota is leading the way in standing up. We all stand with them.
In which context -- and this is sociologically relevant data whether one believes such assertions or not -- we should note that many of the psychics who identify Trump as the vengeful reincarnation of Hitler and Trump's regime as the vengeful reincarnation of Hitler's associates say the masked thugs who are so gleefully imposing the ChristoNazi regime's ecogenocidal terror on us all are the vengefully reincarnated souls of the Nazi concentration-camp guards and Nazi collaborators justly slain by anti-Nazi partisans, justly shot by the Red Army and justifiably executed en masse by post-war Soviet courts.
I take offense at the word “ C….toNazi, as I am sure others in our Red Wine & Blue and ICE protest groups do. Please. MAGA is antichristian. Please!!! Do not use this term Please Respect for all the Christian Clergy standing against ICE. Please!
Abbie, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this:
I sometimes use the term "Christianist". For just as there is a huge difference between a Muslim and an Islamist, so is there a world of difference between a Christian and a "Christianist".
I don’t believe any Cristian who "walks the walk" can ever truly be MAGA – at least not in the long term. (And, yes, the Christianist is anti-Christian. )
Interesting. Muslim and an Islamist are different in that we are not saying “Muslimist”. A Muslim is a representive of a religion and not all Muslims are Islamist. An Islamist is a follower of Islamism a political movement. So can we phrase this idea in another way separating Followers of Christ’s focus on Faith, moral and ethical conduct and teaching and MAGA a newly formed political subset?
Yes, broadly speaking my idea lines up with what you are saying. However, I think there have always been Christianists. Four examples:
– The butchering Conquistadors
– Those who played key roles in the Inquisition
– Priests who used Native American slave labor to build California missions
– Those who established Apartheid i South Africa, theologically ordained it
You might consider MAGA who are self-professed "Christians" or Christian-Nationalists to be a modern subset of "Christianists". I do think that is a useful term.
Abbie, I understand your opposition to using the word "Christ" in any way to illustrate what these people are doing, which as you say is nothing like the Christ that you worship. BUT. When someone calling themselves a Christian quotes the Christian Bible as their foundational document for demonizing a people, you have to own that part.
I have been vilified by Christians for being lesbian. They show me in their Bible where that is an abomination of all that Christ stood for. I ring handbells in a church that is an "open and affirming" congregation. Their Bible does not view me as an abomination, but as an asset.
Christians cannot decide on what the "word of God" is. You have so many flavors of worship you outdistance Baskin-Robins in their varieties.
Yes. Well said. See my last post. Since we can’t think of a better term for the movement we have to go with what we have…Christianist or Christian Nationalist.
Ms. parsons, I believe you will discover the vast majority of USian white Christians are indeed ChristoNazis; throughout the South, where I had the misfortune to spend most of the first quarter of my 85 years, the ratio of white ChristoNazis to other sorts of Christians is probably something like 100,000:1, one hundred thousand to one. Also, thanks to Robert Graves ("King Jesus," various publishers/copyrights since 1946, currently Penguin Classics: 2012 and Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 1981), I am familiar with the Gospel of the Egyptians. Quoth Jesus: "I am come to destroy the works of the female." Thus the (true) history of Christianity: a history of centuries of unspeakably sadistic misogyny and ecogenocide opposed by a very few -- a tiny few -- courageous humanitarians like Martin Luther King, Pope John XXIII and the (doomed) advocates of Liberation Theology. Not to mention that Christianity is the source of what in all probability is patriarchy's most deceitfully paralytic Big Lie: the demonstrably false claim history arcs toward justice. It arcs, all right, but in patriarchy it arcs only toward technologically intensified tyranny, and now with technological advancement permanently captured and irrevocably weaponized by the ruling class it arcs toward tyrannical omnipotence. Which, to me -- not the least because I am well aware of horrors Christianity inflicted on my (mostly Celtic, minimally First Nations) ancestors -- is the quintessence of Christianity in action. I have lived amongst its Norman-Vincent-Peale/Billy-Graham/Adolf-Hitler disciples; I have suffered their depredations (including, during my [involuntary] years in the south, five attempts to end my life); and I know their USian kind to be not a whit different from those predators who ran amok in Europe c. 1939-1945, a subspecies genetically deprived of empathy and with their love instinct perverted to maximized hate, Homo sapiens inhumanus. I am sorry you are offended, Ms. parsons, but I will not be brow-beaten by you or anyone else into changing what I regard as an unflinchingly truthful, historically accurate naming of our enemy.
Loren Bliss we are more alike than you realize. I was born in Ala the week Maastricht, NL was liberated and my dad was there. I was raised in Nashville, TN Monday morning on my birthday, instead of birthday wishes, there were calls many from my aunt and cousins in Birmingham….”What Are WE going to do?” Four Little Girls were killed in a Church bombing by a Klan member. Our neighbor was an Episcopal Priest. I knew his children and saw first hand how they suffered because we all protested! I lived in DC during the worst of the Vietnam war and passed through the rear of Arlington Cemetery and heard the Bugles and saw the honor guards burying the dead. I broke down crying the morning I followed an Army transport truck filled with wooden boxes stamped with identifying numbers for the dead. I hugged a friend as she screamed, “ Those aren’t his ears!!!”. I marched in the women’s march NYC after Trumps first election. I participated in both No Kings Protest. I am sorry you felt brow beaten. That was not my intention. I just wanted others to help find a better word for Christian. But if you followed the whole thread, you would see that together we found no word powerful enough to express this 21st Century Political Movement but the ones we already have. Christian Nationalist. Again I am sorry my passionate tone caused you to feel brow beaten. We are more alike than you may know. I am here to learn and to take an active stand but I also sympathize with my Episcopal Clergy who are in danger as they protest peacefully.
Abbie Barbara parsons, with those protestors, were he still amongst the living, would be a late friend of mine, Fr. William Jerome Bichsel SJ, whom I knew both from Occupy and from my years of covering Tacoma for UPI back when it was a wire service. Personally an agnostic, albeit with very strong Celtic-pagan leanings based not on supposition but on some eerily compelling encounters with otherness-- the first in Northern Lower Michigan when I was 12; the next at sea when I was 21; acquisition of the requisite vocabulary in (of all places) NYC's Central Park when I was 27; and what I maybe should have accepted as confirmation in deeply rural Western Washington when I was 30 -- so I am not by any means hostile to what I think of as "anarchistic spirituality." Hence I am scientifically minded enough to retain the ultimate "I don't know" of agnosticism even as with more than a little delight I watch science move ever closer -- as in the Gaia Hypothesis -- to restating in presumably secular terms the core beliefs of our first approximately 204,000 years. Which is of course yet another reason I despise Christianity -- but certainly not all Christians, and most assuredly not some learned nuns I've known. Therefore if my response was hurtful to you, I am truly regretful.
That was Then … History! A large number of Strong Brave Christian’sare buried under Crosses. They died fighting inWWII against Hitler . The term was offensive even dack Then! I am asking that NOW you give those of us Working NOW due RESPECT. Please.
Right, Loren, I have heard this, too, and yet, we have to realize that there are people like this in every generation. They don’t have to be reborn Nazis. They can be violent and sadistic all on their own. That is why the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And good education.
Can we remind people that MAGA does not “own” the word Christian and in no way meets a definition of this term. Can we Respect the Clergy who place themselves in danger protesting ICE and offering food, protection, and shelter to all in need. Please do not let MAGA / ICE take ownership of this term Christian as they have already distorted the meaning of the word Evangelical. Please, can we do that ?
There are plenty of Christians who don’t support Trump or fascism. Lumping them in with the Trump evangelical cultists who call themselves Christians but read some other BIble, is just disrespectful. If you do this, you are doing the same thing that the Trumpists are doing.
Where do you get your data? Just call them pseudo- christians, pseudo- evangelicals , Trump Supporters or MAGA. Just don’t call them Christian, because they are Not followers of Christ’s teachings to “love their neighbors.
We need to repeal the tax free protections of 501c3s. Lets start at the state level by forcing the largest private real estate holding firm in the US property taxes. Dozens of states are looking for ways to reduce the property tax burdens of their constituents. Let the 20% of people that attend the so-called Christian churches in the US pay their fair share like any other business.
And yes, they can carve out a class of non-profits that actually help people like food banks.
I get your point, and I agree that some of these churches should not benefit from tax exemptions. But going after the 501(c)(3) designation entirely would be a slippery slope, giving the fascists another way to go after the non-profit organizations they don’t like. A “carve out” is not sufficient.
Senator Sanders called it Trump's domestic army so why not go with that. Yeah, we're next. For now it doesn't stop at the Minnesota state line. Check out the Lacrosse, Wisconsin town hall with Pete Buttieieg on YouTube or check out my comment below if you can find it. Apparently they are swarming in Portland, Maine now of all places and I don't get why, other than that fact that the people of Maine historically love their guns? Why not Boston? That's not to say that they or anyone deserves to be attacked.
They've been to Boston and it did not go well. Just like it's not going well in NYC for ICE.
And the latest release of the Epstein files is just the latest example of the incompetence of every single Christofascist in the Trump regime.
They promised to protect the victims and yet they left a driver's license of one of the victims In the released files and as Heather said they removed a spreadsheet that had Trump's name on it.
And where is Alex Acosta??? Why hasn't anyone tried to talk to him about why he refused to prosecute Trump, Lutnick and the other prominent Republicans. Why is he and Ross and all of the Trump Fascist off-limits.
Somali, pirates, Haiti, pirates of the Caribbean, Springfield, Ohio, eating cats and dogs! I'm just going to go with what Timothy Snyder insinuated. He's a dragon.
Post the names of the CEO and those involved from Brentwood/ Franklin, TN associated with CORECIVIC and the others who are building and running the For Profit Prisons paid for with Our Tax Dollars. Shame on them!
A White House chains emoji becomes a warning shot at the First Amendment. This satirical essay exposes how mockery, intimidation, and spectacle are being used to weaken press freedom without repealing it, and why authoritarian power fears journalists more than dissent itself.
👉 "When Life Gives You Lemons, Chain the Press:
A Helpful Government Guide to Freedom, Emoji Edition"
The First Amendment used to be simple. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Short. Direct. Unambiguous. It did not come with emojis, mood boards, or brand partnerships.
Then came the Trump regime, which apparently read the First Amendment and thought, This could use more chains.
Last week, the official social media account of the White House posted an image of journalist Don Lemon alongside the caption “When life gives you lemons…” followed by a chains emoji. This was not satire. This was not parody. This was the United States government publicly mocking the arrest of a Black journalist using imagery historically associated with enslavement.
In earlier eras, this might have triggered resignations. In our era, it triggered engagement metrics.
The post functioned as a kind of civic Mad Lib. When life gives you lemons, criminalize journalism. When the Constitution gives you rights, reinterpret them aggressively. When the public starts protesting ICE, distract them with cruelty dressed up as humor. Authoritarianism now comes with a punchline and a social media intern.
This was not just tasteless. It was instructional.
The message was not aimed at Don Lemon. It was aimed at everyone watching. Journalists. Protesters. Anyone with a phone and a conscience. The post said, quietly and clearly, We can do this to you too, and we will laugh while doing it.
The Trump regime understands something fundamental about power. You do not need to repeal the First Amendment to weaken it. You only need to make its exercise feel dangerous, humiliating, and isolating. You only need to show that the state is willing to weaponize law, spectacle, and ridicule in the same breath.
That is why the charge matters less than the theater.
Charging a journalist under a law designed to stop clinic violence is already absurd. Doubling down after multiple judges say no is revealing. Posting chains afterward is the tell. That is the moment when the mask slips and the state says, This is not about legality. This is about dominance.
The First Amendment is inconvenient for authoritarians because it creates witnesses. It allows people to name what is happening while it is happening. It turns power into a public performance rather than a private arrangement. Tyranny hates narration.
So the solution is not to ban speech outright. That looks bad on paper. The solution is to redefine journalism as trespass, protest as conspiracy, and dissent as disorder. Then you enforce selectively. Loudly. With a meme.
This is why the Trump regime has become obsessed with religious framing. When the Attorney General declares that the government is protecting “the sacred right to worship” while prosecuting journalists, the implication is clear. Some speech is sacred. Some speech is sinful. Guess who decides.
The First Amendment does not say Congress shall protect approved speech. It does not say freedom of the press unless it embarrasses the administration. It does not say you may speak freely as long as you do not document state violence, racial targeting, or federal agents killing civilians.
But authoritarian movements have always struggled with this. They want legitimacy without scrutiny. Reverence without accountability. Unity without consent. The First Amendment ruins all of that.
That is why it must be made to feel fragile.
Public shaming helps. So does selective prosecution. So does turning the White House into a high school bully with a verified account. The goal is to shift the culture so that free speech still exists on paper but costs too much in practice.
Eventually, people stop asking what is legal and start asking what is safe.
The chains emoji was not a joke. It was a thesis statement. It said the state is comfortable flirting with America’s ugliest symbols if it keeps the base entertained and the press nervous. It said history is not a warning, it is a prop.
And that is the real danger. Not that the First Amendment disappears overnight, but that it becomes a nostalgic artifact. Something we talk about the way we talk about rotary phones or civics textbooks. Something that technically exists but no longer functions.
Satire matters here because authoritarianism hates being laughed at, especially when the laughter is precise. Humor can reveal the absurdity of power without normalizing it. It can remind people that cruelty dressed as confidence is still cruelty, and fear dressed as strength is still fear.
The Founders did not include the First Amendment because they trusted the government. They included it because they did not. They had seen what happens when power controls narrative. They had lived under regimes that punished truth-telling as disloyalty.
They would have recognized the chains emoji immediately.
When life gives you lemons, the proper response is not to shackle the press. It is to accept that democracy is messy, dissent is loud, and freedom is inconvenient by design. The moment the government starts mocking those principles, it is no longer governing. It is performing.
And the performance is getting ugly.
The First Amendment does not need rebranding. It needs defending. Not with hashtags, not with outrage alone, but with insistence. With repetition. With a refusal to laugh along when the joke is the Constitution itself.
Because when the state jokes about chains, it is not being clever. It is telling you exactly what it wants to do next.
Indeed, they had to dig up a KKK-era "law" to charge Lemon, whose crime was filming and interviewing in a church. When will Felon Supporters wake up and see the devastating costs of loyalty?
I am seeing a lot of bot comments in my feed saying Lemon “invaded” a place of worship and other twisted nonsense, but try as they might it runs pretty thin.
MAGA is 21st century KKK. Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. HC Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, Critical Sociology: "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and Why?"
And Republicans in elected office not opposing Trump are the "local" officials The Union troops occupying the South were deployed after the Civil War to control. We the people must now deploy to counter them.
ICE is the new KKK, how on target. All the while blathering about protecting good Christians from evil “colored.” My God, what a trite script, tried and true official hatred
Lately I've been thinking that ICE is better likened to the SS. The Gestapo were a secret police within the SS yet most of what we are facing isn't a secret, and the KKK were outside government; the SS were more a part of the Hitler cult sanctioned by the government that carried out the policies of Hitler, the detentions, arrests, and killings.
Gary, I think that CPB and DHS Police fit that bill. I think ICE is more like hired mercenaries as evidence by their lack of uniformity and their completely undisciplined conduct not to mention their absolute lack of any demonstration of police or military tactics.
I would like to see all Democratic-controlled states pass legislation barring former ICE agents from future employment in police, in any state-funded public job, or with any company that has a contract with the state. Let those ICE agents pay a steep personal price for the choices they are making now!
If we truly want justice, (all) MAGATs -- financiers, officials, every one of the 77 million hate-mongering sadists who voted the ChristoNazi conquest into ecogenocidal reality -- should at the very least be forever denied the citizenship they have already effectively renounced. And were I still alive, I would argue for the execution of their leaders and thugs and the deportation of all -- say again (all) -- of their supporters. For only then will our (new) Republic be secure.
Loren, respectfully, this is problematic. Was it a mistake for Gen. Grant to show mercy to Gen. Lee’s soldiers, sending them home on parole? Would it have been simpler to line them all up and shoot them? Probably, but what would that have done to Grant’s own soldiers? How would the families at home have felt? Where would that have led us? These people are Americans, too. We must find a way to reincorporate them in sanity. Trials for the financiers and leaders and thugs, yes. That would be satisfying. We can’t deport the supporters en masse — that would destabilize wherever country we found willing to take them.
I believe it was; had they all been executed as the traitors they are, the South -- further abetted by the Fifth-Column treachery of the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party -- would never have been able to do precisely what Dr. Richardson says it did in what should be a must-read book for everyone here: "How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America" (Oxford University Press: 2022). Note too how the Red Army and the Soviet Union exterminated the Original Nazis so thoroughly, they had no presence whatsoever in Europe until their Savior Putin did his Lazarus act and -- with the help of the failing United States -- brought them back from the dead.
Huge numbers of the Original Nazis had been given sanctuary in the U.S., many adopted as advisors and comrades-at-arms, many more merely given refuge from Soviet war-crimes prosecution -- this as capitalism (for which Nazism is always the most fanatically desired fulfillment), cultivated its domestic metastases and fertilized it with white misogyny and race hatred. We are now living with that (probably apocalyptic) harvest.
Sorry Loren, this is where I must depart from your train. We were never promised an automaticly secure Republic. We must work for it and fight for it. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said: A Republic IF you can keep it. As for me, I will never obey in advance. Also I must say that although you are talking about large groups of extremists, you shouldn't paint them all with the same brush. Most people are GOOD at heart. I honestly believe that.
That would keep this fight going forever. If they can’t get jobs they have no reason to stop being MAGA and start being Americans again. Isn’t that what we eventually want?
Per Business Insider, Don Lemon was arrested by a "team of Federal" agents in L.A. where he went to report on the Grammys.
SPOILER ALERT:
Don is represented by counsel, ABBE LOWE. Abbe made a statement that his client, Don Lemon, will defended "thoroughly'. Having followed counsel Lowe for a long time. Abbe's statement means he will be making COUNTER-claims, immediately in court in L.A, during & after the Trump attack on journalism & his client.
As Heather posted & I will annotate, Don Lemon was released in L.A. with no restrictions & no bail. Justice for Renee, for Alex, for the Epstein survivors & for Don Lemon & many others!
I am not a lawyer so I have questions Bryan. What are counter claims? Being released with no restrictions and no bail? I am thinking this means this was all for show? Who is Abbe Lowe?
ANBE LOWELL is a very well known attorney commonly thought of on of the best "defense" attorneys in the United States.
But, to be an excellent "defense" attorney representing a nationally known Defendant like Don Lemon, you must be very good litigation tactic wise on OFFENSE. Something like Chess but, it is multi dimensional Chess.
This where counter claims come in which can take many, many forms. For example, counsel file can ross-complaint which makes direct claims against the wrong doer. In California & in many States there is powerful first Amendment tool. A litigator like Abbe Lowell can file & Anti-SLAPP" motion.
That's a litigation tool to dismiss a lawsuit filed against a client to stop any Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (get rid of) & get your attorney fees & expenses back.
ABBE LOWELL is an expert litigator one the top 5 in the United States.
______
"Being released" means getting out of jail. Sometimes Judges put many restrictions on a defendant like limitations on how far you can go from the Court or making you pay money to the Court -- called a "Bond" to make sure you come back to Court.
Don has NO restrictions on him at all so he can go on with his reporting on the Grammy's or do anything else. Sorta of af a"Get out of Jail FREE card".
Thank you. This was very helpful. It appears the gang that could not think straight in our White House has once again aroused the Democracy Dragon in America. Now we will be focusing on the First Amendment.
They seem to be going through each piece of the Constitution testing here and there to see which will break.
If I remember correctly Halligan was deep in 💩 due to her shenanigans with the grand jury process on the Comey case, (beyond her being in her position illegally). I hope some legal folks are looking at the grand jury indictment of Lemon for the same type of 💩. Hard to believe a grand jury would indict him on the actual facts. The felon and his goons are working overtime to destroy our Constitutional laws and Justice!
Right!! Hard to see how a grand jury indicts based on the facts as they have been shown to “we the people”! Hope that a counter claim will take another MAGA lying lawyer down with it!!!
As I understand it, a counterclaim is when a defendant (Lemon in this case) files charges against the Plaintiffs (the Feds) listing their wrong-doings and asking the court for relief. While I'm a retired lawyer, I was never a litigator.
A classic example - courtesy of Google - would be if a contractor sues a homeowner for nonpayment and the homeowner countersues the contractor for shoddy work.
Agree about the Trumpian regime distractions while subverting the rule of law and trampling our rights.
But the U.S. Constitution is in effect as long as we fight to keep our republic, if we can. Minnesotans and protesters in Minneapolis are showing us how to do it in 8 degree weather, and have been doing so, even in sub-zero weather, for the entire month of January. I'm in awe of their bravery, hardiness and steadfastness and stand in solidarity with them and all the other 10s of millions, maybe 100s of millions, that will uphold, protect and preserve the Constitution.
Don't be a defeatist, that's exactly what the regime wants you to think and it only makes it easier for them to plod on and plot on...
250 years ago the Founders/Framers of our radical "experiment" in democracy created a republican/representative form of governance in which the governed rule through the election of representatives. Giving "We the People" the power of self rule was radical and antithetical to Kings, British royalists and white ruling elites. Since then we have struggled, fought a Civil War and brought political pressure on our system to expand the rights of "equality" to Black Americans, women and multitudes of immigrants from around the world. For the past year We the People have been attacked and at War. Our constitutional traditions of self rule governed by clear laws have been attacked by an autocratic POTUS, his many racist and elitist, corrupt advisors and syncophats and his rouge army of lethal foot soldiers. We have been fighting back in limited ways since the war began. Now the Resistence and pushback is growing everywhere across America. The vast majority of Americans, regardless of party, are appalled by the Fascist behavior going on all around us. POTUS's approval has plummeted. We have entered the "Fog of War". The enemy's propaganda wing has gone into overdrive pretending to modify its Fascist behavior as a result of negative public opinion. DO NOT BE FOOLED! They are trying to splinter our Resistence. They will fail if we accelerate our fight. A national Strike, economic botcotts on businesses that support Trump, use the National Guard to protect people in BLUE STATES under attack by ICE, join local marches, make "good trouble", accelerate the pressure on public officials to just say "NO" and so forth. The Fascists will lose this war, not because they are weak, but because the People are stronger. The Fascists cannot imagine the devotion of the People to our liberty and our laws framed 250 years ago. They cannot imagine our persistent idealism. We will win and they will go back to their caves to wait for their next opportunity.
Trump and the regime will be facing another Nuremberg trial once they are defeated just like the last time fascists were this menacing to our Nation and caused so much death and destruction in the world.
They are gunning people down in the streets simply for opposing the regime. This is already a dictatorship, and we must resist and seek something far better than the old order. A true democracy where power lies in the hands of the people.
"It’s clear from the video that federal agents escalated the conflict. They attacked protestors with no justification, beat Pretti with a bear mace can, and as he was on his hands and knees gunned him down. His crime was resistance, failure to bow down to the wishes of the tyrant, not quietly accepting an ethnic cleansing. The caused the state’s enforcers to see him as a traitor to race and nation, and because of that his life was forfeit."
We will sooner than later amend our Constitution to repair the more than two dozen major problems the Roberts Six and Trump have created. As for resisting in the current time we hold the power, no King, no tyrant.
We all know how to tell when Trump, Bondi, Blanche, Miller, Noem, etc. are lying: their lips are moving. That is a sad reality, not a joke. That is why any criminal case filed by the DOJ has a major problem, each now lacks all veracity. In government class back in 8th grade we were told our Republic is a system of checks and balances to prevent any one branch of government (legislative, executive, or judicial) from gaining too much power. But what we have seen recently and will grow bigger with all these crazy ass indictments is DOJ cases going down in flames due to Jury Nullification. In other words juries will take the oath with just as much meaning as Trump and kiss ass jerks when they took their oath, and then do their duty to serve justice and the American way, not guilty! IOW, the power of the law really never left we the people. We are the final checks and balances, no kings.
When I used to call myself a 'starving artists' a client asked me if I like to starve. I replied 'no', She suggested I stop calling myself a starving artist.
That one little mindset flip changed my trajectory.
There is a tremendous difference between the Constitution being under severe duress and "the Constitution is no longer in effect." It's always interesting to me when someone decides we are done. I don't believe the people of Minnesota have gotten the memo, nor all the other protesters around the Country. If we were done Lemon would be in a jail cell with no recourse, the Courts would not still be battling this regime; nor would Dr. Richardson be speaking out. Heck neither would any of us be speaking freely.
The next NO KINGS protest is March 28. Use Rothery's spreadsheet to call Congress, look up the Indivisible organization in your area. We all have a choice here. We can either state "game over" or hell no." Personally, I am in the hell no camp.
We are not even close to being done. There are more of us than them. And we will win.
I appreciate your sentiments, Barbara. Facing reality doesn't mean giving in or giving up. Just don't be in denial, please. Homan has not backed down. Trump has doubled down and the repression continues. The SCOTUS is thoroughly corrupt and has already given Trump immunity. And "qualified immunity" for the murderers, both of ICE and of our military who had no problem following illegal orders to murder innocent people in boats.
The Regime has to play for keeps because they know if they lose they're going to be prosecuted and there will be reprisals.
This isn't like protesting the war in Vietnam. This Regime won't be embarrassed into capitulation.
Yes, we still have a great amount of freedom to voice our resistance to what is happening. But, Barbara, it *is* happening.
I'd love to hear from you how you see us overcoming this Regime. What do you think it will take? I invite you to a dialog.
Today in New York City, we made history. More than 25,000 people took to the streets here, joining demonstrations in over 300 cities across the country and millions nationwide, answering the call from Minnesota for a coordinated national shutdown. This unprecedented mobilization reflects the deep outrage and grief felt across our communities in response to the killings of our friends, siblings, and neighbors, people like Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter Jr., and Alex Pretti, which represent a dangerous escalation in the ongoing assault on our rights, safety, and collective dignity.
Across the United States, people have risen in unison to demand an end to the terror inflicted by the Trump administration and to call for the abolition of ICE. We are sending a clear message: we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our immigrant neighbors and communities, and we will not allow ourselves to be divided by fear or hate.
This is a defining moment. Now is the time to organize, to resist, and to make history together by fighting back for justice, accountability, and human dignity for all!
Oh yes we do. We do have rights which millions of us are exercising anew every day. Despite their trying to make us all believe otherwise, despite many succumbing to their doom and hatred, they are losing. They are panicking. It's all turning to shit for them. Don't doubt this for a second.
There's a fine line between recognizing the great dangers we all face and succumbing to their rhetoric, their absurd designs straight out of the early 1800s -- and the larger reality that has emerged quite recently. They are cracking. They are failing. Don Lemon's arrest is only the latest proof -- others to follow, certainly.
Donald Trump is insane -- lost to severe fronto-temporal dementia, or both, take your pick. He's long been a stupid jackass incapable of learning. No one in his circle is capable of standing up to a mentally defective man. They think this will please him and intimidate us -- a last-minute, desperate gamble by truly stupid people. The truth is that NOTHING will galvanize reporters more than the blatant violation of the First Amendment, nothing that would make all of us fight this bastard and his vicious wormtongues with a single voice more.
Lift your sights to see what the future looks like. It is coming more swiftly than most of us imagined. What is happening portends not success, but total disaster for them. It's all unravelling -- and doing so very fast. And when that Hindenburg-MAGA blimp finally goes ka-boom, practically nobody will be left to go "oh, the humanity!"
Power will go to those who can both visualize what that day will look like, and how we can build a better republic once it comes. In the meantime, defend journalism by defraying legal costs. Miles Taylor's Defiance.org has set up a fund for all journalists, not just the very high-profile Don Lemon (who already has excellent counsel).
Don Lemon is a journalist and if he actually said that he was being overly dramatic. The Constitution is in effect as long as the citizens of the USA say it is, regardless of what the administration says. Let's prove him wrong then.
And regardless of what some people think. We are in control of this narrative. There are over 300 million people in the United States. It is fair to say a fair portion of them are pissed. The sleeping dragon has woken.
Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance and shared the stage with Tom Morello (former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine) here in Minneapolis yesterday. I can concur that is freezing, and no we’re not stopping. It’s obvious to most of us here that despite Bovino leaving, very little is changing. Nothing is ever unanimous, but most of this state is absolutely pissed and sick of it. I pray that the rest of the country has not been misled into thinking things are improving. It is such a sick insult that Don Lemon would be arrested, while there is no interest in charging the ICE agents who murdered Good and Presti. None of what they’re doing is hidden or clever, yet so many buy into it. It’s all selective outrage with selective consequences.
I don’t understand why the information from the Epstein files which included Trump isn’t making bigger news. It was obviously saved before it was taken down. The Epstein Files has been the Conservative Holy Grail for years. Now that its release has been ordered, MAGA doesn’t seem to care too much about its delays in release, or Trump’s involvement. The lack of self awareness and level of hypocrisy are without match.
Thank you for the updates from Minneapolis. Y’all are so inspiring, brave and hardy souls to be out in such frigid weather. Wish there was more we could do to help out there or that you could be an unoccupied city again. Hopefully the fascist siege will end soon, we all must keep raging against the regime.
Daniel — thank you and every proud and loud Minnesotan. We totally understand the underhanded bad-faith inaction and actions of this regime. No wool over our eyes.
Don't be fooled, Daniel, the Epstein files were never a priority for Conservatives, the Conservative and corporate Democrat political movers and shakers has always been to shield their ultra-rich donors from being exposed as the pedophiles and sex traffickers of underage girls for three decades. If the truth were to come out and the identity of these people made public, it would upend our whole political system.
And then maybe we would be able to form a more perfect democratic Union.
It's an error to think the Trumpers are fighting for public opinion; they are playing a different game, mobilizing their base to seize elections by force and fraud. We face a situation like 19th century Bolivia, where elections were won by massing gangs at the polling places. (In one election, a faction got a shipment of guns; the other side literally brought knives to a gunfight, and lost.) Our democratic forces are ill prepared for such a struggle, nor for the parallel battle over counting votes that will be fought in cyberspace.
I could just see Republican states withholding their votes from being counted because of “voting fraud” causing the Supreme Court to suspend the results of the 2026 midterms. Republicans will do anything and everything corrupt to hold onto power.
Trump’s on the dictator treadmill. He can’t get off or he will be prosecuted, along with all those in this administration.
HERE'S HOW THE CHRISTONAZIS ARE ALREADY STEALING OUR ELECTIONS
(A Thom Hartmann Exclusive)
To enlarge upon Dr. Richardson's oft-repeated warnings about stolen elections, here is vital information from Thom Hartmann about how the thievery is accomplished, including credible statistical evidence showing how the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
We need domestic and international election monitors. Carter Center? UN? Amnesty International? Somehow, the regime efforts to sabotage or cancel the November election must be stopped. A national emergency.
I beg to differ. People are busy getting prepared for almost everything. We're not 19th century Bolivia, we're 21st century America where elections are held by state and local officials, not federal ones. People are not going to participate in Pam Bondi's blackmail ('gimme your voting records and this will all go away.') The number of people believing that bullshit -- even in red states --- decreases every day.
We are mostly certainly not a banana republic, no matter how much they want you to think we are.
A particularly outrageous example of the Democrats' back-handed Fifth Column treachery is the Washington state "Democratic" (sic) Party’s feverish escalation of its oft-promised effort to nullify the Second Amendment by making Washington "the first truly gun-free state in the nation.” Thus the state’s Democrats collaborate with the ChristoNazi conquerors by ensuring We the People of Washington state are more forcibly disarmed than any comparable population in North America and thereby reduced to the easiest ChristoNazi prey. The state already imposes a ten-business-day (thus actually 14-day) waiting period with processing fees up to $52.50 added to the price of the gun and the most regressive sales tax in the nation. And now the 2026 Legislature has rushed one of its de facto total-civilian-disarmament measures into law: Senate Bill 5098 prohibits the possession of firearms in any locations where “children are likely to be present.” (Given the anti-gun-owner fanaticism of the Ferguson administration, critics of the measure fear it will be used to felonize firearms ownership in any dwelling inhabited by – or even occasionally visited by – children.) SB 6055 gives broad authority to Washington state bureaucrats to price lawful gun owners out of the market by removing the limit on firearms-purchase fees. (The measure’s backers make no secret of their intent to hike permit and training fees prohibitively, thereby limiting civilian firearms ownership to the very rich, 99.999 percent of whom are either ChristoNazis or ChristoNazi supporters.) Gov. Robert Ferguson – by far the most fanatically anti-gun-owner state or provincial executive in North American history – says he’s eager to sign both measures into law. (Reference link: https://app.leg.wa.gov/bi/topicalindex)
The chronic refusal of you and your ilk to admit the terrible truth that the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party is the most effective, devastatingly subversive (and, of course, plausibly deniable) Fifth Column the Republicans could ever want is (the) reason We the People may yet fail in our attempts at Liberation. You employ your ever-more-threadbare credibility to ensure we continue to be deceived by the Democrats' entirely bogus promises of "change we can believe in" and thus remain the de facto slaves of the cunning neoliberal capitalists who are manipulatively propelling us ever more inescapably into ChristoNazism by their absolute ownership and morally imbecilic puppet-mastery of both -- say again (both) -- fully corrupted major parties. Fortunately a growing number of us are at last recognizing the resultant good-cop/bad-cop charade that is the Big Lie at the core of our bondage and thus realizing that our failed republic cannot be restored but must be built anew from the ashes -- with capitalism either forbidden or so reformed and restricted, its defining impulse to do evil is permanently obstructed, so that it can never again fulfill itself by transforming into Nazism. Meanwhile your hateful repertoire of arrogantly sneering insults will not stop me from pointing out these truths at every opportunity.
I'm glad you didn't name Collins and Murkowski as the Republicans who voted for the Sanders amendment. It showed no principled bravery on their parts--Thune just allowed Collins to vote for it because she's in a tough reelection battle. He wouldn't have let it pass. But at least all the Dems including Fetterman voted for it. Keep up the pressure on all of them.
“The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort should stop everyone in their tracks and be more than just another breaking news alert that disappears within hours as attention shifts to the next breaking news. Trump’s role in this escalation is direct and long-standing.”
“He has gone after Don Lemon, and so many others, publicly for more than a decade, beginning well before his first inauguration, repeatedly singling him out, mocking him, threatening him, and using him as one of the proxies for the broader press he wants to delegitimize. The point is not to punish one outlet or silence one personality, but to establish that journalism itself is conditional, revocable, and punishable when it challenges power and documents state abuses. This is why this cannot be dismissed as just another breaking news story. We must stand up to defend the First Amendment.”
Don Lemon and Georgia Fort Arrested for Reporting - Russia’s Playbook in America
Wake up, good people: the selective arrests of those heroes who protested ecogenocidal ChristoNazi terrorism at the ChristoNazi terrorist church and the selective arrests of those who heroically covered the protest are the beginning of the Regime's imposition of Spanish-Inquisition-caliber zero-tolerance Christian theocracy on our captive nation. Thus we must continue fighting our conquerors...no matter the cost.
It would be a better tactic to go to the ICE preachers house to protest, the trump regime will bend the law to end all descent. Hopefully protesters will avoid this trap in the future.
I'll see you in the streets for No Kings 3.0 on March 28th. Until then, I'll attend other rallies, boycotts and call my congress critters. We'll get through this.
Thousands of high school and even middle school students walked out of class in the Bay Area at noon today. Our youngsters inspire us and give us hope!
In full tantrum, Donald Trump is ripping the facade off everything and everyone. Trump has "daddy issues" and "mommy issues." He is the product of bad toilet training. He is obsessed with Hitler. His loyal supporters are as damaged as he is. The feces smeared on the walls of the Capitol on January 6 was an act of solidarity, MAGA's way of saying, "We love you, Donnie."
Trump's MAGANAZI violence has the purpose of perpetuating patriarchal White Supremacy. The ICE raids are the current version of a history of violence that includes the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, Jim Crow and the Tulsa Massacre. Trump's ICE raids are just another desperate, pathological outburst of the "historic oppression and ongoing harm" caused by America's original sin of racism. Trump's army of homicidal rednecks are determined to Make America White Again.
So true of what you have written. Donold does have many obsessions and issues, strange toilet fascinations being one of them. Golden toilets, gaudy gold schlock pasted everywhere, the meme of him flying an F-16 & strafing a massive load of shit on protesters. He even smeared his feces on the wall of the Kennedy Center by writing his name above it like it was his memorial center, likely trying to eclipse JFK's name.
But your more important point of white supremacy and MAGA determined to make America white again is such fallacy on their part.
America has never been exclusively white. It's been estimated that up to 50 million Native Americans were living in North America before Columbus made it to the New World in 1492. The African slave trade started soon after that which brought about half a million black tribespeople over the centuries.
We've always been a nation of immigrants, how can we ever forget that or pretend it's just whitey that counts. Waves of immigrants coming to this Nation over the centuries IS what makes America great. The diversity, colors, culture, contributions, talents, food and flavors of immigrants is why America is great, this harrowing episode right now in America is not anywhere near being great.
Every wave of immigrants has experienced discrimination. If any group deserves condemnation, it is white nationalists—they are the only group unified by hate. No other immigrant group harbors such animus; they ALL came here seeking a better life. We need to embrace them, encourage assimilation, and absorb their uniqueness. Immigration has made this country great and will make America Great again! We are all immigrants, and we should be damn proud of it.
Don't forget the white evangelical Christian nationalists who are working to dominate our people with a Fascist evangelical theocracy. There is no majority of white Evangelicals in this country; we must fight them at every turn.
The Senate passed bills to fund 5 agencies through September on Friday night, along with a 2-week-long continuing resolution to fund DHS. The bills must now be passed by the House, likely on Monday. Trump, as of Friday,said he supported the bills.
Let’s be 100% clear. The Senate passed a “clean” CR for DHS. All it says is that funding for DHS will be kept at current levels for the next two weeks. There is no list of reforms or definitions of what had been considered standard operating procedures in the past incorporated in the CR. Senate Democrats are relying on Trump to keep his word and press the members of the House to include the items on the wish list they discussed with him.
According to Politico:
"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who helped negotiate the final deal, took a victory lap after the vote, saying “the agreement we reached today did exactly what Democrats wanted.”
But Democrats will still need to negotiate with the White House and congressional Republicans about what, if any, policy changes they are willing to codify into law as part of a long-term bill. Republicans are open to some changes, including requiring independent investigations. But they’ve already dismissed some of Democrats’ main demands, including requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests."
According to the Hill, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told House Republicans he wants to utilize a special fast-track process that will require cooperation from Democrats to swiftly pass the funding package that the Senate is poised to send over and end what lawmakers hope will be a brief government shutdown.
Oh, and just a few more things have to happen. Over the next two weeks, a bipartisan bill has to be crafted in the House for the DHS reforms, the Rules Committee will have to allow it to come to the floor, and the bill will have to be passed. Then it goes back to the Senate, where an identical version must pass, and Trump must sign it.
And during those two weeks, Stephen Miller will be whispering in Trump’s ear about how Alex Pretti really was a domestic terrorist because they have the tape of him busting a taillight on a ICE/CBP vehicle, and Mike Johnson will be reminding him what a Pandora’s Box DHS reform would be.
In other words, the quest for DHS reform is essentially starting from scratch in the House with a two-week deadline and with no leverage other than that voters will be outraged if DHS isn’t reformed, and Trump will remain reasonable and rational and keep his word about supporting DHS reform.
Who will be blamed if reform is stalled? My guess is it will be a “pox on both your houses” moment.
But DHS is critical for national security!!! At least Republicans think so. Two weeks will roll by and Republicans will pass a bill to go to the DHS One Big Beautiful Bill Act piggy bank and find a way to fund it. Or there will be another CR. And DHS reform will be pushed further out in time.
Place your bets folks on what DHS forms are enacted. You can probably do it on prediction markets like Polymarket.
The actual text of the DHS Amendment to the minibus spending bill that the Senate passed on Friday night is not expected to be available until 10:00 AM on January 31, 2026. I will post it here when it shows up.
This is the new version that was passed. I will put what was removed in square brackets.
Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 7148) entitled “An Act making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes.”, do pass with the following
AMENDMENTS:
(1) In section 2 in the matter preceding division A, strike the matter relating to division H and insert:
(2) On page 4, strike lines 17 through 25. [ Removed: The explanatory statement regarding H.R.
7147 of the 119th Congress, printed in the House
section of the Congressional Record on or about
January 21, 2026, and submitted by the chair of the
Committee on Appropriations of the House, shall
have the same effect with respect to the allocation
of funds and implementation of division H of this
Act as if it were a joint explanatory statement of a
committee of conference.]
(3) Beginning on page 1132, strike line 9 and all that follows through “Sec. 554.” on page 1235, line 16, [removed 103 pages of detailed appropriations data]
Sec. 101. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) is amended by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and inserting “February 13, 2026”. [That sets the 2 week deadline]
[What follows is the basics extending the previous CR with no changes to those previous levels.]. If you want to see the detail of what was sent to the Senate from the House you can see that https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr7148/BILLS-119hr7148pcs.pdf]
Sec. 102. For the purposes of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37), the time covered by such division shall be considered to include the period which began on or about January 31, 2026, during which there occurred a lapse in appropriations.
Sec. 103. Amounts made available in the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 for personnel pay, allowances, and benefits in each department and agency shall be available for payments pursuant to subsection (c) of section 1341 of title 31, United States Code and such payments shall be made.
Sec. 104. All obligations incurred and in anticipation of the appropriations made and authority granted by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) and by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 for the purposes of maintaining the essential level of activity to protect life and property and bringing about orderly termination of Government function, and for purposes as otherwise authorized by law, are hereby ratified and approved if otherwise in accord with the provisions of such Act.
Sec. 105.
(4) On page 1235, strike lines 22 and 23 and insert: This division may be cited as the “Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026”.
Some thoughts from Robert Hubbell on the loss of Democratic leverage on DHS reform:
Most of the Senators who voted to approve the five bills and the 2-week extension on DHS funding say that they will hold the line on DHS funding until Republicans agree to Democratic demands for reform of ICE. Let’s hope so. Democrats just gave away a massive amount of leverage over DHS funding and reform.
Although the Senate Democrats undoubtedly have the best of intentions, the DHS funding bill also covers other agencies such as TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and Border Patrol. A lapse in funding for those agencies will put pressure on Democrats to end a DHS shutdown early.
A MUST SEE VIDEO on how ICE spends its money and what private companies are profiting. The amounts are enormous and appear intended to create a police surveillance state.
Democrats have to channel these funds into immigration reforms, like minimum standards of care for those in ICE and CBP detention facilities, and expansion of immigration courts that are under the DOJ to clear the backlog of cases with nonpartisan judges.
It's not clear to me that Schumer and company are aware of the extent of the threat. It looks to me like there is a lack of imagination as to the extent of oversight that is required. At least publicly, Dems are fighting the fight to get in the door at existing facilities and not overseeing the expansion plans of the corporate giants that will be providing these services.
What is keeping Congress from impeaching this anti-Constitution excuse for a president. The whole world is watching the US fail. No one will trust our country again because House Republicans won’t do their job. They have already cost the US so much in soft power. We are about as trustworthy as Russia now.
“What is keeping Congress from impeaching this anti-Constitution excuse for a president.” That’s easy. Tens of millions among us think all of this is just swell. The media gets all breathless reporting that 50+% disapprove of him and his dictatorship, but the real story is that 35-40% love it. That’s what’s keeping the regime in power. If any of them stray from the cult and dare to criticize or express “concerns”, the dictator’s little thumbs go to work on his phone and the MAGAT smear machine rips into high gear, threatening to primary the offender out of office or in the case of extreme disobedience, death to them and their families. The power behind every last bit of this insanity is political support from the white christian mob, and includes the billionaire class, the high court, corporate leadership, Wall Street and legacy media. The entire power structure of this country is in on the fix. This is what we’re up against. It’s going to be a long slog ridding ourselves of this shit.
And there is the problem. The Republicans who cling to their positions rather than doing the job of representing their constituents AND doing what is right for the Country. They lack the ability to act ethically because they lack ethics and morality, all the while claiming their “devout” Christianity. Slowly, with what we are seeing in Chicago,Minneapolis and other targets of this administration’s rampage more white people are finally waking up to how wrong they were to trust a convicted felon with a history of greed, incompetence and arrogance.
When will we stop talking about “the narrative” or “changing the narrative”? When will “talk” return to the facts, the situation, or even possibly the truth? Talking about the narrative or changing the narrative does not expose the impact of diversion & distraction.
What follows is an extended excerpt from a piece that appeared today in Verfassungsblog -a German publication dedicated to all things Constitutional. A link to the full issue is included below – there is no paywall.
I highly recommend this publication to all who have an interest in Constitutional government.
From:
A Letter from Minneapolis
From the Periphery to the Center
by Emmanuel Mauleón, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School.
From Minneapolis, this surge is not experienced as doctrinal abstraction but as anxious anticipation: who will be stopped, who will be questioned, who must prepare to justify their presence. I witness this not only as a legal academic, but as a U.S. citizen born in Mexico, formally secure yet read as suspect. It is an experience that makes visible how constitutional change is absorbed in everyday life long before it can be litigated.
Traditional remedies struggle to keep pace. Suppression doctrines operate retrospectively and reach only a fraction of encounters. Civil litigation is slow and often foreclosed by immunity. The gap between constitutional promise and practice is a chasm. That space has become visible even to institutional actors typically oriented toward procedural restraint. This week, faculty at my institution issued an open letter (written in individual capacities) describing ICE and CBP presence as involving repeated violations of fundamental constitutional guarantees. Its significance lies less in the force of its claims than in what it signals more broadly: that silence has become indefensible, and familiar forms of professional caution cannot meet the moment.
At the same time, dissent has not disappeared; it has been temporally displaced. Courts and institutions speak after the fact, in opinions, injunctions, and appeals. People in Minneapolis—aware that by the time commentators achieve consensus on the arrival of constitutional crisis the material damage will already be done—are acting earlier: documenting encounters, caring for neighbors, and refusing isolation. There is no vindication in winning a constitutional battle after our communities have been trampled, neighbors disappeared, and ordinary life reorganized around fear.
I've updated it more info including Michael Cohen and Melania. There's a section (top right) where you can search by category. One shows the 8 people who died under mysterious circumstances... Just refresh your browser to see the updated version of the map.
President Trump’s administration is in so much trouble that it released a huge portion of the Epstein files as a distraction. Violating the First Amendment by indicting journalists is a new low. The Senate has woken up and detached DHS funding from the other 5 bills it’s passing. The House can go back in session to end the shutdown. They have two weeks to work on reforming ICE after declining to address health care. Protest pressure seems to have an effect. Contact your representatives and vote Blue.
ICE is the new KKK. This time it is an official federal agency with a budget in the billions and protected under various federal statutes. You can’t make this stuff up. Praise to the people of Minnesota for standing up for justice. We will all get our turn.
How in the world did we end up with masked agents? Security for the agents? Police have never worn masks. Why are Republicans allowing this? Oh right, because ICE is only targeting people of color … so white people stay silent. Shame.
How did we get here? We were dragged here by 77 million of our fellow Americans, including a significant majority of white voters. Those voters sought persecution of people they don’t like and retribution against people who voted for fair treatment of those people. They got what they voted for and are reveling in every act of persecution and retribution the Trump regime carries out. One or two percent of them may have qualms about the murder of white American citizens, especially white Americans who are not gay, but close to 40% of Americans like what they see. That 40% almost certainly stilll includes a majority of white Americans. The Republicans in Congress could remove Trump from office but will not because most white voters are still egging Trump on. Not in Minneapolis, though. People in Minneapolis have exhibited brave and persistent decency throughout this debacle. They deserve the profound thanks and the strong support from all Americans with a shred if decency in their souls.
Let's also not forget the 90 Million eligible voters who couldn't get off their asses to VOTE.
I share your anger with the people who didn't vote because their (choose one: vote doesn't matter, I don't care about politics, I forgot to change my address, I forgot, or excuse de jure); I have sympathy for those who could not get time off to vote, had no way to get to a polling place, who couldn't get child care or who found themselves expunged from voter rolls. The ones I really blame are those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman.
Speaking of voting for a woman or even women voting, John Pavlovitz who writes the substack’s “The Beautiful Mess” describes very clearly the fight we are in with white, evangelical “christians” and the future they are willing to sell their souls for. The link is here: https://open.substack.com/pub/johnpavlovitz/p/a-pastors-warning-were-not-in-a-civil?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
thank you for posting that link!
And let's not forget the "both sides are equally bad" voters, and the single issue voters who will sit out an entire election because their local, state, or Presidential candidate doesn't agree 100% with their pet issue.
This is a Democratic Party problem, not a Republican one. No matter how bad their candidates are, Republican voters ALWAYS vote if they can.
Ally, and a woman of color too. I also blame those who thought they would be safe like certain Latinos and Arab Americans and so voted for death star. No one here in Oregon has much of an excuse except the address change. Don't even need a stamp.
Exactly!
Most states had early voting and many Republican states always had mail in ballots. I cut them no slack in those states. They wanted this mayhem if it got them the cultural hatred they embrace.
Just glanced at a headline that suggested ‘HATE’ as a major ‘addiction’. Trump routinely uses demonization to inspire hatreds & milk the results.
That is why all American should vote by the method used in Oregon!!! I was not a fan at first. and still a fair percentage of Oregonians don't vote, but voting at your Kitchen table, with the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet, and League and Women's Voters guide on the table..and then dropping it off in the safety of a DropBox.
Paper Ballots, easy to scan and recount with a paper record for review...did I mention Motor-Voter and day of election registration as well. This should be the method for all Federal Elections...
I like a 'Voting Rights act' and a Constitutional Amendment to protect the 'One person, One vote' right, and get rid of gerrymandered districts.
And perhaps we should think long and hard about why 41,000,000 people in CA get two senators, while that same number of people in the collection of low population states (23 states, 42 million) get 26!!! Wyoming gets 1/300,000!!! CA gets one per 20,500,000
Of New York, Florida and Texas all get screwed too!
My solution is to make all areas with low populations territory's so no representation at all...till they combine to get to at least 5,000,000 the Senators of the Great Plains.
I agree with those sentiments, but it's time to move on and deal with what our eyes are witnessing at this moment.
And they were gullible to the Liar in Chief. When he claimed to know nothing about Project 2025, they believed him. Now we're living it.
I often think that we who do vote regularly are the real suckers, especially if voting is all we do.
We still have the freedom of speech. I have increased my emails and calls to Senator Collins and my other representatives.
But they are getting more blunt and accusatory every day. It seems to be helping because Collins was able to get Kristi Noem to back off mostly out of ME. Now, she needs to do that in MN and other places these ChristoNazis are pushing their agenda.
From Ron Filopowski/Meidas Touch…
“Sen. Susan Collins said she has gotten ICE to shut down their operation in Maine: “I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in Maine. There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here. I have been urging Noem and others in the admin to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine.”
… Amazing how differently things are handled in swing states where a Republican is facing a tough reelection battle.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/today-in-politics-bulletin-296-12926?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer
We aren't suckers. We are exercising our right to vote. The suckered are the people who buy Trump's lies.
Trump's promises make them cheer. Trump's actions make them hurt.
If voting didn't matter, GOP would not constantly work to disenfranchise voters. That's a lot of effort for something that "doesn't make a difference."
I don't think it is helpful to denigrate Americans who vote.
Kathy, I do not either. Some people cannot do more.
VOTE?? Everyone who is assaulted by ICE, or chased by ICE or shot by ICE is labelled as a terrorist. With all these terrorists running around don't you think someone will invoke the INSURRECTION ACT just before the election!!??
Joan, it's likely we will ALL have multiple chances to vote this year. There will be primaries in every state and many states will have statewide elections. Trump may try to stop these elections, but the courts will prevent that from happening. So vote every chance you have in 2026. And attend meetings of the candidates you support AND their opponents if you can. Speak up when you are at these meetings but if you can't do that, support those that speak the truth and boo the ones that don't.
Our county has a very strong Democratic Party that holds monthly meetings. At each meeting they invite one or two candidates to speak for 10 minutes and then let them answer questions. The format works for them.
And take the time to verify you voter status with your local election office. Many counties periodically purge their voter roles and many are highly partisan.
Don't wait until November, to vote because that's part of what got us into this mess.
Keep in mind that Dominion Voting Systems was bought last year by a Trump supporter who renamed it Liberty Vote.
Also keep in mind Stalin's quote that it's not who votes that matters. It's who counts the votes.
Yes, but if you vote by Mail drop your ballot into the mailbox or ballot boxes nearest you to ensure there’s not equivocation on the part of any government to disallow your vote.
He will use the insurrection act months before the midterm elections, anytime now, he will declare Martial law to suspend the midterm elections. If we don't start a revolution like Ukraines Orange Revolution now, we have little chance of saving our democracy.
No doubt whatsoever
And let’s not forget the voters who have no clue who or what they’re voting for or on! We need an educated voter!
Janice, I think you and Karen Close are referring to two different kinds of education. The U.S. is sorely deficient in both.
The "educated voters" you reference are voters who are familiar with the issues and cognizant of the consequences of their votes, one way or the other. Unfortunately, an unacceptable percentage of U.S. voters are unwilling to engage in discussions of the issues for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is a lack of ability to think critically.
Where does that ability come from? It comes from the •other• kind of education, scholastic education, which has been distorted and stunted in the U.S.
During the past half-century, educational leaders decided that science, technology, engineering, and math would be the only important subjects in the society of the future. They shifted curricula to emphasize these subjects and left the humanities behind. STEM education is important because it teaches the processing of facts, but it does not teach students how to evaluate or interpret those facts as they affect our lives. One needs critical thinking for that, and critical thinking comes from studying language, literature, visual and aural art.
Among my friends are several teachers who teach middle school or above, all of whom I love. Only one of them can spell or construct sentences above what used to be a Sixth Grade level. I don't blame them; I blame the faulty education system that produced them. But blame isn't the point. How can we expect emerging generations of U.S. citizens to choose wisely, when their teachers can't?
Dale, I am a long retired educator, but I do know a few who are still in the game and i assure you that they can spell, think critically, and even speak another language. When I taught, I did teach critical thinking. Just this week, I had a conversation with an ex-student over messenger who thanked me for doing that. Also here in Oregon there are rules in place about cell phones. I do not know how kids can learn anything when they are glued to their phones. Science should be an area where critical thinking is essential. Also I do not think that it is just STEM that is the problem, but also the pervasive negative influence of sports.
Totally agree with you, Dale. I am appalled at poor English use by adults on social media. When did diagramming sentences stop being taught?
I agree, it is a matter of uneducated voters, that’s why they shut down the Department of Education and are attacking schools, and institutions of higher education.
Lots of voter apathy, yes. Some people were banned by corrupt acts against their voting rights.
Sometimes uttering the rule of law just doesn't resonate with people who can't afford heat or food. You know, eg MCsquared is a bad political slogan.
What makes more sense, Robin,? What you wrote here or that the election was tampered with? Do you believe that Trump is above doing something like this? How about Elon with his money and Dominion voting machine...? Personally, I know I received a confirmation for registering to vote and never received a ballot. I don't live in America but I am still an American citizen...imo, the election results should have been further scrutinized...it's too late now...but it's not too late to reconsider what you have written here...
There are MANY factors here. I just added one of them.
Of those, studies indicate most would’ve supported Trump, but the rest could’ve prevented this fascist takeover. Therefore, I’m pissed at about 2/3 of the electorate!
They did not want either candidate. If for ed to vote the would have chosen manly Trump giving him a true mandate!
There is no way that he got 77M. No way a candidate campaigns the way he did and wins in an honest, fair election. He "won" in 2016, LOST in 2020 due to the massive voter turn out and "won" in 2020 due to a large massive number of suppression tactics, bomb threats in specific heavy democrat areas, reduced polling places in heavy democratic areas and with the assistance of Muskrat and his techie rats, most likely electronic manipulation. There is no other explanation. P25 authors will do ANYTHING to implement their agenda as Roberts said "a new revolution that will remain bloodless if the left allows".
In CD2 in Maine (rural and red) for the few weeks preceding the Nov election, exceedingly false and atrocious LIES were spewed into every home 24/7 via televisions that are always on. It was nonstop and it was blatant egregious lying. How does that happen without repercussions??? 🤯🤷🏻♀️ a key rule of propaganda is repetition. This is in YOUR HOME! That matters!! Citizens United and Super PACS turned “free to spend” into “free to lie”. Probably the majority of people who live in rural red America are not going to question the veracity of what gets spewed from the black boxes.
Last week Susan Collins received $40 million from a dark money PAC to be spent in August, September and October. It worked to get her reelected in 2020 and will likely work again unless we can counter every ad from every source. She is trying desperately to distance herself from Trump and the administration. Hopefully, it turns out to be a fools errand.
She is good friends with Russell Vought and Leonard Leo and she has paid her dues by approving nominations of dozens of their Fascist friends.
We need to send out multiple mailings to every Republican in Penobscot, Washington, Hancock, Knox and Aristook every week starting in August. She cannot be reelected because she supports the nominations of every ChristoFascist in public office.
She is very good at targeting pockets of her constituents with pet projects that benefit them and then making sure she gets credit for doing something good for them. Quid pro quo. She bows to fascism as long as she gets her goodies to appease her lily white constitutents. You might wonder how Aroostook forgives her for their latest obstacles getting back and forth over the border.
“Yes, Maine-Canada border crossings have become more difficult and scrutinized in 2025-2026, with significantly higher scrutiny, increased interrogations, and longer, more rigorous screenings reported. Stricter immigration policies and increased security, including new vehicle barriers, have resulted in a roughly 25-30% drop in crossings, with many travellers facing longer, more intense, or hostile questioning.” A lot of that are Canadians not coming here but I imagine that there are numbers of extended families separated by the border. It’s a lot of border!
John Roberts in Citizens United in favor of dark money gave US that.
The Dems have got to start branding their GOP opponents as Fascist and the GOP as the Fascist Party now. The fact that it is true is more than enough to do so.
Finally a chance to turn Citizens United around. Jeff Clements on Citizens United and Campaign Spending Reform with HCR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhSVDCKIfc
I wish there was a transcript.
Thank you for this link. Very informative!
Why are you arguing this bizarre, ridiculous point in January 2026 when people are being arrested, persecuted, the Constitution is being violated every day? It is the exact same thing as Trump obsessing over those 11,780 votes in Georgia. What is the point? What does this get you at the end of the day? How does it help you deal with the present?
There is certainly another explanation. It happened. A cult took hold and it voted. And now we pay the consequences.
There is absolutely nothing bizarre about questioning election processes when it’s our only democratic means of escaping this HELL. We have to understand how it happened if we want to know how to avoid the same outcome repeatedly. I am suspicious of the motives of anyone that calls this a ridiculous point
He's not questioning. He's conspiracizing. Same as Trump.
Rickey Woody, we need your energy to deal with the here and now. We need to all work to prevent a debacle from claiming the elections this year. You may be right or wrong about the 2024 election, but we need to hold strong in every state to make sure the elections this year take place and are fair.
trump's been described as the most dangerous con artist ever and a superior propagandist. If maga had any education, esp. in economics, which I don't know if our schools teach, they would have understood the effects of tariffs which trump was peddling during his campaign speeches.
Mr. Woody, I at least feel the way you do. I am not an investigatve journalist but I still have real doubts about trumps ear being shot in Butler Pennsylvania as well as having doubts about the 2024 elections. All I can find in the investigative flies of the incident is the failure of law enforcement to adequately protect trump and the crowd. I can't find any reports that prove the ballistics came from each gun. Questions remain about the healing of trump's ear. We know now trump and his entire regime have zero compunction against killing whoever they want to achieve their goals.
But knowing that, what do we do about the midterms, or as someone mentioned earlier, what about all the elections in 2026. Lord knows that maga has so influenced the negative effect on the rest of the world that if the House and Senate aren't flipped relations to the rest of the world will be permanently damaged and that's not to mention the increase in tyranny within our country itself. I don't know what election officials are doing ahead of time to help insure a fair and safe election but I do hope they are being proactive about the likely hood of trump violence during the election. We all know there is no Department of Justice left and only individual judges with integrity left, is that enough to save us?
I wish, hope for strategies to come out to either prevent the violence or to combat the violence to be made public. If we don't win this election.......
No one wants to think that 77 million of our family, friends and neighbors are Christonazi white supremacists. So we all say 'can't be true'. 'He didn't get the votes.'
But honestly I won't be surprised if he did get the votes. Not because all 77 million of them are horrible people but because they are too stupid to actually be able to sift the truth from the lies. They live in bubbles of bs created by Faux News, vile social media and Trump himself.
I have a friend, she's Canadian. She's been living here for decades. She's married to an American and has been for many years. She's a loyal and caring person. She was a social worker for years before she retired. She would give you the shirt off her back. And she still thinks that Trump hung the moon. Everything we say to the contrary is 'fake news'. She won't believe it until they have her in a camp. And even then she will blame Noam and not him. We just don't 'understand him'. "He's a good man who's had to work hard his whole life." There is nothing I can say to get her to change her mind because she feels that I am the deluded one who doesn't know 'the truth'.
I limit my time with her and console myself with the fact that she can't vote.
So I guess.. long story short. I believe they voted for him. I just really think that they are too fucking stupid to understand what they voted for.
BLB, I agree they failed to understand what they voted for.
Stupidity played a part. So did greed. Racism, misogyny obviously. Childishness.
I think some of it was just they wanted a change, no matter what kind of change it was actually advertised to be. “I will be your retribution!” Is that word even in their vocabularies? The wealthy get tax cuts, I get cuts to the safety net, but I get Retribution, so it’s OK.
Ricky, pretty sure you meant 2024 here: “and "won" in 2020” 🙃
In support of Ricky expressing an opinion that some vehemently seem to want to shut up, I am adding a few supporting links.
“InsightsPod failed because accessing Twitter data cost more than the business model could sustain. Khan was trying to build by paying for limited API access while harvesting enough data to make election predictions work.
Elon Musk eliminated that problem entirely when he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, because owning the platform means owning the data stream, the recommendation algorithm, and the ability to determine what billions of people see and when they see it. His first moves after acquisition are worth examining. He dissolved the Trust and Safety Council in December 2022, gutted the Civic Integrity team responsible for monitoring election manipulation, and eliminated it entirely by September 2023 while restricting researcher access to the data that had enabled independent study of how information spreads on the platform.
He did all of this before spending $290 million on the 2024 presidential election through America PAC, before appearing at Trump rallies, before advising the campaign, and before taking a position in the administration.”
https://substack.com/home/post/p-183053529
https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/
Subscribe to Marc Elias if you want to help save our Constitution:
https://elias.law/press-release/elias-law-group-intervenes-to-protect-voters-in-eight-doj-voter-data-lawsuits/
“The right wing is absolutely using litigation to advance a larger strategy. Republicans know exactly what they are doing. They know their policies are unpopular, and they know their only chance to stave off a major defeat in 2026 is to rig elections through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and election subversion.
Third-party voter challenges are among the most harmful tools in the voter suppression toolbox. Republican activists have built private voter databases to submit lists of voters they want removed from the rolls or hassled at polling places. In practice, third-party voter challenges do not uncover voter fraud. There is no legitimate reason to allow these right-wing activists to file mass voter challenges.”
No, you give the American general electorate way too much credit.
We're like that guy at the gym, exercising every muscle but the one between his ears.
How did we get here? To mobilize Resistance effective enough to achieve Liberation, we need to understand that Trump, the ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making. To discover the carefully hidden poisonous roots of Trump's "Unified Reich," go here: https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
Loren … I know how we got here, and everyone needs to know. Authoritarians have learned how to hack the brains of their followers. There’s only one way to stop this. We need people of good faith to understand how the bad guys do it.
The bad news: it’s hard. The good news: it’s simple. We just need to start a public conversation on a simple brain science experiment described in a paper published in 1983 by American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet.
Unfortunately, Libet misinterpreted the data from his own experiment, and the mistake remains uncorrected in the field of psychology’s body of knowledge. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to understand. The hard part is the willingness to be skeptical of your own unspoken assumptions about how the mind works.
Warning: the authoritarians “know” we haven’t figured this out yet and they’re using their knowledge against us.
The link to the text version of the essay I published on January 30 is here: https://jamesrcarey.substack.com/p/solving-the-meta-problem-e16?r=2nayrh
The alliance between the extremely uneducated white poor fundamentalist christians, and the ultra wealthy is held together by racism and born of racism, and is long standing. Among the most racist wealthy are the republicans, especially ones in congress. Racism runs deep, and I dare say it was and may still be at the very bedrock that holds up the foundation of our government. We didn’t arrive here suddenly. We have always been here. The current human rights abuses are happening because actions and ideas that are necessary to root out or find a way to create a government not rooted in racism have been actively fought by those who want to get or hold on to power.
You are right: Trump didn't create this latest round of virulent racism/anti-immigrant. He unleashed and legitimated it, made race hatred patriotic. But this is how America has treated nonwhite immigrants throughout history. The question is whether it's who we want to be in the future....
The Horatio Alger myth plays a part as well.
Please explain. I want to learn.
Sheri, Doc Blasé's explanation is correct, but failed to mention how it affects elections.
When poorly educated, low-wage earners believe they might someday become millionaires, given just the right break, they are willing to vote against their current interests to protect the interests of the wealthy, in hopes that they'll one day be among them.
The Horatio Alger myth refers to the belief that anyone can achieve success and upward social mobility through hard work and determination, as illustrated in Horatio Alger's novels.
These stories often depict impoverished youths who, through perseverance and luck, rise to prosperity by helping wealthy individuals.
The use of modern technology of Social media and the algorithms to understand how to manipulate Social media users became a major tool during 2015 when trumps campaign and the UKs Brexit movement used Facebook data and algorithms to manipulate people to believe the big lies and vote against their own best interests. As the tech evolves, it gets better at manipulating the vote.
OK, but Trump and Trump voters didn't come out of nowhere. Two just-published books focus on Bernhard Goetz's 1984 shooting of four Black teenagers in NYC to explore the rise of "white rage" from the Reagan administration onward: FEAR AND FURY, by Heather Ann Thompson (Pantheon), and FIVE BULLETS, by Elliot Williams (Penguin).
And Trump continued to publicly demean the "Central Park 5" long after they were acquitted - including by placing a full page ad in the NYT. And Trump's father was prosecuted for discriminatory rental activity. The slime goes way back in time.
Remember his philosophy is never back down, never apologize.
And blame others for what you, yourself, are doing...both, courtesy of his mentor, Roy Cohn...consider what this might mean, in terms of the '2020 and 2024 elections...
And "do your damndest to make sure key parts of the Epstein files never see the light of day."
Ms. Sturgis...It goes back far beyond Subway Vigilante Goetz, at the very least to the end of Reconstruction in 1878. Please see the "How did we get here" information I posted in response to Mr. Page. (Yes, with its included documentary film on USian support for Hitler, it's a bit of a study, but it is absolutely vital information, which is why I will continue posting it, in company with four other vitally informative posts, as long as I am able.) And yes, I was in Manhattan when Goetz shot those robbers -- and astonished, then appalled (as were my friends), by the outpouring of anti-Black hatred. It was painfully eye-opening, as we had all believed New Yorkers were better than the bottomlessly hateful bigots we knew dominated "out there in white America."
Of course it does. That's why I keep posting comments here and elsewhere urging people to learn, or re-learn, some U.S. history. Can't remember whether I posted this on "Letters to an American" or elsewhere, but here's a sample:
"At this point I'll agree that some comparisons to Nazi Germany are warranted, but can we please pay a little more attention to the antebellum U.S. South and especially to Jim Crow, which rose in the wake of the Confederate "defeat" and reigned till the mid 1960s? Hitler and his cronies were inspired by Jim Crow in developing their own race laws. ICE has a few things in common with the slave patrols and the later Ku Klux Klan, whose members included plenty of elected officials and law enforcement officers.
"The activists in Minneapolis and elsewhere are worthy successors to both the pre–Civil War abolitionists and the civil rights workers of the mid-20th century."
Elsewhere I and others have commented on how the white Southern Democrats kept the New Deal and the GI Bill out of reach for most Black people -- before they left the Dems after the civil rights advances of the mid-1960s, helping turn what was once "the party of Lincoln" into the party of aggrieved white people that elected Reagan, two Bushes, and finally Trump. "Anti-Black hatred," IOW, was festering long before Bernie Goetz did his thing ("shot those robbers"? You mean "shot those teenage panhandlers"?). L-O-N-G before -- you're familiar, of course, with "the Lost Cause" and "the South will rise again"?
There's also the internment (and dispossession) of Japanese Americans in 1942, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, etc., but that's more than enough for one comment.
As you'll see from the "Outside Agitator's Notebook" links I posted, we're at least partly on the same page. Suspect you'd also agree with my hypothesis about why history is the most despised subject in USian K-12 schools, hated by brains, socialites and hoods alike. (I was a brain -- managing editor of me school paper, club photographer for the annual -- but I hung with the hoods.)
Reason history was so despised? The bureaucrats insisted it be taught by the coaches -- the most moronic, fanatical anti-intellectuals on the faculty -- and they taught it accordingly: an infinitely boring exercise in rote-memory recitation of names, events and dates. Zzzzzzzzzz.... (One of my high-school girlfriends -- overworked and under-slept by the necessity of parenting of her younger sibs mandated by a broken family -- used her history classes for napping; she was bright enough to make all As, and she did so in history because she was adept at memorizing -- you guessed it -- the requisite names, events and dates in a night or two of pre-exam cramming.) Me, I was raised on history; my boarding-school-educated father turned Marxian by the crash of '29, and my interest in history the reason I sometimes got ousted from high school history classes but also part of my interdisciplinary BA and a lifelong reading topic, 50-odd volumes in my personal library. In fact I am always a bit turned around whenever I hear somebody say they think our species' story is boring. Your sample is excellent work. Please continue; the more people we awaken, the better chances we have of winning.
(Oh and I stand corrected on calling those kids "robbers." Thank you for pointing out my error. My recollective power remains good as I approach my 86th and almost certainly final year -- according to the cardiologist I should be already dead -- but it's not perfect. Apropos longevity, they said my father'd be dead by '43, and he made it to '71, so maybe that genetic history is also working for me too.)
Yes - Thompson was a guest on NPR. She has done her research. Very thorough.
Her previous book, on the Attica uprising of 1971, is also excellent.
How many of you participated in the general strike yesterday?
It looks like hundreds of colleges and universities did, but the press coverage is very thin.
Fuck the oligarchs and their corporate sponsored media.
I am irate that the Dem talking heads aren't highlighting protests.
Some are. On MSNOW, one of them pointed out the hypocrisy of Trump, Patel and others declaring it is wrong to bring a gun to a rally.
But apparently, it's ok for Proud Boys and other Trump Fascists to bring AR15s into the US Capital and the Michigan and Wisconsin state capital buildings.
Of course, we've already determined there is no red line for Trump Christonazis, but the 2nd amendment???? Really?
They didn't ask people to join the national protest yesterday!
They should be following the antics of the 4 Minnesota House Republicans, put microphones in front of them continually. Speak to their donors. Family.
Our Dem Governor doesn't even join us when our protests happen on the State capitol grounds. NO Kings I? Nothing. May Day? Nothing. Hands Off? Nothing. No Kings II? Nothing.
I know this because I was at every one.
I didn't vote for the puke, either. That was my first vote for a Repub in 43 years (because I knew he had no chance to win in the first place and second, would have been a better Governor than this useless sack of protoplasm.)
What part of the country, Doc?
Where are you?
I did. My measly contribution was not hitting Starbucks and grilling stuff I'd already purchased for dinner. I did not go to the scheduled protest last night (being mobility limited at the moment I did not want to run the risk of the chowderheads turning into a riot, which they did, although the PD called it a "riot" it didn't seem that way to me; it was pretty rowdy, however.)
https://thatoregonlife.com/2026/01/riot-declared-outside-eugene-federal-building-amid-anti-ice-demonstrations/
I have a sister who is/was a trumper. Her son, my nephew had a major stroke in 2020. He is pretty much disabled. He is a Navy vet. He had benefits like a caregiver etc. which just got taken away. Now my sister is paying attention to what the government is doing as it is affected her life in “life changing” ways as she now has to figure out how to take care of my nephew and also work. FAFO, I guess.
I get that some people (maybe most people) don’t think “politics” affects them, wrongly for sure. Maybe this is how your sister had to find out.
I am sorry about your nephew and sister. This is not an easy road. I see no reason to say things like she got what she deserved. Accept her turn away from Trump with grace. We need every vote we can get.
I hardly feel like she or my nephew deserve this. However, I wish She had paid more attention to Project 2025 and what the far right wants to do to dismantle the government and its services. This is what is affecting her and my nephew and so many others now. They put their ideas out there and no one believed them (at least Trump voters).
P2025 specifically mentioned veterans services. I think she is not alone in either paying no attention to or even hearing of P2025. So many people did that. My husband reminds me often that most people are not as deeply into politics as I am (and have always been).
But I do struggle with people paying NO attention. And unfortunately many find out the really hard way, like your nephew. It's so sad.
I don’t remember where I read this, maybe it was Dr. Richardson, but the almost 40% (I think it’s actually 38% as of now) is really close to the bottom of the curve because of the Christofascists that will never be persuaded otherwise.
One thing I find equally disturbing is the percentage of African-Americans following the Black Conservative Movement that still support this regime.
Regardless…I will continue to stand and shout…they can’t kill us all! I learned a long time ago at the hands of an abusive father to take a stand by laughing at my aggressor. These fools can kiss my granny behind!!
Sister, I call that kiss my "lily white @$$"
I think that the solid 39% approval rating is the vestiges of the confederacy that holds to a white, male dominated social order.
RESISTOR Sister 💟✌️☮️
🤛🗽
Rex, I get it. I've seen the other suggestions for you here. But before you do all of that, please just go to you tube and watch Mayor Pete's recent town hall in Wisconsin. I was very moved by it. It might renew your faith in our fellow citizens a little.
What good do comments like this do to Help us heal and Move Forward to create the UNITED STATES we want for our children’s Future? Please.. a. Lot of our friends and families are understanding that they were Lied to and they are being Courageous and and deserve Respect as they join us in the Streets ! Please.
Trump-ish syntax, interesting.
I'm sure you all have seen the movie Zone of Interest. Similarities: Nazi personnel knew how to suck up to their superiors; the apathy and indifference by the family living right next to the ovens roaring 24/7; deportations; murder; Nazis enjoying elegant parties; main character (Hoss) having sex with a domestic worker; the covetousness of the women pawing through the clothes and other personal items that once belonged to the Jews. Similar behavior and attitudes exhibited by maga and government officials.
Never heard of The Zone of Interest. I'll check it out.
Edit to add:
Wow, that was (in HCR's terminology) a rabbit hole for sure. Rudolf Höss was a real person, commander of Auschwitz. The movie is based on the book by Martin Amis.
The movie is available on Amazon Prime, if you remain a member. I saw it at the theater several years ago. And Hoss was executed in 1947.
Throughout the history of our country a stubborn, sinister strain of racists and fascists have been a disturbing component of the US electorate. Their influence has been ignited by the likes of Peter Theil, Elon Musk, and a gaggle of other billionaire techbros, their objective being to use this perverse aggrieved strain in our electorate to nullify our constitution so a select few billionaires can establish a kleptocracy.
This aggrieved strain loves the chaos and gratuitous cruelty of the Trump regime. Most poll show that ~35% of the electorate are proud to have Trump as president! We have work to do!! We must push back relentlessly to force the techbros, fascists, racists, and others in the constitution demolition horde to slither back under their rocks.
The aggrieved have their own sources of information. On News Hour yesterday, “conservative” Gary Abernathy pointed to a DHS website with the rap sheets listing all the murderers, rapists, etc., they have deported. This was his response to the statistic that 90 percent or more of those ICE arrested had never been charged with any crime.
I think it should be more widely noted that crossing the border without permission is a misdemeanor. Not a felony.
Our trash can at our local PO overflows with those mailings every election cycle. Folks don’t even take them home. We need geniuses to come up with alternative ways of defeating the propaganda. How do we create a thirst for truth over fake fuckery? Like their love of fake gold spray painted everywhere, the eye-catching, fast moving, emotional hook of drama from their black boxes is the cyanide in the koolaide.
Trump's supporters are white faux Christians who support a white Christian [sic] theocracy, replacing the current democratic process. Racism is at its core, though there are some Christians who aren't racists who still support the idea of a Christian government. Trump's racism, and his pitch to the "Christians," are Trump's "ace-in-the-hole" for his support. At the Believers' Summit on 7-27-2024, hosted by Charlie Kirk, Trump told those gathered there: "Vote this time, Christians. Just vote this time. You won't have to ever do it again. In four years it will be fixed. You won't have to vote again. I'm a Christian."
Exactly! I’ve said all along that our fellow citizens support Trump because he says out loud what they have been thinking. He’s given them license to do the same. We are in this place by our own choice!
Rex, a good number of Latinos also voted for death star and some are now regretting that. All of our white friends are absolutely against this. I am not saying that we do not have a lot of white racists in the country, but I am not going to bring out the broad brush. And yes, I have encountered several people who are denying what is front of their eyes. For centuries in this country white people enjoyed being top dogs just because of skin color, nothing else. For nearly as long women were basically chattel and gay people were mostly in the closet. This is the politics of resentment for any gains these groups have made.
True. Probably misogyny. Anyone who voted for Trump committed a crime against humanity. I haven’t tracked down the demographic fractions in the Trump-voter population, but I’m confident over 90% of Trump voters were non-Latino white people. White people are the problem.
Well, those masks certainly aren’t being worn because of their sudden concern for Covid! It’s really quite ironic that these reassigned Proud Boys and other proto-Fascists are suddenly willing to wear masks. These masked ICE agents are cowards, the lot of them!
Arctic - You are right! These are the same knuckle-draggers that wouldn’t put a mask on for covid!
"We need to go out into the street. Protest, put our bodies on the line, strike, organize, be ready to engage in community self-defense, and not just rhetorically. We need to actually do it. Believe me, if enough of us go, if all who oppose fascism get motivated and activated, then we can shut this shit down."
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/p/the-prison-you-can-find-yourself
Great advice Matthew! It worked for me. Try it people! You might enjoy it like I did. But be careful out there.
Matthew Foresta, you are so right. What a great quote. Everyone reading, please act! There are protests around the country today. Go to one. Help prepare for No Kings 3 on March 28. Things are happening. Be part of it.
Maybe when you go out there and protest, you could have signs that suggest your alternative policies. I doubt it, you have not suggested ANY alternative policies except: Resist. Keep doing this without alternative policies and we will have President Vance. You are just presenting a bunch of Noise.
It is the masks which prompted my comparison to the KKK. It terrorizes, hides their identity,lessens accountability, and makes for maximum violence against citizens. But the comparisons to the Gestapo, SS, SA are also valid. A private army accountable only to t.
I expect many of them are law enforcement that lost their jobs because they refused to wear them
Haha! Thank you ArticStones. I've been waiting for an opportunity to say just that for some time now.
Noem says they must wear masks to protect themselves from protestors. However, they are ones with the weapons! The protestors are NOT brandishing weapons at ICE. They are however using their words and signs to express their disgust and like the old saying goes…sticks & stones may break my bones but words will really hurt me. Guess those words being ‘thrown” around are really hurtful, eh?
I read an article in The Atlantic yesterday in which Enrique Tarrio was interviewed about the apparent lack of activity from the Proud Boys. He said the government (ICE and CBP) is doing their work now.
Did Tarrio say anything about ICE recruitment? About how many Proud Boys are now employed by ICE or CBP?
As you can guess, he deflected that comment. If he even knows.
The irony! They no longer think of masks as “muzzles”. 🤮
CathyW- “Private detention centers and for-profit prison companies are positioned for massive financial gains under the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which prioritize expanded detention and mass deportations. Roughly 90% of immigrant detention in the U.S. is handled by private, for-profit corporations, with billion-dollar contracts fueling the industry.”
It's also worth noting that these for-profit prison companies profited handsomely from the "war on drugs," which instituted mandatory sentences, tended to target people of color, and led to a huge increase in the U.S. prison population. THE NEW JIM CROW, Michelle Alexander's 2010 book about mass incarceration, is good on this.
State and federal prisons are also “for profit” as they exploit people who are incarcerated for cheap labor.
Which was why Holman had his lunch bag stuffed with $50 K, right?
Call out the names of those connected to these Private owners of For Profits Prisons. Especially those in Brentwood TN .
We need to call these so-called “detention centers” what they really are: concentration camps. We’ve heard that the conditions in them are appalling.
This really makes my blood boil. How did we get here?
They are NO-BID contracts also which make them highly suspicious. The people who own those prisons are all people within the felon’s inner circle. Hmmmm…kinda smells funny, don’t you think.
Ice are booggaloo boys and oath keepers whose felonies were pardoned.
And we all know it. Now what to do about it?
Domonstrate! Demonstrate! Be out on the street today! Get ready for No Kings 3 on March 28!
Maybe when you go out there and protest, you could have signs that suggest your alternative policies. I doubt it, you have not suggested ANY alternative policies except: Resist. Keep doing this without alternative policies and we will have President Vance. You are just presenting a bunch of Noise.
Thanks so much for your positive response to my note. I completely agree we need to be working on a platform for the government to stand on. What are your ideas? No doubt we all have ideas. I wish the Dems were providing some leadership on this. However, if we aren’t demonstrating and resisting at the same time, we aren’t going to have the opportunity to mount our platform, no matter how good it is.
Ideally cong should hearings to see whether they have criminal record and what their qualifications are. When public officials murder 2 people and have masked you'd think someone sitting in the Capitol would ask their backgrounds. Apparently congress is going by fascist rules as well.
It was not Murder, they both impeded the lawful ICE agents doing their jobs and should have retreated instead and would be alive. I dare you to watch this: https://youtu.be/QePoawDA_48 and learn something about protesting and the right to carry.
Huh, George Dunn, thanks for expressing up your opinion. You have the right to have weird ideas, just like any American, if you are one. If you look at the videos you can see that they were not in the way of the ICE agents. I would love to see the agents come to trial so we could get a judge and a jury of their peers to look with care at the facts. Do you think the agents could receive a fair trial? I’m not sure they would, if you look at Trump’s record for the last 50 years of using the courts to harass his workers and other miscellaneous people he was trying to con or take advantage of. Plus, the attorney general and president both have already decided the outcome. So I doubt the agents could get a fair trial.
November 3rd, 2026.
All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress.
Yes, JBR. They stood back and stood by until their dear leader called them into service as ICE and CBP employees. Thugs 'R Us.
JBR you are absolutely, even if they don’t have a day in court they surely will suffer, and none of us gets out of this life without paying for our transgressions!
The $50,000 accepted by Tom Homan in the 2024 sting operation was allegedly in exchange for promising to steer government contracts to businesses once he joined the Trump administration as "Border Czar". To securing influence over future immigration-related government contracts for detention (concentration) centers.
Homan is worse than Bovino he’s the kind of creature that sees “maximum pain to get maximum results”. Bovino is for the optics -Homan is willing to cut deeper and use children to get more results…
Homan is also worse because he's smart and sneaky. I expect the L-ICE-holes to become low-profile sneaky-sneak creatures pretty soon.
It'll be advertised as "standing down," but the reality will be persistence, this time out of public view.
"Police have never worn masks"?? Beg to differ. As a marshal at many anti-Vietnam War and other demos in D.C., I saw the CDU (Civil Disturbance Unit) cops wearing gas masks that disguised their features and taped-over name tags to conceal their identity. This wasn't unique to that time and place either. We could also get into the law enforcement officers who were known to wear Klan robes and go night-riding, but that's a little different.
Susanna - Vietnam protests were quite a while ago. I guess I haven’t seen police with masks.
Cathy, I saw what Susanna was talking about on television. It's true. And surely you've heard of the KKK. You have access to the internet. You could look it up.
Right. Masks are not new when violation of rights are going on, such as the KKK. Of course, the KKK is not local law enforcement. In my personal experience, I have never seen local law enforcement in my area in my lifetime wear masks.
Guess what Cathy Wampler? I have never seen that in person either, but I saw it on television as I said. But I can see that you are cynical and I don't know how I could show you that it's true. Whatever! The more important point is that it's happening now, and it's cowardly. It's unconstitutional. It's immoral. Trump's domestic army is trying to destroy our great democracy. It's not too late to stop this. If you don't believe this then I wish you farewell.
Cathy, that's my #1 point. If you'd said "I haven't seen police with masks," that would have been fine. But you wrote "Police have never worn masks." That's different. It denies the experience of those of us who've seen otherwise, on TV or in person. Fwiw, I grew up in a very white suburb of Boston. Police officers were friendly and often neighbors. In 1969 I moved to D.C. for college. My view of "law enforcement" in general expanded PDQ. I learned about "the talk" that young Black kids, especially Black boys, get when they're 6 or 7, about how to relate to law enforcement without getting arrested or shot. I realized how sheltered I had been as a white native-English-speaking female in the suburbs. I also learned that once I got involved in antiwar and student activism, being a white native-English-speaking female wasn't going to protect me 24/7. Nothing I've seen or learned in the decades since has disproved those lessons. What's happening in Minneapolis is horrifying, but we've been headed in this direction for a long time -- since the founding, in many ways. But this time the whole world is watching in real time.
You're right, but it seems like only a couple of years ago to me. Ref. the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 1968.
Not fun in the Summertime.
There is a difference between a gas mask (which is really freaking uncomfortable to wear and engage in any sort of activity while wearing and is an absolute necessity if you're deploying irritants, chemical or otherwise) and a neck gaiter pulled up over your mouth and nose to disguise yourself.
Indeed, Ms. Sturgis. I was in both Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam-War movements, so I can attest equally to the badge-taped NYPD cops, the taped-masked DC cops and the Ku Klux Kops of the 1960s Southron Klanfederacy. You might find these of interest:
https://lorenbliss-outsideagitatorsnotebook.blogspot.com/2025/10/censorship-lessons-from-nader-and.html ("Censorship" is mostly about the 1963 anti-Civil-Rights-Movement atrocity in Knoxville, Tennessee, which has basically been censored out of history.)
https://lorenbliss-outsideagitatorsnotebook.blogspot.com/2025/11/suppressed-history-1967-memorial-day.html
Republicans are evil!
to be more specific - conservative leadership. I know a lot of good people that are conservatives who are not happy with the Constitutional trashing and they are getting fed up. They have become open to voting for democrats. Not enough of them, but they are beginning to see that those tax savings are turning into their costs which leads to a shrinking pay check wiping out those savings.
I "liked" you for your "masked agents...targeting people of color" comment, but Vietnam-era protests were often suppressed -- no matter whether under Democrat LBJ or Republican Trickster Dick -- by gas-masked thugs with nameplates and badges covered with tape to prevent identification.
That's right Loren. And sometimes we forget that some people are too young to remember what happened at the Democratic Convention in 1968 in Chicago. Actual police officers literally busted a lot of heads. 1968 was a horrible year. We survived that and maybe that's your point. And I know that the tide of public opinion has turned, but it we don't do whats necessary 2026 could be even worse. This is Trump, not Johnson and Nixon. Once again: Now is the time to come to the aid of our country.
Now is the time -- if I may resurrect a '60s slogan -- to RISE UP ANGRY!
It sounds like you have been holding government accountable for a long time. 🙌
We try.
We are doing our best once again. Everyone has to act, not just stay home and worry.
But the persistence of those protests finally convinced LBJ that that stupid war had no support in the American public. At least LBJ was willing to listen to the will of the people. Trump seeks to crush it.
Remember that DHS came out of 9/11, formed in 2003. During a period of racism, xenophobia and “must get the terrorists at all costs,” we were willing to make an agency that didn’t have appropriate checks/balances… that is how we have gotten to where we are, specific to DHS. And this is why we must abolish it. Experts warned us that DHS could be turned back around on us… we didn’t listen.
L M, I voiced that concern in 2003 while I was still employed (and in the middle of what is often the most influential part of a law enforcement career, the 3rd quarter). A number of local cops took a year leave of absence to go train people in Kuwait, some resigned and took active duty military positions, and a lot had reserve deployments to the Sandbox.
The true escalation of force in law enforcement coupled with the acquisition of military surplus equipment and a number of GWOT veterans entering civilian law enforcement happened between 2014 and 2020. This is when the BLM movement was kicked off in 2015 with the killing of Michael Brown in Saint Louis and culminated in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
I have always regarded 9/11 as our Reichstag Fire, and have called it that in blog-print and comments more times than I can count. (Which is, of course, why I am now about as welcome in the halls of mainstream media as a kielbasa-sized turd in a debutante-cotillion punch-bowl.)
Loren, in retrospect, that comparison makes sense. I wish HCR would consider doing a letter/video about the history of how DHS came to be.
We got here because of racism, hatred and ignorance. And great numbers of white people are NOT staying silent. ICE is targeting anyone who gets in their way, not just people of color. The only ones staying silent are the racists who harbor hate and remain ignorant to the fact that they will be on the menu if it suits the nazis, too. That applies to the republicans in Congress who are failing the country by not acting to get these ctiminals out of office.
Respectfully Celeste, this is not true: 'The only ones staying silent are the racists who harbor hate.' I have white friends who are too afraid to speak up.
Thank you, Marj, There are many people who, either through fear or learned passivity, are not speaking up. But we can’t let that slow us down. There is great urgency here, today, now. Act!
Fear. It's one of the tactics by trump and his nazis.
Comfort your friends and support them. There are other ways of fighting against this criminal regime. Make sure they vote.
Celeste - Well said!
Reread HCR. It is WHITE people protesting!
White people in Minneapolis (or, to some extent, any big city) are not representative of white Americans as a whole. Roughly 40% of white Americans are decent human beings. The other 60% aren’t.
I keep asking and will keep asking that same question: Why the masks? Why are ICE agents masked when police and military are not masked? Definitely a KKK thing going on there.
I can’t understand this post. Do you disagree with Heather’s words? What color are the two people shot and killed in Minneapolis? I am not saying this is not driven by racist motivation, but this post is out of touch.
...the two people killed in the public square looked pretty white!
250 years ago the Founders/Framers of our radical "experiment" in democracy created a republican/representative form of governance in which the governed rule through the election of representatives. Giving "We the People" the power of self rule was radical and antithetical to Kings, British royalists and white ruling elites. Since then we have struggled, fought a Civil War and brought political pressure on our system to expand the rights of "equality" to Black Americans, women and multitudes of immigrants from around the world. For the past year We the People have been attacked and at War. Our constitutional traditions of self rule governed by clear laws have been attacked by an autocratic POTUS, his many racist and elitist, corrupt advisors and syncophats and his rouge army of lethal foot soldiers. We have been fighting back in limited ways since the war began. Now the Resistence and pushback is growing everywhere across America. The vast majority of Americans, regardless of party, are appalled by the Fascist behavior going on all around us. POTUS's approval has plummeted. We have entered the "Fog of War". The enemy's propaganda wing has gone into overdrive pretending to modify its Fascist behavior as a result of negative public opinion. DO NOT BE FOOLED! They are trying to splinter our Resistence. They will fail if we accelerate our fight. A national Strike, economic botcotts on businesses that support Trump, use the National Guard to protect people in BLUE STATES under attack by ICE, join local marches, make "good trouble", accelerate the pressure on public officials to just say "NO" and so forth. The Fascists will lose this war, not because they are weak, but because the People are stronger. The Fascists cannot imagine the devotion of the People to our liberty and our laws framed 250 years ago. They cannot imagine our persistent idealism. We will win and they will go back to their caves to wait for their next opportunity.
No it is because the GOP is the Fascist Party.
The GOP must die in 2026!
The flood of new Epstein Files speaks loudly about the deep panic the Trump Regime is feeling. When Mad King Donald would rather shift attention back to the Trump-Epstein Files, rather than have the focus on Minnesota and the ICE murders, it tells us everything we need to know!
We should recognize the sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate predecessor, perhaps even a test run, of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal ChristoNazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
Thank you, Loren, for sharing this vital document ! Remarkable that in your final days here you are fighting for justice and truth! We all can be inspired by your example, and can each do what we can to save this damaged democracy and to protect the vulnerable from predators. I wish you peace and loving support on your final journey- it sounds like you have already done so much for all of us!
Thank you.
Wishing you the best of supports in your journey.
Good that you have this forum for speaking out to this terrible regime. 🔆
— the power of the pen / press is mightier than the sword.
Thank you.
I saved it. Thank you so much Loren! You are a true Patriot.
Thank you.
Stay strong... forever a journalist.
Know we are standing with you.
Meidas Touch reported on this yesterday aft and I have seen NO mention in MSM.Then Meidas /Ron Filopowski reported later in the day that DOJ put it back up but who knows for how long. Meidas has a downloadable PDF of the doc should DOJ attempt to take that down as well.
“The Trump Department of Justice has done it again. The DOJ just abruptly removed a document from today’s Epstein Files release after our social media post, which included screenshots of the document, went viral. The document contained numerous complaints and allegations involving powerful individuals, including Donald Trump.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/doj-just-deleted-this-document-from?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
My protest sign remains: HONK IF YOU’RE NOT IN THE EPSTEIN FILES! 🪧
Kathy, LOL! Thanks for a great sign!
Good one!
Some of the Epstein files, anyway.
But Epstein is a false flag, no real info, just diversion and claims of following the law.
Likely redacted or in the remaining three million documents the DOJ refuses to release.
ICE is the Republican Guard and our leader is Ayatollah Trump. Vance, Hegseth, Noem, Bovino, Gabbard, Kennedy, etc... are all Mullahs. Trump is turning our country into the IRAN-USA!
Minnesota is leading the way in standing up. We all stand with them.
His gravestone might read “ I ran USA”.
...into the ground.
….into the ground!!
😂
Ice are the good-looking boys and oath keepers designed to punish non trump supporters like congress, nurses, etc.
In which context -- and this is sociologically relevant data whether one believes such assertions or not -- we should note that many of the psychics who identify Trump as the vengeful reincarnation of Hitler and Trump's regime as the vengeful reincarnation of Hitler's associates say the masked thugs who are so gleefully imposing the ChristoNazi regime's ecogenocidal terror on us all are the vengefully reincarnated souls of the Nazi concentration-camp guards and Nazi collaborators justly slain by anti-Nazi partisans, justly shot by the Red Army and justifiably executed en masse by post-war Soviet courts.
I take offense at the word “ C….toNazi, as I am sure others in our Red Wine & Blue and ICE protest groups do. Please. MAGA is antichristian. Please!!! Do not use this term Please Respect for all the Christian Clergy standing against ICE. Please!
Abbie, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this:
I sometimes use the term "Christianist". For just as there is a huge difference between a Muslim and an Islamist, so is there a world of difference between a Christian and a "Christianist".
I don’t believe any Cristian who "walks the walk" can ever truly be MAGA – at least not in the long term. (And, yes, the Christianist is anti-Christian. )
Interesting. Muslim and an Islamist are different in that we are not saying “Muslimist”. A Muslim is a representive of a religion and not all Muslims are Islamist. An Islamist is a follower of Islamism a political movement. So can we phrase this idea in another way separating Followers of Christ’s focus on Faith, moral and ethical conduct and teaching and MAGA a newly formed political subset?
Yes, broadly speaking my idea lines up with what you are saying. However, I think there have always been Christianists. Four examples:
– The butchering Conquistadors
– Those who played key roles in the Inquisition
– Priests who used Native American slave labor to build California missions
– Those who established Apartheid i South Africa, theologically ordained it
You might consider MAGA who are self-professed "Christians" or Christian-Nationalists to be a modern subset of "Christianists". I do think that is a useful term.
What about pseudo- christian ( lower case)?
Given that Islamist is already an established term, I like the clarity of the parallel term: Christianist.
Abbie, I understand your opposition to using the word "Christ" in any way to illustrate what these people are doing, which as you say is nothing like the Christ that you worship. BUT. When someone calling themselves a Christian quotes the Christian Bible as their foundational document for demonizing a people, you have to own that part.
I have been vilified by Christians for being lesbian. They show me in their Bible where that is an abomination of all that Christ stood for. I ring handbells in a church that is an "open and affirming" congregation. Their Bible does not view me as an abomination, but as an asset.
Christians cannot decide on what the "word of God" is. You have so many flavors of worship you outdistance Baskin-Robins in their varieties.
Yes. Well said. See my last post. Since we can’t think of a better term for the movement we have to go with what we have…Christianist or Christian Nationalist.
Ms. parsons, I believe you will discover the vast majority of USian white Christians are indeed ChristoNazis; throughout the South, where I had the misfortune to spend most of the first quarter of my 85 years, the ratio of white ChristoNazis to other sorts of Christians is probably something like 100,000:1, one hundred thousand to one. Also, thanks to Robert Graves ("King Jesus," various publishers/copyrights since 1946, currently Penguin Classics: 2012 and Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 1981), I am familiar with the Gospel of the Egyptians. Quoth Jesus: "I am come to destroy the works of the female." Thus the (true) history of Christianity: a history of centuries of unspeakably sadistic misogyny and ecogenocide opposed by a very few -- a tiny few -- courageous humanitarians like Martin Luther King, Pope John XXIII and the (doomed) advocates of Liberation Theology. Not to mention that Christianity is the source of what in all probability is patriarchy's most deceitfully paralytic Big Lie: the demonstrably false claim history arcs toward justice. It arcs, all right, but in patriarchy it arcs only toward technologically intensified tyranny, and now with technological advancement permanently captured and irrevocably weaponized by the ruling class it arcs toward tyrannical omnipotence. Which, to me -- not the least because I am well aware of horrors Christianity inflicted on my (mostly Celtic, minimally First Nations) ancestors -- is the quintessence of Christianity in action. I have lived amongst its Norman-Vincent-Peale/Billy-Graham/Adolf-Hitler disciples; I have suffered their depredations (including, during my [involuntary] years in the south, five attempts to end my life); and I know their USian kind to be not a whit different from those predators who ran amok in Europe c. 1939-1945, a subspecies genetically deprived of empathy and with their love instinct perverted to maximized hate, Homo sapiens inhumanus. I am sorry you are offended, Ms. parsons, but I will not be brow-beaten by you or anyone else into changing what I regard as an unflinchingly truthful, historically accurate naming of our enemy.
Loren Bliss we are more alike than you realize. I was born in Ala the week Maastricht, NL was liberated and my dad was there. I was raised in Nashville, TN Monday morning on my birthday, instead of birthday wishes, there were calls many from my aunt and cousins in Birmingham….”What Are WE going to do?” Four Little Girls were killed in a Church bombing by a Klan member. Our neighbor was an Episcopal Priest. I knew his children and saw first hand how they suffered because we all protested! I lived in DC during the worst of the Vietnam war and passed through the rear of Arlington Cemetery and heard the Bugles and saw the honor guards burying the dead. I broke down crying the morning I followed an Army transport truck filled with wooden boxes stamped with identifying numbers for the dead. I hugged a friend as she screamed, “ Those aren’t his ears!!!”. I marched in the women’s march NYC after Trumps first election. I participated in both No Kings Protest. I am sorry you felt brow beaten. That was not my intention. I just wanted others to help find a better word for Christian. But if you followed the whole thread, you would see that together we found no word powerful enough to express this 21st Century Political Movement but the ones we already have. Christian Nationalist. Again I am sorry my passionate tone caused you to feel brow beaten. We are more alike than you may know. I am here to learn and to take an active stand but I also sympathize with my Episcopal Clergy who are in danger as they protest peacefully.
Abbie Barbara parsons, with those protestors, were he still amongst the living, would be a late friend of mine, Fr. William Jerome Bichsel SJ, whom I knew both from Occupy and from my years of covering Tacoma for UPI back when it was a wire service. Personally an agnostic, albeit with very strong Celtic-pagan leanings based not on supposition but on some eerily compelling encounters with otherness-- the first in Northern Lower Michigan when I was 12; the next at sea when I was 21; acquisition of the requisite vocabulary in (of all places) NYC's Central Park when I was 27; and what I maybe should have accepted as confirmation in deeply rural Western Washington when I was 30 -- so I am not by any means hostile to what I think of as "anarchistic spirituality." Hence I am scientifically minded enough to retain the ultimate "I don't know" of agnosticism even as with more than a little delight I watch science move ever closer -- as in the Gaia Hypothesis -- to restating in presumably secular terms the core beliefs of our first approximately 204,000 years. Which is of course yet another reason I despise Christianity -- but certainly not all Christians, and most assuredly not some learned nuns I've known. Therefore if my response was hurtful to you, I am truly regretful.
That was Then … History! A large number of Strong Brave Christian’sare buried under Crosses. They died fighting inWWII against Hitler . The term was offensive even dack Then! I am asking that NOW you give those of us Working NOW due RESPECT. Please.
Right, Loren, I have heard this, too, and yet, we have to realize that there are people like this in every generation. They don’t have to be reborn Nazis. They can be violent and sadistic all on their own. That is why the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And good education.
Can we remind people that MAGA does not “own” the word Christian and in no way meets a definition of this term. Can we Respect the Clergy who place themselves in danger protesting ICE and offering food, protection, and shelter to all in need. Please do not let MAGA / ICE take ownership of this term Christian as they have already distorted the meaning of the word Evangelical. Please, can we do that ?
The problem is that 80 percent of the white Evangelicals voted Trump every time and continue to support him
60 percent of white Catholics and mainline
What term should we use?
There are plenty of Christians who don’t support Trump or fascism. Lumping them in with the Trump evangelical cultists who call themselves Christians but read some other BIble, is just disrespectful. If you do this, you are doing the same thing that the Trumpists are doing.
Where do you get your data? Just call them pseudo- christians, pseudo- evangelicals , Trump Supporters or MAGA. Just don’t call them Christian, because they are Not followers of Christ’s teachings to “love their neighbors.
Christian Nationalists perhaps?
Where do you get your data?
Not to mention "patriotism" and the flag.
We need to repeal the tax free protections of 501c3s. Lets start at the state level by forcing the largest private real estate holding firm in the US property taxes. Dozens of states are looking for ways to reduce the property tax burdens of their constituents. Let the 20% of people that attend the so-called Christian churches in the US pay their fair share like any other business.
And yes, they can carve out a class of non-profits that actually help people like food banks.
I get your point, and I agree that some of these churches should not benefit from tax exemptions. But going after the 501(c)(3) designation entirely would be a slippery slope, giving the fascists another way to go after the non-profit organizations they don’t like. A “carve out” is not sufficient.
Senator Sanders called it Trump's domestic army so why not go with that. Yeah, we're next. For now it doesn't stop at the Minnesota state line. Check out the Lacrosse, Wisconsin town hall with Pete Buttieieg on YouTube or check out my comment below if you can find it. Apparently they are swarming in Portland, Maine now of all places and I don't get why, other than that fact that the people of Maine historically love their guns? Why not Boston? That's not to say that they or anyone deserves to be attacked.
They've been to Boston and it did not go well. Just like it's not going well in NYC for ICE.
And the latest release of the Epstein files is just the latest example of the incompetence of every single Christofascist in the Trump regime.
They promised to protect the victims and yet they left a driver's license of one of the victims In the released files and as Heather said they removed a spreadsheet that had Trump's name on it.
And where is Alex Acosta??? Why hasn't anyone tried to talk to him about why he refused to prosecute Trump, Lutnick and the other prominent Republicans. Why is he and Ross and all of the Trump Fascist off-limits.
That sounds like a good question for Joyce Vance
Its punishment for Maine’s governor, who defied T.
That tracks. Don Tyrumpanny is obsessed by revenge.
There is a large Somali population there. I’ve read Springfield, Ohio is next to be threatened AGAIN for their Haitian population.
Somali, pirates, Haiti, pirates of the Caribbean, Springfield, Ohio, eating cats and dogs! I'm just going to go with what Timothy Snyder insinuated. He's a dragon.
“Every worm has a weak spot.”
Bates College is in Lewiston, ME
Post the names of the CEO and those involved from Brentwood/ Franklin, TN associated with CORECIVIC and the others who are building and running the For Profit Prisons paid for with Our Tax Dollars. Shame on them!
A White House chains emoji becomes a warning shot at the First Amendment. This satirical essay exposes how mockery, intimidation, and spectacle are being used to weaken press freedom without repealing it, and why authoritarian power fears journalists more than dissent itself.
👉 "When Life Gives You Lemons, Chain the Press:
A Helpful Government Guide to Freedom, Emoji Edition"
The First Amendment used to be simple. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Short. Direct. Unambiguous. It did not come with emojis, mood boards, or brand partnerships.
Then came the Trump regime, which apparently read the First Amendment and thought, This could use more chains.
Last week, the official social media account of the White House posted an image of journalist Don Lemon alongside the caption “When life gives you lemons…” followed by a chains emoji. This was not satire. This was not parody. This was the United States government publicly mocking the arrest of a Black journalist using imagery historically associated with enslavement.
In earlier eras, this might have triggered resignations. In our era, it triggered engagement metrics.
The post functioned as a kind of civic Mad Lib. When life gives you lemons, criminalize journalism. When the Constitution gives you rights, reinterpret them aggressively. When the public starts protesting ICE, distract them with cruelty dressed up as humor. Authoritarianism now comes with a punchline and a social media intern.
This was not just tasteless. It was instructional.
The message was not aimed at Don Lemon. It was aimed at everyone watching. Journalists. Protesters. Anyone with a phone and a conscience. The post said, quietly and clearly, We can do this to you too, and we will laugh while doing it.
The Trump regime understands something fundamental about power. You do not need to repeal the First Amendment to weaken it. You only need to make its exercise feel dangerous, humiliating, and isolating. You only need to show that the state is willing to weaponize law, spectacle, and ridicule in the same breath.
That is why the charge matters less than the theater.
Charging a journalist under a law designed to stop clinic violence is already absurd. Doubling down after multiple judges say no is revealing. Posting chains afterward is the tell. That is the moment when the mask slips and the state says, This is not about legality. This is about dominance.
The First Amendment is inconvenient for authoritarians because it creates witnesses. It allows people to name what is happening while it is happening. It turns power into a public performance rather than a private arrangement. Tyranny hates narration.
So the solution is not to ban speech outright. That looks bad on paper. The solution is to redefine journalism as trespass, protest as conspiracy, and dissent as disorder. Then you enforce selectively. Loudly. With a meme.
This is why the Trump regime has become obsessed with religious framing. When the Attorney General declares that the government is protecting “the sacred right to worship” while prosecuting journalists, the implication is clear. Some speech is sacred. Some speech is sinful. Guess who decides.
The First Amendment does not say Congress shall protect approved speech. It does not say freedom of the press unless it embarrasses the administration. It does not say you may speak freely as long as you do not document state violence, racial targeting, or federal agents killing civilians.
But authoritarian movements have always struggled with this. They want legitimacy without scrutiny. Reverence without accountability. Unity without consent. The First Amendment ruins all of that.
That is why it must be made to feel fragile.
Public shaming helps. So does selective prosecution. So does turning the White House into a high school bully with a verified account. The goal is to shift the culture so that free speech still exists on paper but costs too much in practice.
Eventually, people stop asking what is legal and start asking what is safe.
The chains emoji was not a joke. It was a thesis statement. It said the state is comfortable flirting with America’s ugliest symbols if it keeps the base entertained and the press nervous. It said history is not a warning, it is a prop.
And that is the real danger. Not that the First Amendment disappears overnight, but that it becomes a nostalgic artifact. Something we talk about the way we talk about rotary phones or civics textbooks. Something that technically exists but no longer functions.
Satire matters here because authoritarianism hates being laughed at, especially when the laughter is precise. Humor can reveal the absurdity of power without normalizing it. It can remind people that cruelty dressed as confidence is still cruelty, and fear dressed as strength is still fear.
The Founders did not include the First Amendment because they trusted the government. They included it because they did not. They had seen what happens when power controls narrative. They had lived under regimes that punished truth-telling as disloyalty.
They would have recognized the chains emoji immediately.
When life gives you lemons, the proper response is not to shackle the press. It is to accept that democracy is messy, dissent is loud, and freedom is inconvenient by design. The moment the government starts mocking those principles, it is no longer governing. It is performing.
And the performance is getting ugly.
The First Amendment does not need rebranding. It needs defending. Not with hashtags, not with outrage alone, but with insistence. With repetition. With a refusal to laugh along when the joke is the Constitution itself.
Because when the state jokes about chains, it is not being clever. It is telling you exactly what it wants to do next.
https://essayx.substack.com/p/when-life-gives-you-lemons-chain
Indeed, they had to dig up a KKK-era "law" to charge Lemon, whose crime was filming and interviewing in a church. When will Felon Supporters wake up and see the devastating costs of loyalty?
I am seeing a lot of bot comments in my feed saying Lemon “invaded” a place of worship and other twisted nonsense, but try as they might it runs pretty thin.
MAGA is 21st century KKK. Timothy Egan, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's. HC Richardson, "How the South Won the Civil War." Feb. 2018 edition of the peer-reviewed journal, Critical Sociology: "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and Why?"
Informative interview with Robert Jones, "MAGA's White Christian Nationalist End Game". This explains my sense of things. I recommend https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/magas-white-christian-nationalist?utm_source=publication-search
And Republicans in elected office not opposing Trump are the "local" officials The Union troops occupying the South were deployed after the Civil War to control. We the people must now deploy to counter them.
ICE is the new KKK, how on target. All the while blathering about protecting good Christians from evil “colored.” My God, what a trite script, tried and true official hatred
MAGA is the KKK. ICE are their mercenary enforcers.
Lately I've been thinking that ICE is better likened to the SS. The Gestapo were a secret police within the SS yet most of what we are facing isn't a secret, and the KKK were outside government; the SS were more a part of the Hitler cult sanctioned by the government that carried out the policies of Hitler, the detentions, arrests, and killings.
Overall, I'm thinking SS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel
Gary, I think that CPB and DHS Police fit that bill. I think ICE is more like hired mercenaries as evidence by their lack of uniformity and their completely undisciplined conduct not to mention their absolute lack of any demonstration of police or military tactics.
https://bsky.app/profile/2the7thgen.bsky.social/post/3mdob6dl7ac2e
Americans!
It's just a thin veneer of PR and lawsuits hiding the underlying authoritarian takeover of the government.
EVERYTHING the Regime does publicly is a distraction while they cement their hold over the population.
The Constitution is no longer in effect. We no longer have the Rights "guaranteed" to us in our cherished founding documents.
#DonLemon
I would like to see all Democratic-controlled states pass legislation barring former ICE agents from future employment in police, in any state-funded public job, or with any company that has a contract with the state. Let those ICE agents pay a steep personal price for the choices they are making now!
If we truly want justice, (all) MAGATs -- financiers, officials, every one of the 77 million hate-mongering sadists who voted the ChristoNazi conquest into ecogenocidal reality -- should at the very least be forever denied the citizenship they have already effectively renounced. And were I still alive, I would argue for the execution of their leaders and thugs and the deportation of all -- say again (all) -- of their supporters. For only then will our (new) Republic be secure.
Loren, respectfully, this is problematic. Was it a mistake for Gen. Grant to show mercy to Gen. Lee’s soldiers, sending them home on parole? Would it have been simpler to line them all up and shoot them? Probably, but what would that have done to Grant’s own soldiers? How would the families at home have felt? Where would that have led us? These people are Americans, too. We must find a way to reincorporate them in sanity. Trials for the financiers and leaders and thugs, yes. That would be satisfying. We can’t deport the supporters en masse — that would destabilize wherever country we found willing to take them.
I believe it was; had they all been executed as the traitors they are, the South -- further abetted by the Fifth-Column treachery of the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party -- would never have been able to do precisely what Dr. Richardson says it did in what should be a must-read book for everyone here: "How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America" (Oxford University Press: 2022). Note too how the Red Army and the Soviet Union exterminated the Original Nazis so thoroughly, they had no presence whatsoever in Europe until their Savior Putin did his Lazarus act and -- with the help of the failing United States -- brought them back from the dead.
Huge numbers of the Original Nazis had been given sanctuary in the U.S., many adopted as advisors and comrades-at-arms, many more merely given refuge from Soviet war-crimes prosecution -- this as capitalism (for which Nazism is always the most fanatically desired fulfillment), cultivated its domestic metastases and fertilized it with white misogyny and race hatred. We are now living with that (probably apocalyptic) harvest.
Sorry Loren, this is where I must depart from your train. We were never promised an automaticly secure Republic. We must work for it and fight for it. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said: A Republic IF you can keep it. As for me, I will never obey in advance. Also I must say that although you are talking about large groups of extremists, you shouldn't paint them all with the same brush. Most people are GOOD at heart. I honestly believe that.
That would keep this fight going forever. If they can’t get jobs they have no reason to stop being MAGA and start being Americans again. Isn’t that what we eventually want?
ArticStones, May Every Governor read that!
Per Business Insider, Don Lemon was arrested by a "team of Federal" agents in L.A. where he went to report on the Grammys.
SPOILER ALERT:
Don is represented by counsel, ABBE LOWE. Abbe made a statement that his client, Don Lemon, will defended "thoroughly'. Having followed counsel Lowe for a long time. Abbe's statement means he will be making COUNTER-claims, immediately in court in L.A, during & after the Trump attack on journalism & his client.
As Heather posted & I will annotate, Don Lemon was released in L.A. with no restrictions & no bail. Justice for Renee, for Alex, for the Epstein survivors & for Don Lemon & many others!
I am not a lawyer so I have questions Bryan. What are counter claims? Being released with no restrictions and no bail? I am thinking this means this was all for show? Who is Abbe Lowe?
ANBE LOWELL is a very well known attorney commonly thought of on of the best "defense" attorneys in the United States.
But, to be an excellent "defense" attorney representing a nationally known Defendant like Don Lemon, you must be very good litigation tactic wise on OFFENSE. Something like Chess but, it is multi dimensional Chess.
This where counter claims come in which can take many, many forms. For example, counsel file can ross-complaint which makes direct claims against the wrong doer. In California & in many States there is powerful first Amendment tool. A litigator like Abbe Lowell can file & Anti-SLAPP" motion.
That's a litigation tool to dismiss a lawsuit filed against a client to stop any Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (get rid of) & get your attorney fees & expenses back.
ABBE LOWELL is an expert litigator one the top 5 in the United States.
______
"Being released" means getting out of jail. Sometimes Judges put many restrictions on a defendant like limitations on how far you can go from the Court or making you pay money to the Court -- called a "Bond" to make sure you come back to Court.
Don has NO restrictions on him at all so he can go on with his reporting on the Grammy's or do anything else. Sorta of af a"Get out of Jail FREE card".
There will not be a quiz this week. (: ---).
Thank you. This was very helpful. It appears the gang that could not think straight in our White House has once again aroused the Democracy Dragon in America. Now we will be focusing on the First Amendment.
They seem to be going through each piece of the Constitution testing here and there to see which will break.
Even, remarkably, their cherished Second Amendment.
Abbe Lowell
Bryan,
If I remember correctly Halligan was deep in 💩 due to her shenanigans with the grand jury process on the Comey case, (beyond her being in her position illegally). I hope some legal folks are looking at the grand jury indictment of Lemon for the same type of 💩. Hard to believe a grand jury would indict him on the actual facts. The felon and his goons are working overtime to destroy our Constitutional laws and Justice!
I'm not sure that his offenses are felonies that require a GJ indictment.
Right!! Hard to see how a grand jury indicts based on the facts as they have been shown to “we the people”! Hope that a counter claim will take another MAGA lying lawyer down with it!!!
FYI his name is Abbe Lowell, not Lowe.
Dang, Counselor, I was taking notes (in my Sheriff's notebook, of course). 😉
Many thanks.
Thank you!!!
As I understand it, a counterclaim is when a defendant (Lemon in this case) files charges against the Plaintiffs (the Feds) listing their wrong-doings and asking the court for relief. While I'm a retired lawyer, I was never a litigator.
Makes sense. So this is a power move on Lemon's part. And the judge ignoring the 100,000 bail set by the feds was a power move. Right?
A classic example - courtesy of Google - would be if a contractor sues a homeowner for nonpayment and the homeowner countersues the contractor for shoddy work.
Thank you! I appreciate your taking the time.
A fascist move. Hitler attacked the Jewish Bar in the 1930's.
The judge refused the request from the prosecutor to set a high bail.
They were accused of failure by Curtis Yarvin. Seems that the acceleration is to say, hell NO, we are still the badasses with no brakes.
I hope they demand a speedy trial. Assuming a law-abiding Judge, the case will be thrown out with prejudice immediately.
Thank you Gail; ABBE graduated Columbia 1974.
Agree about the Trumpian regime distractions while subverting the rule of law and trampling our rights.
But the U.S. Constitution is in effect as long as we fight to keep our republic, if we can. Minnesotans and protesters in Minneapolis are showing us how to do it in 8 degree weather, and have been doing so, even in sub-zero weather, for the entire month of January. I'm in awe of their bravery, hardiness and steadfastness and stand in solidarity with them and all the other 10s of millions, maybe 100s of millions, that will uphold, protect and preserve the Constitution.
Don't be a defeatist, that's exactly what the regime wants you to think and it only makes it easier for them to plod on and plot on...
250 years ago the Founders/Framers of our radical "experiment" in democracy created a republican/representative form of governance in which the governed rule through the election of representatives. Giving "We the People" the power of self rule was radical and antithetical to Kings, British royalists and white ruling elites. Since then we have struggled, fought a Civil War and brought political pressure on our system to expand the rights of "equality" to Black Americans, women and multitudes of immigrants from around the world. For the past year We the People have been attacked and at War. Our constitutional traditions of self rule governed by clear laws have been attacked by an autocratic POTUS, his many racist and elitist, corrupt advisors and syncophats and his rouge army of lethal foot soldiers. We have been fighting back in limited ways since the war began. Now the Resistence and pushback is growing everywhere across America. The vast majority of Americans, regardless of party, are appalled by the Fascist behavior going on all around us. POTUS's approval has plummeted. We have entered the "Fog of War". The enemy's propaganda wing has gone into overdrive pretending to modify its Fascist behavior as a result of negative public opinion. DO NOT BE FOOLED! They are trying to splinter our Resistence. They will fail if we accelerate our fight. A national Strike, economic botcotts on businesses that support Trump, use the National Guard to protect people in BLUE STATES under attack by ICE, join local marches, make "good trouble", accelerate the pressure on public officials to just say "NO" and so forth. The Fascists will lose this war, not because they are weak, but because the People are stronger. The Fascists cannot imagine the devotion of the People to our liberty and our laws framed 250 years ago. They cannot imagine our persistent idealism. We will win and they will go back to their caves to wait for their next opportunity.
Trump and the regime will be facing another Nuremberg trial once they are defeated just like the last time fascists were this menacing to our Nation and caused so much death and destruction in the world.
Bravo! I have been saying this one thing for a good while:
There are more of us than them. And we will win.
On another note. I see a sleeping dragon of Americans voters getting poked by these fascists. Now the dragon is awake and fully enraged.
They are gunning people down in the streets simply for opposing the regime. This is already a dictatorship, and we must resist and seek something far better than the old order. A true democracy where power lies in the hands of the people.
"It’s clear from the video that federal agents escalated the conflict. They attacked protestors with no justification, beat Pretti with a bear mace can, and as he was on his hands and knees gunned him down. His crime was resistance, failure to bow down to the wishes of the tyrant, not quietly accepting an ethnic cleansing. The caused the state’s enforcers to see him as a traitor to race and nation, and because of that his life was forfeit."
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/p/the-prison-you-can-find-yourself
BTW y'all if you can help a struggling writer out and subscribe.
-Mathew
https://bettergracesandliberations.substack.com/
We will sooner than later amend our Constitution to repair the more than two dozen major problems the Roberts Six and Trump have created. As for resisting in the current time we hold the power, no King, no tyrant.
We all know how to tell when Trump, Bondi, Blanche, Miller, Noem, etc. are lying: their lips are moving. That is a sad reality, not a joke. That is why any criminal case filed by the DOJ has a major problem, each now lacks all veracity. In government class back in 8th grade we were told our Republic is a system of checks and balances to prevent any one branch of government (legislative, executive, or judicial) from gaining too much power. But what we have seen recently and will grow bigger with all these crazy ass indictments is DOJ cases going down in flames due to Jury Nullification. In other words juries will take the oath with just as much meaning as Trump and kiss ass jerks when they took their oath, and then do their duty to serve justice and the American way, not guilty! IOW, the power of the law really never left we the people. We are the final checks and balances, no kings.
Here for the forces of Liberation is a legal, non-violent weapon said to have proven extremely effective in the battles of Portland: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n0kd!,w_568,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb28deee-afca-41b1-ba93-aa5111f4cf3b_1170x841.jpeg (With thanks and a salute to Adrienne.)
If I were better with fabric arts, I would make a sling and bandolier for my extra batteries. Paint it in camouflage to cover up DeWalt yellow.
Ohhhh I LOOOVVVVE that!!!!
Done Matthew.
When I used to call myself a 'starving artists' a client asked me if I like to starve. I replied 'no', She suggested I stop calling myself a starving artist.
That one little mindset flip changed my trajectory.
Brilliant
There is a tremendous difference between the Constitution being under severe duress and "the Constitution is no longer in effect." It's always interesting to me when someone decides we are done. I don't believe the people of Minnesota have gotten the memo, nor all the other protesters around the Country. If we were done Lemon would be in a jail cell with no recourse, the Courts would not still be battling this regime; nor would Dr. Richardson be speaking out. Heck neither would any of us be speaking freely.
The next NO KINGS protest is March 28. Use Rothery's spreadsheet to call Congress, look up the Indivisible organization in your area. We all have a choice here. We can either state "game over" or hell no." Personally, I am in the hell no camp.
We are not even close to being done. There are more of us than them. And we will win.
Hear, hear! What you underscore here, Barbara, is so important!
I appreciate your sentiments, Barbara. Facing reality doesn't mean giving in or giving up. Just don't be in denial, please. Homan has not backed down. Trump has doubled down and the repression continues. The SCOTUS is thoroughly corrupt and has already given Trump immunity. And "qualified immunity" for the murderers, both of ICE and of our military who had no problem following illegal orders to murder innocent people in boats.
The Regime has to play for keeps because they know if they lose they're going to be prosecuted and there will be reprisals.
This isn't like protesting the war in Vietnam. This Regime won't be embarrassed into capitulation.
Yes, we still have a great amount of freedom to voice our resistance to what is happening. But, Barbara, it *is* happening.
I'd love to hear from you how you see us overcoming this Regime. What do you think it will take? I invite you to a dialog.
I have always been more of an activist than analyst. Have a good day.
Today in New York City, we made history. More than 25,000 people took to the streets here, joining demonstrations in over 300 cities across the country and millions nationwide, answering the call from Minnesota for a coordinated national shutdown. This unprecedented mobilization reflects the deep outrage and grief felt across our communities in response to the killings of our friends, siblings, and neighbors, people like Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter Jr., and Alex Pretti, which represent a dangerous escalation in the ongoing assault on our rights, safety, and collective dignity.
Across the United States, people have risen in unison to demand an end to the terror inflicted by the Trump administration and to call for the abolition of ICE. We are sending a clear message: we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our immigrant neighbors and communities, and we will not allow ourselves to be divided by fear or hate.
This is a defining moment. Now is the time to organize, to resist, and to make history together by fighting back for justice, accountability, and human dignity for all!
The People's Forum
Oh yes we do. We do have rights which millions of us are exercising anew every day. Despite their trying to make us all believe otherwise, despite many succumbing to their doom and hatred, they are losing. They are panicking. It's all turning to shit for them. Don't doubt this for a second.
There's a fine line between recognizing the great dangers we all face and succumbing to their rhetoric, their absurd designs straight out of the early 1800s -- and the larger reality that has emerged quite recently. They are cracking. They are failing. Don Lemon's arrest is only the latest proof -- others to follow, certainly.
Donald Trump is insane -- lost to severe fronto-temporal dementia, or both, take your pick. He's long been a stupid jackass incapable of learning. No one in his circle is capable of standing up to a mentally defective man. They think this will please him and intimidate us -- a last-minute, desperate gamble by truly stupid people. The truth is that NOTHING will galvanize reporters more than the blatant violation of the First Amendment, nothing that would make all of us fight this bastard and his vicious wormtongues with a single voice more.
Lift your sights to see what the future looks like. It is coming more swiftly than most of us imagined. What is happening portends not success, but total disaster for them. It's all unravelling -- and doing so very fast. And when that Hindenburg-MAGA blimp finally goes ka-boom, practically nobody will be left to go "oh, the humanity!"
Power will go to those who can both visualize what that day will look like, and how we can build a better republic once it comes. In the meantime, defend journalism by defraying legal costs. Miles Taylor's Defiance.org has set up a fund for all journalists, not just the very high-profile Don Lemon (who already has excellent counsel).
Well said. Thank you.
It's funny Steven, you don't mention Don Lemon on your BlueSky link.
Don Lemon is a journalist and if he actually said that he was being overly dramatic. The Constitution is in effect as long as the citizens of the USA say it is, regardless of what the administration says. Let's prove him wrong then.
And regardless of what some people think. We are in control of this narrative. There are over 300 million people in the United States. It is fair to say a fair portion of them are pissed. The sleeping dragon has woken.
Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance and shared the stage with Tom Morello (former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine) here in Minneapolis yesterday. I can concur that is freezing, and no we’re not stopping. It’s obvious to most of us here that despite Bovino leaving, very little is changing. Nothing is ever unanimous, but most of this state is absolutely pissed and sick of it. I pray that the rest of the country has not been misled into thinking things are improving. It is such a sick insult that Don Lemon would be arrested, while there is no interest in charging the ICE agents who murdered Good and Presti. None of what they’re doing is hidden or clever, yet so many buy into it. It’s all selective outrage with selective consequences.
I don’t understand why the information from the Epstein files which included Trump isn’t making bigger news. It was obviously saved before it was taken down. The Epstein Files has been the Conservative Holy Grail for years. Now that its release has been ordered, MAGA doesn’t seem to care too much about its delays in release, or Trump’s involvement. The lack of self awareness and level of hypocrisy are without match.
From Springsteen’s great song, The Streets of Minneapolis:
“If your skin is black or brown, my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight”
“It's our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem's dirty lies”
It is time to start wearing whistles. Pass them out at churches and other places.
https://genius.com/Bruce-springsteen-streets-of-minneapolis-lyrics
The Trump information reappeared a couple hours later. "Technical issues."
Someone got cold feet re: withholding,
— or talked their Boss down from his order to withhold?
Thank you for the updates from Minneapolis. Y’all are so inspiring, brave and hardy souls to be out in such frigid weather. Wish there was more we could do to help out there or that you could be an unoccupied city again. Hopefully the fascist siege will end soon, we all must keep raging against the regime.
We can all stand up now to uphold our democracy.
Daniel — thank you and every proud and loud Minnesotan. We totally understand the underhanded bad-faith inaction and actions of this regime. No wool over our eyes.
Don't be fooled, Daniel, the Epstein files were never a priority for Conservatives, the Conservative and corporate Democrat political movers and shakers has always been to shield their ultra-rich donors from being exposed as the pedophiles and sex traffickers of underage girls for three decades. If the truth were to come out and the identity of these people made public, it would upend our whole political system.
And then maybe we would be able to form a more perfect democratic Union.
It's an error to think the Trumpers are fighting for public opinion; they are playing a different game, mobilizing their base to seize elections by force and fraud. We face a situation like 19th century Bolivia, where elections were won by massing gangs at the polling places. (In one election, a faction got a shipment of guns; the other side literally brought knives to a gunfight, and lost.) Our democratic forces are ill prepared for such a struggle, nor for the parallel battle over counting votes that will be fought in cyberspace.
I could just see Republican states withholding their votes from being counted because of “voting fraud” causing the Supreme Court to suspend the results of the 2026 midterms. Republicans will do anything and everything corrupt to hold onto power.
Trump’s on the dictator treadmill. He can’t get off or he will be prosecuted, along with all those in this administration.
HERE'S HOW THE CHRISTONAZIS ARE ALREADY STEALING OUR ELECTIONS
(A Thom Hartmann Exclusive)
To enlarge upon Dr. Richardson's oft-repeated warnings about stolen elections, here is vital information from Thom Hartmann about how the thievery is accomplished, including credible statistical evidence showing how the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
Thin is a long-time observer. He knows
We need domestic and international election monitors. Carter Center? UN? Amnesty International? Somehow, the regime efforts to sabotage or cancel the November election must be stopped. A national emergency.
I agree - there should be some neutral party overseeing elections. We need some grownups in the room.
Yes!!! Absolutely!!!! Excellent idea!!!!
Jimmy died, sad to say
The only real national emergency,robin, all of trump's national emergencies are fake and are the tool for trump and the GOP to destroy our democracy.
I beg to differ. People are busy getting prepared for almost everything. We're not 19th century Bolivia, we're 21st century America where elections are held by state and local officials, not federal ones. People are not going to participate in Pam Bondi's blackmail ('gimme your voting records and this will all go away.') The number of people believing that bullshit -- even in red states --- decreases every day.
We are mostly certainly not a banana republic, no matter how much they want you to think we are.
Your voice of reason keeps us grounded.
Thank you, ICTT, for your consistent push-back against those who post despairing comments.
The real motto is how fast can we destroy America for Americans and steal its money. Real motto is make America my piggy bank and fancy jewelry box.
Imagine Trump declaring a lot of voting machines as “unsafe” a week before the election—most likely in an area where POC vote Democrat.
Public opinion is just something to mock. A paradigm shift that many don’t feel yet
A particularly outrageous example of the Democrats' back-handed Fifth Column treachery is the Washington state "Democratic" (sic) Party’s feverish escalation of its oft-promised effort to nullify the Second Amendment by making Washington "the first truly gun-free state in the nation.” Thus the state’s Democrats collaborate with the ChristoNazi conquerors by ensuring We the People of Washington state are more forcibly disarmed than any comparable population in North America and thereby reduced to the easiest ChristoNazi prey. The state already imposes a ten-business-day (thus actually 14-day) waiting period with processing fees up to $52.50 added to the price of the gun and the most regressive sales tax in the nation. And now the 2026 Legislature has rushed one of its de facto total-civilian-disarmament measures into law: Senate Bill 5098 prohibits the possession of firearms in any locations where “children are likely to be present.” (Given the anti-gun-owner fanaticism of the Ferguson administration, critics of the measure fear it will be used to felonize firearms ownership in any dwelling inhabited by – or even occasionally visited by – children.) SB 6055 gives broad authority to Washington state bureaucrats to price lawful gun owners out of the market by removing the limit on firearms-purchase fees. (The measure’s backers make no secret of their intent to hike permit and training fees prohibitively, thereby limiting civilian firearms ownership to the very rich, 99.999 percent of whom are either ChristoNazis or ChristoNazi supporters.) Gov. Robert Ferguson – by far the most fanatically anti-gun-owner state or provincial executive in North American history – says he’s eager to sign both measures into law. (Reference link: https://app.leg.wa.gov/bi/topicalindex)
Fifth Column treachery? Get over yourself please.
The chronic refusal of you and your ilk to admit the terrible truth that the post-JFK "Democratic" (sic) Party is the most effective, devastatingly subversive (and, of course, plausibly deniable) Fifth Column the Republicans could ever want is (the) reason We the People may yet fail in our attempts at Liberation. You employ your ever-more-threadbare credibility to ensure we continue to be deceived by the Democrats' entirely bogus promises of "change we can believe in" and thus remain the de facto slaves of the cunning neoliberal capitalists who are manipulatively propelling us ever more inescapably into ChristoNazism by their absolute ownership and morally imbecilic puppet-mastery of both -- say again (both) -- fully corrupted major parties. Fortunately a growing number of us are at last recognizing the resultant good-cop/bad-cop charade that is the Big Lie at the core of our bondage and thus realizing that our failed republic cannot be restored but must be built anew from the ashes -- with capitalism either forbidden or so reformed and restricted, its defining impulse to do evil is permanently obstructed, so that it can never again fulfill itself by transforming into Nazism. Meanwhile your hateful repertoire of arrogantly sneering insults will not stop me from pointing out these truths at every opportunity.
My "ilk?? You don't know the first thing about me. Get over yourself.
I think Oregon is trying to give you a run for the money in that regard.
I'm glad you didn't name Collins and Murkowski as the Republicans who voted for the Sanders amendment. It showed no principled bravery on their parts--Thune just allowed Collins to vote for it because she's in a tough reelection battle. He wouldn't have let it pass. But at least all the Dems including Fetterman voted for it. Keep up the pressure on all of them.
True. But the Sanders Amendment needed 60 votes to pass. There was no way in hell 13 Republicans were going to vote for it.
Also true, but it makes the statement in a way that gets attention. I that sort of energy builds over time, just as MAGA did.
It’s a sad game, this government of factions, there is little that resembles integrity, conviction, or democracy.
Damn, black sheep Fetterman stayed true. Yea
“The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort should stop everyone in their tracks and be more than just another breaking news alert that disappears within hours as attention shifts to the next breaking news. Trump’s role in this escalation is direct and long-standing.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/olgalautman/p/don-lemon-and-georgia-fort-arrested?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
“He has gone after Don Lemon, and so many others, publicly for more than a decade, beginning well before his first inauguration, repeatedly singling him out, mocking him, threatening him, and using him as one of the proxies for the broader press he wants to delegitimize. The point is not to punish one outlet or silence one personality, but to establish that journalism itself is conditional, revocable, and punishable when it challenges power and documents state abuses. This is why this cannot be dismissed as just another breaking news story. We must stand up to defend the First Amendment.”
Don Lemon and Georgia Fort Arrested for Reporting - Russia’s Playbook in America
UNMASKING RUSSIA by OLGA LAUTMAN
JAN 30 2026 | Substack
Wake up, good people: the selective arrests of those heroes who protested ecogenocidal ChristoNazi terrorism at the ChristoNazi terrorist church and the selective arrests of those who heroically covered the protest are the beginning of the Regime's imposition of Spanish-Inquisition-caliber zero-tolerance Christian theocracy on our captive nation. Thus we must continue fighting our conquerors...no matter the cost.
And they are people of color. MAGA won’t object at all.
It would be a better tactic to go to the ICE preachers house to protest, the trump regime will bend the law to end all descent. Hopefully protesters will avoid this trap in the future.
Better yet, don't go inside these sanctuaries of evil. Instead ring them with protestors, best of all, protestors chanting rituals of exorcism.
I'll see you in the streets for No Kings 3.0 on March 28th. Until then, I'll attend other rallies, boycotts and call my congress critters. We'll get through this.
Thousands of high school and even middle school students walked out of class in the Bay Area at noon today. Our youngsters inspire us and give us hope!
On s smaller scale… same at Mapleton Public Schools (north of Denver)
In full tantrum, Donald Trump is ripping the facade off everything and everyone. Trump has "daddy issues" and "mommy issues." He is the product of bad toilet training. He is obsessed with Hitler. His loyal supporters are as damaged as he is. The feces smeared on the walls of the Capitol on January 6 was an act of solidarity, MAGA's way of saying, "We love you, Donnie."
Trump's MAGANAZI violence has the purpose of perpetuating patriarchal White Supremacy. The ICE raids are the current version of a history of violence that includes the Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee, Jim Crow and the Tulsa Massacre. Trump's ICE raids are just another desperate, pathological outburst of the "historic oppression and ongoing harm" caused by America's original sin of racism. Trump's army of homicidal rednecks are determined to Make America White Again.
So true of what you have written. Donold does have many obsessions and issues, strange toilet fascinations being one of them. Golden toilets, gaudy gold schlock pasted everywhere, the meme of him flying an F-16 & strafing a massive load of shit on protesters. He even smeared his feces on the wall of the Kennedy Center by writing his name above it like it was his memorial center, likely trying to eclipse JFK's name.
But your more important point of white supremacy and MAGA determined to make America white again is such fallacy on their part.
America has never been exclusively white. It's been estimated that up to 50 million Native Americans were living in North America before Columbus made it to the New World in 1492. The African slave trade started soon after that which brought about half a million black tribespeople over the centuries.
We've always been a nation of immigrants, how can we ever forget that or pretend it's just whitey that counts. Waves of immigrants coming to this Nation over the centuries IS what makes America great. The diversity, colors, culture, contributions, talents, food and flavors of immigrants is why America is great, this harrowing episode right now in America is not anywhere near being great.
Every wave of immigrants has experienced discrimination. If any group deserves condemnation, it is white nationalists—they are the only group unified by hate. No other immigrant group harbors such animus; they ALL came here seeking a better life. We need to embrace them, encourage assimilation, and absorb their uniqueness. Immigration has made this country great and will make America Great again! We are all immigrants, and we should be damn proud of it.
They smear feces on all of us, every day while magats celebrate
Don't forget the white evangelical Christian nationalists who are working to dominate our people with a Fascist evangelical theocracy. There is no majority of white Evangelicals in this country; we must fight them at every turn.
The Senate passed bills to fund 5 agencies through September on Friday night, along with a 2-week-long continuing resolution to fund DHS. The bills must now be passed by the House, likely on Monday. Trump, as of Friday,said he supported the bills.
Let’s be 100% clear. The Senate passed a “clean” CR for DHS. All it says is that funding for DHS will be kept at current levels for the next two weeks. There is no list of reforms or definitions of what had been considered standard operating procedures in the past incorporated in the CR. Senate Democrats are relying on Trump to keep his word and press the members of the House to include the items on the wish list they discussed with him.
According to Politico:
"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who helped negotiate the final deal, took a victory lap after the vote, saying “the agreement we reached today did exactly what Democrats wanted.”
But Democrats will still need to negotiate with the White House and congressional Republicans about what, if any, policy changes they are willing to codify into law as part of a long-term bill. Republicans are open to some changes, including requiring independent investigations. But they’ve already dismissed some of Democrats’ main demands, including requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests."
According to the Hill, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told House Republicans he wants to utilize a special fast-track process that will require cooperation from Democrats to swiftly pass the funding package that the Senate is poised to send over and end what lawmakers hope will be a brief government shutdown.
Oh, and just a few more things have to happen. Over the next two weeks, a bipartisan bill has to be crafted in the House for the DHS reforms, the Rules Committee will have to allow it to come to the floor, and the bill will have to be passed. Then it goes back to the Senate, where an identical version must pass, and Trump must sign it.
And during those two weeks, Stephen Miller will be whispering in Trump’s ear about how Alex Pretti really was a domestic terrorist because they have the tape of him busting a taillight on a ICE/CBP vehicle, and Mike Johnson will be reminding him what a Pandora’s Box DHS reform would be.
In other words, the quest for DHS reform is essentially starting from scratch in the House with a two-week deadline and with no leverage other than that voters will be outraged if DHS isn’t reformed, and Trump will remain reasonable and rational and keep his word about supporting DHS reform.
Who will be blamed if reform is stalled? My guess is it will be a “pox on both your houses” moment.
But DHS is critical for national security!!! At least Republicans think so. Two weeks will roll by and Republicans will pass a bill to go to the DHS One Big Beautiful Bill Act piggy bank and find a way to fund it. Or there will be another CR. And DHS reform will be pushed further out in time.
Place your bets folks on what DHS forms are enacted. You can probably do it on prediction markets like Polymarket.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5694716/partial-government-shutdown
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5715812-mike-johnson-fast-track-funding-shutdown/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/opening-pandoras-box-mike-johnson-001955677.html
https://rollcall.com/2026/01/29/senate-talks-move-in-direction-of-splitting-off-dhs-funding-bill/
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/30/shutdown-senate-passes-funding-deal-00758615
The actual text of the DHS Amendment to the minibus spending bill that the Senate passed on Friday night is not expected to be available until 10:00 AM on January 31, 2026. I will post it here when it shows up.
*************************************************************************************************
It showed up.
Division H refers to DHS
This is the new version that was passed. I will put what was removed in square brackets.
Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 7148) entitled “An Act making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes.”, do pass with the following
AMENDMENTS:
(1) In section 2 in the matter preceding division A, strike the matter relating to division H and insert:
Division H—Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026
(2) On page 4, strike lines 17 through 25. [ Removed: The explanatory statement regarding H.R.
7147 of the 119th Congress, printed in the House
section of the Congressional Record on or about
January 21, 2026, and submitted by the chair of the
Committee on Appropriations of the House, shall
have the same effect with respect to the allocation
of funds and implementation of division H of this
Act as if it were a joint explanatory statement of a
committee of conference.]
(3) Beginning on page 1132, strike line 9 and all that follows through “Sec. 554.” on page 1235, line 16, [removed 103 pages of detailed appropriations data]
and insert:
DIVISION H—FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2026
Sec. 101. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) is amended by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and inserting “February 13, 2026”. [That sets the 2 week deadline]
[What follows is the basics extending the previous CR with no changes to those previous levels.]. If you want to see the detail of what was sent to the Senate from the House you can see that https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr7148/BILLS-119hr7148pcs.pdf]
Sec. 102. For the purposes of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37), the time covered by such division shall be considered to include the period which began on or about January 31, 2026, during which there occurred a lapse in appropriations.
Sec. 103. Amounts made available in the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 for personnel pay, allowances, and benefits in each department and agency shall be available for payments pursuant to subsection (c) of section 1341 of title 31, United States Code and such payments shall be made.
Sec. 104. All obligations incurred and in anticipation of the appropriations made and authority granted by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (division A of Public Law 119–37) and by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 for the purposes of maintaining the essential level of activity to protect life and property and bringing about orderly termination of Government function, and for purposes as otherwise authorized by law, are hereby ratified and approved if otherwise in accord with the provisions of such Act.
Sec. 105.
(4) On page 1235, strike lines 22 and 23 and insert: This division may be cited as the “Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026”.
Some thoughts from Robert Hubbell on the loss of Democratic leverage on DHS reform:
Most of the Senators who voted to approve the five bills and the 2-week extension on DHS funding say that they will hold the line on DHS funding until Republicans agree to Democratic demands for reform of ICE. Let’s hope so. Democrats just gave away a massive amount of leverage over DHS funding and reform.
Although the Senate Democrats undoubtedly have the best of intentions, the DHS funding bill also covers other agencies such as TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and Border Patrol. A lapse in funding for those agencies will put pressure on Democrats to end a DHS shutdown early.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/it-is-time-for-the-mainstream-media
A MUST SEE VIDEO on how ICE spends its money and what private companies are profiting. The amounts are enormous and appear intended to create a police surveillance state.
Democrats have to channel these funds into immigration reforms, like minimum standards of care for those in ICE and CBP detention facilities, and expansion of immigration courts that are under the DOJ to clear the backlog of cases with nonpartisan judges.
It's not clear to me that Schumer and company are aware of the extent of the threat. It looks to me like there is a lack of imagination as to the extent of oversight that is required. At least publicly, Dems are fighting the fight to get in the door at existing facilities and not overseeing the expansion plans of the corporate giants that will be providing these services.
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/by-the-numbers-3/2026/1/31/how-does-ice-spend-its-budget-and-who-profits#flips-6388580167112:0
That is stunning.
All of those companies are big Trump donors.
FEMA funding may be the PR "carrot" they dangle to ensure continuation, despite the fact that FEMA has functionally been castrated by Noem.
Agreed.
Rename the March 28 march NO TYRANTS.
Up is down with this legally and ethically challenged administration.
Get your enemies (and they are legion) by using the powers of the federal government.
The people of Minneapolis are our leaders in resistance. That cold city warms the heart.
What is keeping Congress from impeaching this anti-Constitution excuse for a president. The whole world is watching the US fail. No one will trust our country again because House Republicans won’t do their job. They have already cost the US so much in soft power. We are about as trustworthy as Russia now.
“What is keeping Congress from impeaching this anti-Constitution excuse for a president.” That’s easy. Tens of millions among us think all of this is just swell. The media gets all breathless reporting that 50+% disapprove of him and his dictatorship, but the real story is that 35-40% love it. That’s what’s keeping the regime in power. If any of them stray from the cult and dare to criticize or express “concerns”, the dictator’s little thumbs go to work on his phone and the MAGAT smear machine rips into high gear, threatening to primary the offender out of office or in the case of extreme disobedience, death to them and their families. The power behind every last bit of this insanity is political support from the white christian mob, and includes the billionaire class, the high court, corporate leadership, Wall Street and legacy media. The entire power structure of this country is in on the fix. This is what we’re up against. It’s going to be a long slog ridding ourselves of this shit.
That said, never give up. Never.
And there is the problem. The Republicans who cling to their positions rather than doing the job of representing their constituents AND doing what is right for the Country. They lack the ability to act ethically because they lack ethics and morality, all the while claiming their “devout” Christianity. Slowly, with what we are seeing in Chicago,Minneapolis and other targets of this administration’s rampage more white people are finally waking up to how wrong they were to trust a convicted felon with a history of greed, incompetence and arrogance.
John - Well said!
When will we stop talking about “the narrative” or “changing the narrative”? When will “talk” return to the facts, the situation, or even possibly the truth? Talking about the narrative or changing the narrative does not expose the impact of diversion & distraction.
What follows is an extended excerpt from a piece that appeared today in Verfassungsblog -a German publication dedicated to all things Constitutional. A link to the full issue is included below – there is no paywall.
I highly recommend this publication to all who have an interest in Constitutional government.
From:
A Letter from Minneapolis
From the Periphery to the Center
by Emmanuel Mauleón, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School.
From Minneapolis, this surge is not experienced as doctrinal abstraction but as anxious anticipation: who will be stopped, who will be questioned, who must prepare to justify their presence. I witness this not only as a legal academic, but as a U.S. citizen born in Mexico, formally secure yet read as suspect. It is an experience that makes visible how constitutional change is absorbed in everyday life long before it can be litigated.
Traditional remedies struggle to keep pace. Suppression doctrines operate retrospectively and reach only a fraction of encounters. Civil litigation is slow and often foreclosed by immunity. The gap between constitutional promise and practice is a chasm. That space has become visible even to institutional actors typically oriented toward procedural restraint. This week, faculty at my institution issued an open letter (written in individual capacities) describing ICE and CBP presence as involving repeated violations of fundamental constitutional guarantees. Its significance lies less in the force of its claims than in what it signals more broadly: that silence has become indefensible, and familiar forms of professional caution cannot meet the moment.
At the same time, dissent has not disappeared; it has been temporally displaced. Courts and institutions speak after the fact, in opinions, injunctions, and appeals. People in Minneapolis—aware that by the time commentators achieve consensus on the arrival of constitutional crisis the material damage will already be done—are acting earlier: documenting encounters, caring for neighbors, and refusing isolation. There is no vindication in winning a constitutional battle after our communities have been trampled, neighbors disappeared, and ordinary life reorganized around fear.
Cite: https://verfassungsblog.de/a-letter-from-minneapolis/
Use this interactive map to see how different people in the Epstein Files are connected. Click on any face for details.
https://embed.kumu.io/14f14fc16ea22abb76a1122951ad0f15
This is cool, thx!
I've updated it more info including Michael Cohen and Melania. There's a section (top right) where you can search by category. One shows the 8 people who died under mysterious circumstances... Just refresh your browser to see the updated version of the map.
President Trump’s administration is in so much trouble that it released a huge portion of the Epstein files as a distraction. Violating the First Amendment by indicting journalists is a new low. The Senate has woken up and detached DHS funding from the other 5 bills it’s passing. The House can go back in session to end the shutdown. They have two weeks to work on reforming ICE after declining to address health care. Protest pressure seems to have an effect. Contact your representatives and vote Blue.