POTUS intends to disappear U.S. citizens

Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2025 at 11:32 AM

Trump on Tuesday threatened to strip U.S. citizens of their nationality and then deport them if they commit certain crimes ― including some who were born in the United States.

“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said during a visit to a new migrant detention facility. “So maybe that will be the next job that we’ll work on together.”

The comments echo what Trump said in April when speaking of deportations to El Salvador.

“The homegrowns are next,” Trump said during a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

— Authoritarianism Expert Reveals 'Chilling' Phrase Trump Used During New Threat: Ruth Ben-Ghiat called out the president for threatening to deport U.S. citizens. Ed Mazza, HuffPost, Jul 1, 2025

BREAKING: Documents filed in court today assert that officials from El Salvador told the United Nations that it "facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure" by the U.S. but that "the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the" U.S.

[image or embed]

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Normal has been given too wide a berth, one I try to narrow when I discuss history or current events. Normal is often a cover story for wrong. Slavery was normal. Genocide was normal. “White-collar crime”, “collateral damage”, “ethnic cleansing”: normal. Euphemized, euthanized, eulogized.

The concentration camp the Trump administration built in Florida is being marketed as normal. It has a cheeky name and merchandise. Right now, it disgusts many Americans. As concentration camps become more common, they will offend fewer people — and they will be called normal. When this happens, you must remember that normal is not the same as right, no more than law is the same as justice.

— Sarah Kendzior, Guns or Fireworks: America is not its government and normal does not mean right. Jul 07, 2025

Florida is committing "enforced disappearance," a very serious violation of international human rights law. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i... www.ohchr.org/en/special-p...

[image or embed]

— Adam Isacson (@adamisacson.com) July 13, 2025 at 10:45 AM

The Trump regime's

"immigration policies are deeply unpopular and unlikely to improve as Americans learn more about them. Today a report by Hatzel Vela of NBC South Florida went national as a former corrections officer for a private contractor who worked at the detention center in the Florida Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by supporters, said the detainees “have no sunlight. There’s no clock in there. They don’t even know what time of the day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days…. The bathrooms are backed up because you got so many people using them.”

Florida is running the Everglades detention facility in expectation of reimbursement by the federal government. Immigration advocate Aaron Reichlin-Melnick pointed out that, unlike the federal government, the state of Florida “can be sued for civil rights violations and punished with monetary damages.”" (Heather Cox Richardson, August 6, 2025)

In July 2025, over 1,800 men were detained at the Florida concentration camp. By the end of August, the Miami Herald couldn't determine where two-thirds of them were. Were it a federally run camp, this would normally be easy to verify. But it's run by Florida, and Florida has not set up a system to make it public knowledge who's in the camp. Were they sent to another country? Released in the US? send to another facility? Still in the Florida camp?

The Miccosukee tribe is suing over the concentration camp: ABC, El Pais

Denny Carter says (Sept 25, 2025):

"It is, I think, a simulation of an occupation. It’s what the president and his terminally online lackeys image an occupation to be. Having never read a book and having no understanding of history and no real concept of the 20th century fascist movements they so adore, these folks are playacting fascism, sometimes to great effect – kidnapping immigrants and U.S. citizens off the streets – and sometimes in ineffective and silly ways. Listen to the vampiric Stephen Miller blather on like he’s Dwight Schrute speaking to a Dunder Mifflin conference, trying his best to be frightening and authoritative, and try not to laugh.

Miller, like Trump and JD Vance and Kristi Noem and Brendan Carr and Pete Hegseth, is doing a bit. He’s simulating what he thinks a tyrant should sound like, what they sound like in documentaries. It’s not the real thing, as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently said, but a simulacrum of an authoritarian state generated so that, maybe, one day, these people can “make the simulacrum a real thing.”"

Stephen Miller's Wife Threatens To Revoke Trump Critic’s Citizenship After He Insults Her: Katie Miller, wife of top White House aide focused on immigration and extrajudicial boat killings, got angry that Cenk Uygur called her and her husband liars. S.V. Date, HuffPost, Oct 30, 2025

Alligator Alcatraz Is A New Kind Of Immigration Jail — And It’s Multiplying: A wave of new immigration jails is drawing widespread criticism for terrible conditions and restricted access to legal resources. Matt Shuham, HuffPost, Sep 27, 2025

I wrote this: I Saw Jurassic World and All I Could Think About Were the Alligators (4-min read, July 8, 2025)

I’ve been asked about Joe Arpaio and last decade’s “show me your papers” laws in a few interviews recently. The current regime feels even worse because showing ICE your papers is not enough if you look Latino. Officers just refuse to believe the papers are real. ij.org/case/alabama...

[image or embed]

— Jared (@jaredmcclain.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:22 AM

To be clear: LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government. The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency. This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

[image or embed]

— John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 8:54 PM

US citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents children would be coming to get bus, lawyers say

[image or embed]

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes.com) November 2, 2025 at 6:25 PM

Advocates Warn of ‘Forced Labor’ Camp for Homeless People in Utah Designed to Enforce Trump Order: An advocate for the National Homelessness Law Center warned that the 1,300-bed facility could be a “pilot” to put homeless people into similar conditions to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Oct 28, 2025

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Immigration Jail Could Close: NYT

‘Worst of the Worst’? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record: Of 614 people on list who may have been unlawfully arrested and detained by federal officials, only 16 had a criminal record of any kind. Jon Queally, Common Dreams, Nov 15, 2025

Barbara Parker in HuffPost (Nov 23, 2025):

"My son isn’t the only one facing a potentially unimaginably bleak future. Michael is one of an estimated 45,000 adults adopted as children by American families who have yet to obtain U.S. citizenship, according to Adoptee Rights Campaign. Some advocates believe there are as many as 70,000 transnational adoptees in limbo. They’re often merely missing or unable to secure minor information to complete the incredibly complicated process, or their American parents assumed a legal adoption made their child a U.S. citizen and took no further action to make certain.

I think most Americans would be stunned to learn that international adoptees have not all been automatically granted the same status as their U.S. parents. Several grown adoptees have already been deported, including individuals who came to the United States as infants and know no one in their birth countries or the language spoken there.

Congress partially addressed this issue in 2000 by passing a law automatically granting U.S citizenship to transnational adoptees, but it only covers children adopted after the law went into effect in 2001, only those under the age of 18 that year, and only those with very specific documentation, some of which Michael’s home country would not provide. Michael and countless others adopted by U.S. families as children were left out in the cold by the law."

"They had submitted extensive paperwork and paid fees. The foreign spouses had been fingerprinted and passed medical exams. None had criminal records. None had entered the country illegally. They had already been granted employment authorization." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

[image or embed]

— Jonathan Cohn (@jonathancohn.bsky.social) November 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Because this isn't about immigration. It is about race. Wake up and cover the racism. The U.S. citizens getting caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

[image or embed]

— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) December 7, 2025 at 7:12 AM

Calling it nativism and calling on the history of the '20s gets closer, but it should be noted that this is reaching a Nazi pitch. Trump’s latest anti-immigration push echoes the nativism of the 1920s www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

[image or embed]

— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) December 7, 2025 at 7:23 AM

ICE Has A Plan To Arrest Undocumented Migrants Voluntarily Leaving U.S.: Memo: “Operation Irish Goodbye,” as it’s being called, could be aimed at boosting numbers for Trump’s much-hyped deportation campaign. Dave Jamieson, HuffPost, Dec 8, 2025

U.S. Latinos are now more worried about being asked to prove their legal status during their daily activities (43% today vs. 31% in March), and roughly 1 in 5 have changed their daily routines because of it.

[image or embed]

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch.org) December 11, 2025 at 11:30 AM

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

[image or embed]

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) December 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM

Trump has revoked legal status for at least 1.6 million immigrants over the past year by cancelling programs like TPS and student visas. Remember: these are people who entered the country legally. Trump never cared about “legal immigration" — just inflicting cruelty.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM

"A 20-year-old Crystal man was detained by immigration agents in Robbinsdale early Jan. 8 in an encounter his family described as violent and that a relative livestreamed on Facebook.

The man, Jose Roberto Ramirez, was born in Minneapolis, according to a copy of his birth certificate provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune by his family."

— U.S. citizen swept up in ICE enforcement as Twin Cities operation continues The arrest in a Robbinsdale parking lot was streamed live on Facebook and comes a day after the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by an ICE agent. Kim Hyatt and Sofia Barnett, The Minnesota Star Tribune, January 8, 2026

A few years ago, Kristi Noem was complaining about trans girls playing sports. In 2026, she's known as a professional liar.

After each such incident, Kristi Noem rushes to a microphone and rattles off a series of factual claims, which are always the same, and are always false. It's prescripted, in complete indifference to the truth. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

[image or embed]

— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 7:28 PM

Trump DHS Post Calling for ‘100 Million Deportations’ Suggests Intent to Kick Out Nonwhite Citizens One journalist called it “absolutely insane Nazi propaganda, posted by the US government.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Jan 02, 2026

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old US citizen, was arrested and detained by ICE. She was held for TWO DAYS. ICE agents handcuffed her, called her a racial slur, and she was knocked to the ground so hard she got a concussion. This cannot continue happening. ICE needs to leave.

[image or embed]

— Minnesota House DFL (@mnhousedfl.bsky.social) January 21, 2026 at 8:42 PM

ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months, Judd Legum, Popular Information, Jan 20, 2026

Kristi Noem: "Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen"

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 28, 2026 at 8:21 AM

And Stephen Miller is hinting there may have been wrongdoing in the killing of Alex Pretti. (Jan 28, 2026)

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

[image or embed]

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) February 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM

This is a legitimately great idea. Turn every ICE concentration camp into a museum of their crimes and the people who fought against them.

[image or embed]

— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 1:34 PM

Karen Bass: 'They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.'

Federal immigration officers, some on horseback and in armored vehicles, descended on MacArthur Park in Los Angeles this morning as part of what ICE called a “large–scale federal immigration enforcement operation” in a statement to CBS News. ICE also said that CBP led the operation.

[image or embed]

— WIRED (@wired.com) July 7, 2025 at 3:25 PM

This is footage from today in MacArthur Park. Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through. The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous.

[image or embed]

— Mayor Karen Bass (@mayor.lacity.gov) July 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM

Border patrol walking McArthur park here in LA

[image or embed]

— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 12:49 PM

MAYOR BASS: “They need to leave right now. This is UNACCEPTABLE.” The mayor showed up as Trump’s Gestapo/ICE marched through MacArthur Park like an invading army. Ridiculous. They left. (h/t FOX LA)

[image or embed]

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:06 PM

REALLY AMERICAN BREAKING: The military and ICE just RAIDED LA's MacArthur Park, with over a hundred soldiers marching through.😳 Mayor Karen Bass immediately showed up, and demanded they leave. They did. No arrests were documented. 👏👏

— Mariah 🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋🇺🇸🦋 (@mariahbrown.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM

This is Macarthur Park in Los Angeles. Republicans have turned the United States in a military police state. I could not even imagine what Fox and Republicans would be saying if Biden or Obama sent the US military to terrorize communities in Texas.

[image or embed]

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM

NEW: Federal agents rolling into MacArthur Park in LA like they are trying to take Kabul. Absolute madness. As the reporter says here, it’s an unmarked, heavily armored vehicle with armed ‘soldiers’. No-one knows if it’s ICE or National Guard.

[image or embed]

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:21 PM

After Bass spoke with what I assume is a DHS rep, they packed shit up and headed out. The whole neighborhood turned out to chase them out of the park. Some fruit was thrown, alot of yelling

[image or embed]

— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM

Our taxpayer dollars are going towards paying for white supremacists to cosplay as soldiers in Los Angeles for photo ops that are designed as propaganda for the Trump regime so they can convince their Fox News followers of a lie that the United States is under “invasion” and ICE is their savior.

— 50501 New York (@50501newyork.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM

Kristi Noem: "I do know that LA wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 31, 2025 at 9:37 AM

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝕱𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖆 𝖂𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖘 (@fronterawaterprotectors)

LA Protester Permanently Blinded After DHS Agent Unloads ‘Nonlethal’ Round Into His Face The victim—whose skull was fractured and nearly died—said federal agents mocked him, saying, “You’re going to lose your eye.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Jan 13, 2026

At least 132 dead in Texas flood. They fired the weather forecasters

Hannah Cloke, a professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the UK, said the downpour “seems to have been well forecasted by multiple forecasters around the world, several hours in advance” Texas flash flood claims at least 27 lives - on.ft.com/4ewCfKO via @FT

[image or embed]

— Alex (@dralexm.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM

Here's a timelapse video showing 30 minutes of flooding (sped up to a few seconds)

Update: 132 dead, at least 160 missing — HuffPost, July 14

Wikipedia: July 2025 Central Texas floods

Rep. Joaquin Castro on Texas floods: "I don't think it's helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM

Report Shows How Deadly Texas Floods Were Driven by Human-Induced Climate Crisis "Very exceptional meteorological conditions" preceded the Texas floods, climate scientists have found. Brad Reed, Common Dreams, July 7, 2025

'These Deaths Are on Trump's Hands': Texas Flooding Spotlights Assault on Climate Science "The Trump regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons, at the very time we need a much better understanding of it," said one environmentalist. "This is so reckless and dangerous." Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, July 7, 2025

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Texas Flash Flood Tragedy, Rachel Cleetus, The Equation, Union of Concerned Scientists, July 7, 2025

Related: Climate data taken down

Climate science involves longer-term data. Climate drives weather. We aren't allowed to have climate science either:

Websites hosting major US climate reports taken down, Seth Borenstein, AP, July 2, 2025

Someone has archived that data here, though: sciop.net

Kristi Noem on Texas floods: "I'm extremely grateful for God's hand in that whole situation, because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 8, 2025 at 10:58 AM

The United States government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...

[image or embed]

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) July 6, 2025 at 9:23 AM

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/c...

[image or embed]

— Lizzie O'Leary (@lizzieohreally.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:58 PM

Trump calls a journalist "evil" for asking about the rescue efforts.

A tool that helps thousands of communities decide when to evacuate residents during hurricanes will expire tomorrow. Why? Because of Kristi Noem’s DHS policy to personally approve expenses over $100K, which is still in place. But she had time to spend $220 million on ads. Priorities.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 3:31 PM

The Trump regime is getting rid of EPA staff

At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

Illegal, vindictive & abusive thuggery: EPA puts 139 employees on leave who criticized administration. The staff were put on administrative leave after signing a “declaration of dissent.” subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene... ($) 1/

[image or embed]

— John Walke (@johndwalke.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 1:18 PM

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/c... 🧪🐀🐭🐶🐒🦧

[image or embed]

— AlbertaPitbull 🇨🇦 (@albertapitbull.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 8:19 PM

A running theme on my reactions to news events these days is "Oh god, they are replacing something messy and fraught with something much worse." Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) (like the Social Cost of Carbon) is a complicated and ethically fraught metric. Setting it to zero doesn't help, tho...

[image or embed]

— Dan Hirschman (@asociologist.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 2:16 PM

My breakdown of the Skrmetti ruling

Civil rights lawyer Sam Ames wrote yesterday: What U.S. v. Skrmetti Did, What it Didn’t Do, and What It Can Never Do

I wrote my breakdown of the majority opinion: Trans Kids Shut Out: I Read the SCOTUS Opinion by Justice Roberts

This framing is beneath contempt. The Christian right and MAGA launched an unprecedented assault on the civil rights of a tiny minority and successfully weaponized the pseudoliberal establishment - led by the NYT - to provide it with a medical controversy pretext that doesn’t actually exist.

[image or embed]

— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 7:32 AM

An honest accounting might look like, “How the Alliance Defending Freedom bet on the latent bigotry of NYT masthead editors to launder religious intolerance into ‘concern’ about safe and effective medical practices … and won.”

— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 7:35 AM

“How the people who brought you Dobbs figured out how to get the NYT to carry their water” would be a great story but obvi the Times isn’t going to burn its own sources

— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 7:45 AM

---

When Dobbs came down, the media rightly saw it as the culmination of a decades long effort to eliminate abortion rights by the conservative legal movement. When Skrmetti came down, the media blamed trans people and not that same conservative legal machine. It's the same court and lawyers.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) June 19, 2025 at 12:22 PM

Could you imagine the New York Times writing an article saying women were asking for too much with abortion rights and that they went too far? That's effectively what they did here to trans people despite it being the same fight for bodily autonomy.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) June 19, 2025 at 12:24 PM

Skrmetti was the culmination of a decade long effort to turn the tide back against LGBTQ rights by the far right. They specifically targeted trans people after Obergefell to cleave the community. Now their next target is to overturn Obergefell. That's the end goal. We were a stepping stone to that.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) June 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM

The gays who thought they were safe and decided to sit out on trans issues or piled on to attack them are going to be in for a rude awakening when Obergefell is overturned in the coming years and same sex marriages are reverted to 2nd class status. They hate gays just as much as they trans people.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) June 19, 2025 at 12:29 PM

Facts. I’ve been making this argument since they passed SONDA in New York. LGB folks need to protect our trans siblings even if it’s only self serving.

— Sofia Gigante (@cjlillis.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 12:31 PM

---

The Southern Baptist Convention voted to try to undo same-sex marriage.

---

Tennessee's youth transition ban is straightforwardly discriminatory. It bans puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries *only* when they are used to affirm a trans identity www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Bi...

[image or embed]

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM

We saw this in the UK too: All of the allegedly "reasonable" concerns about bone density, low-quality research, lack of long-term follow-up, profits for Big Pharma, etc — magically disappear when it comes to cisgender kids receiving the exact same treatments.

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM

Absolutely astounding that it is still controversial to point out that the anti-trans movement is driven by bigotry, not ethics-in-research concerns about children. They keep fucking telling you this to your face!

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 1:02 PM

It was the Biden administration's DOJ who decided to pursue this to the Supreme Court, not a trans rights group.

[image or embed]

— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) June 19, 2025 at 8:41 AM

I keep seeing the NYT say "how the left lost in trans issues" or "how the trans rights movement lost" with no analysis whatsoever about how they themselves or elected democrats failed. Biden pushed it to SCOTUS, a falsely reported NYT news section piece was cited in that SCOTUS decision.

— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) June 19, 2025 at 8:46 AM

We got rat fucked by the NYT specifically but you're not going to read about THAT story in the NYT.

— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) June 19, 2025 at 8:47 AM

"The trans rights movement assumed SCOTUS would have actual brains and practice real law but lol, lmao"

[image or embed]

— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) June 19, 2025 at 9:17 AM

No, New York Times. That's not what trans people are saying.

[image or embed]

— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) June 19, 2025 at 7:52 AM

Read: The Supreme Court Doesn’t Care About The Law Anymore: And the conservative justices don’t think they owe you any answers at all. Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost, Jul 17, 2025

Sen. Mike Lee finally deleted some of his 'jokes' about the assassination

(As background, I wrote: What the Political Assassin in Minnesota Believes: He was influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation. June 17, 2025.)

A Republican Senator has been essentially cheering on the assassination. He waited three days to delete some (not all) of his posts.

"Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) directly confronted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Monday over a series of disturbing social media posts he shared in response to the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their partners.

After a gunman killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark Hortman, and severely wounded state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, Lee wrote a post on X (formerly Twitter) baselessly claiming that “this is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” He then followed that post with a joke about the situation and an apparent reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)."

— Li Zhou, Sen. Tina Smith Confronts Sen. Mike Lee Over His Appalling Minnesota Posts: Lee has faced immense backlash for social media posts making light of the attacks on two Minnesota lawmakers. HuffPost, Jun 17, 2025

Minnesota doesn't want to tolerate political violence

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued a stern warning to his officers on Thursday: Intervene when you see Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents using unlawful force or lose your job.

[image or embed]

— Bruce Little (@brucedlittle.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 2:05 AM

Trump's plan for Day 1, and how it's going

I've been hanging on to this draft post since a few days after the November election, when "Trump's plan for Day 1" was still only a plan. This draft post seemed to have been a catch-all for things I didn't put in other posts. ::shrug:: We have less time now than we did in November, so I'll publish this collection of notes for whatever it may be worth to someone else.

"Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House.

His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies on education, reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him, and pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he said of his Day 1 plans."

— Colleen Long and Dan Merica, Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish, AP News, November 12, 2024

Associated Press update on gas mileage

Donald Trump confirmed this morning that he plans to declare a national emergency and use military assets for a mass deportation program.

[image or embed]

— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 8:52 AM

---

For a while, Matt Gaetz was going to be a thing. He was supposed to become Attorney General. Yeah, no, he had to withdraw himself from consideration.

"...don’t believe that these unfit nominees for Trump’s cabinet represent some lofty idea of making America great again. Despite all his effusive language about the supposed statesmanship of Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, these picks are meant to do two things: show his iron-grip control over the Senate; and sow chaos and despair in the non-MAGA members of the American public."

— As Trump's plans become clearer, reject these four dangerous ideas: Debunking and, I hope, clarifying some of the spin and lies. Margaret Sullivan. American Crisis, Nov 17, 2024

"Matt Gaetz isn’t just a degenerate backbench MAGA loyalist, he’s credibly accused of child-sex trafficking, and may soon carry out vendettas against his accusers and others as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer. Tulsi Gabbard isn’t just a wild-eyed reactionary who makes bonkers claims on foreign propaganda networks, she’s in line to lead the United States’s intelligence community. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. isn’t just a brain-wormed sex pest, he wants to mainstream an anti-vaccine culture that has left a trail of dead children in its wake."
— Brian Beutler, No, Trump's Cabinet Is Not A "Distraction": They're cabinet secretaries, ffs! Off Message, Nov 18, 2024

"Matt Gaetz, an arrested-development adolescent with the swagger of a sequined guitarist in a low-rent casino, will not be confirmed. His grotesqueness, however, makes three other nominees seem what they are not: acceptable. Considering only competence — leaving aside character blemishes — nothing in their resumes qualifies Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the policy and administrative challenges of running the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively."
— George F. Will. The Senate's Madisonian opportunity on those nominations: A good thing about Trump's ghastly nominees: They could jolt the Senate into reclaiming its independence. Washington Post, November 17, 2024.

---

1) The term “Judeo-Christian” first appeared in the 19th century, in the context of trying to convert Jews to Christianity. 2) It’s Islamaphobic 3) most Jewish advances (Talmud, law, etc) developed under not-Christian rule, that’s usually sucked for us 4) the Crusaders mass-murdered Jews. 1/x

[image or embed]

— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@theradr.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 9:06 AM

i keep saying these people hate the american system of government because it is true. “sovereign over the executive branch?” get the fuck outta here. he is a servant of the constitution and those “rogue judges” are doing their jobs!

[image or embed]

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) January 29, 2025 at 9:17 AM

'A 5 Alarm F-ing Fire': Trump's Federal Funding Freeze Is Jolting Some Dems Into Fight Mode: "The Senate must not be business as usual," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as nearly two dozen Democrats cast a protest vote on a Trump nominee. Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, Jan 28, 2025

It's all just Calvinball.

[image or embed]

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM

The Trump White House Wants A Court Challenge Over Frozen Funds: An internal OMB document shows that it is official administration policy to block funding to provoke a constitutional challenge. Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost, Jan 29, 2025

Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, operating senior living facilities across the state. Republicans are shutting it down Perhaps more concerning is Mike Flynn, known foreign asset, having access to this data?

[image or embed]

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol) February 2, 2025 at 9:10 AM

Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems, Tim Reid, Reuters, February 2, 2025

Judge Who Blocked Trump's Funding Freeze Is Concerned He Isn't Following The Order: The federal judge noted that organizations had informed the court as recently as last night that they still could not reach their funds., Brandi Buchman, HuffPost, Feb 3, 2025

NEW: DOGE has requested and is being granted “access to all SBA systems,” per an email sent to Small Business Admin employees today. Edward Coristine, a DOGE official, held a call with SBA staff detailing level of access they wanted, including HR, contract and payment systems

— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM

Employees were told this access was cleared, but weren’t told by whom, and that access needed to granted in a very short time frame to Coristine and Donald Park, who appears to be an adviser to DOGE

— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM

This is a crucial program that helps women and racial minorities build up businesses, and helps create the infrastructure of our communities, from your pet sitters to your book store.

[image or embed]

— Amanda Marcotte (@amandamarcotte.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM

As of February 2025, it's apparent that DOGE is making up numbers.

Larry Diamond has studied "over the last half-century...how democracies rise and fall," and over the "last two decades...tracking and unpacking the global democratic recession." He argues: "First, the crisis of American democracy is now squarely upon us. ... Second, it is going to get a lot worse. ... Third, democratic backsliding is moving quickly now in part because of the lack of resistance. ...the longer and further Trump and his acolytes proceed with their authoritarian ambitions, the harder it will be to resist, and the greater will be the risk not just to our democratic process but to our basic liberties. The key is to unite in defense of our democratic checks and balances, rather than to argue that every one of Trump’s policy initiatives is illegitimate." Though any "open defiance of federal court orders by the Trump administration...would be an obvious impeachable offense," we must remember "that in his first term, Trump committed other impeachable offenses for which he was not held accountable."
— Larry Diamond, Trump's America Is in a Free Fall—Not a Slippery Slope—to Tyranny: He is instilling fear not just among lawmakers but every sector of society that dares to criticize him or hold him accountable. The UnPopulist, Feb 20, 2025

Various court rulings about what he's trying to do: CNN, Feb 22, 2025

In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress & Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies & grants to religious organizations for years. Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities. Musk wants to fuck it all up.

— Jimi’s Plectrum (@jw1958.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:46 AM

The GOP admin has been using the bully pulpit to extort, menace, and otherwise obstruct justice against anyone his admin perceives to be an enemy. One firm the GOP admin targeted, Paul Weiss, folded to protect their bottom line. Now, EVERY lawyer has a target on their back. Niemöller weeps.

[image or embed]

— Hypatia L.A. Seneschale ↙️↙️↙️ (she/her) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@femiyahtzee.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 7:42 AM

“I just think that the law firms have to behave themselves, and we’ve proven that – we have others that want to make a settlement, also having to do with the election and other things. They behaved very badly, very wrongly, and I appreciate the one — you know, these are the biggest firms, and they all came back realizing that they did wrong. That’s why they’re doing this. So, I just think they have to behave.” — Donald Trump (CNN, March 24, 2025)

(May 14, 2026: Regarding his attack on law firms, the appeals court doesn't appear sympathetic to Trump. May 31, 2026: "Trump Spins D.C. Legal Brain Drain As Win Against Left-Wing 'Lunatics': A New York Times report published Sunday showed a staggering 10,000 lawyers have left work in federal government since late 2024.")

The next step is to strip the nonprofit status of the ACLU and any other civil rights orgs that challenge the Trump administration. There won't be any lawyers left to bring the kinds of litigation necessary to stop the attack on the rule of law. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

[image or embed]

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:07 PM

There are law school legal clinics working on these cases as well. I fully expect the Trump administration to threaten federal funding to any law school that has clinics bringing challenges to the administration's lawless actions. We are well and truly into fascism.

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM

Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE: The U.S. is in talks with 19 nations, including Libya, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Moldova, to accept deportees from other countries. Nick Turse, Jonah Valdez, The Intercept, May 15 2025

“The plain message that they are conveying is: If you even think about, talk about or claim to be in favor of diversity, of equity, of inclusion, of accessibility, you will be targeted,” said Maya Wiley, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

“They’re conveying that white men are the most discriminated against people in American society,” she added, “and therefore entitled to affirmative action.”

* * *

Catherine E. Lhamon, who previously served as the head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, said the investigations showed a pattern of “performative misapplication of federal civil rights law.”

“The Trump administration’s transparently vendetta-driven investigations categorically do not focus on fulfilling Congress’s guarantee that federal nondiscrimination protections apply equally,” Ms. Lhamon said. “Civil rights, properly understood, do not pit one group against another but protect all of us.”

— Erica L. Green, For Trump, Civil Rights Protections Should Help White Men: Administration officials pick and choose which civil rights protections they want to enforce, and for whom. New York Times, May 25, 2025

“The reason they’re doing [this] is to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself... to shut the fuck up,” Piker said on a stream recounting the details of the incident. www.usermag.co/p/hasan-pike...

[image or embed]

— On the Media (@onthemedia.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM

"At 10:19 last night, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media: “Stand with ICE. Pass the B[ig] B[eautiful] B[ill].”

And there it is. The Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is the MAGA regime’s attempt to replace the American government we’ve had since the 1930s with one that reflects the antidemocratic values of Project 2025."

* * *

"Maanvi Singh of The Guardian put the right lens on events in Los Angeles today, noting “Trump’s dramatic escalation” and his vow “to crush opposition to his immigration raids.” Singh identified the administration’s escalation as the trigger for “a roaring backlash.”

Singh noted federal agents carried out arrests in L.A. without judicial warrants and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been holding families in the basements of federal buildings, refusing them access to lawyers and family members. Agents in riot gear attacked protesters with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, turning peaceful protests into clashes."

— Heather Cox Richardson, June 9, 2025, Letters from an American, Jun 10, 2025

Minnesota assassinations

June 14, 2025: assassination reported. The local newspaper, the Star Tribune, removed its paywall for this coverage: Live: Rep. Melissa Hortman assassinated, others shot in ‘targeted’ attack

Here's that HuffPost coverage.

when we scream and shout about doing things, this is what we mean. got popped and still went back again? hell yeah brother

[image or embed]

— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) June 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM

we don't want statements and we don't want resolutions. we want to see your ass on the news standing up for what you say you believe in.

— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) June 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM

THEY F*CKING TOOK THE ICE CREAM MAN! The photo says it all. Masked ICE goons grabbed Enrique Lozano in front of a Culver City, CA church. A Community Coalition helped the family identify the abandoned cart, locate his belongings. For 20 years, loved in the community. "Hardened criminals" - my ass.

[image or embed]

— The Shallow State (@ourshallowstate.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM

‘We are not safe in America today:’ These American citizens say they were detained by ICE, Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN, June 27, 2025

He was born to a US citizen soldier on an army base in Germany. Now he’s been deported to Jamaica, a country he’d never been to. Zoe Sottile, CNN, July 8, 2025

ICE Is Making an Example of California: The repeated targeting of California workers is a deliberate spectacle, meant to show the rest of​ the country what to expect if we don’t fall in line. Melissa Gira Grant, July 17, 2025

ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data: A new agreement viewed by WIRED gives ICE direct access to a federal database containing sensitive medical data on tens of millions of Americans, with the goal of locating immigrants. WIRED. Jul 17, 2025

“I thought people were going to die”: Anti-ICE protesters say they were attacked by police: Supporters of detained chaplain Ayman Soliman say cops assaulted them at a recent protest, but they're not deterred, Tatyana Tandanpolie, Salon, August 6, 2025

"The premise of Trumpism was always the facade, the lie. From Obama’s birth certificate to migrant caravans to invading Greenland, the MAGA movement has always been a parade of mediocre storytelling meant to scare masses saturated with fear and hatred. It’s always been a bad puppet show with big shadows that distract and alarm and offer absolutely nothing of substance. But it turns out people need substance. We need sustenance. Even the true believers, the real Trump acolytes, are now hungry for answers when it comes to Epstein’s Island, when it comes to the cost of a home, when it comes to their jobs being replaced by AI. People need substance. But instead the Trump regime says JD Vance will be looking into alien life, a nuclear reactor will be built on the moon, zero migrants have crossed the border this year. These are all real claims being made, and they’re all equally dishonest and deluded, because that’s all they have left.

Reality has caught up. Fascism is one great lie that attacking the oppressed will somehow help the rest of us. The Trumpist iteration of fascism says that handing the rich money and handing one egomaniac unlimited power while scapegoating the vulnerable is somehow good for the 99% of us. It never made logical sense; it was always premised on emotional appeal and lies. And, as we know, the truth doesn’t always magically break through — truth does not inherently emerge victorious. Rather, as we’re seeing now, the lie of fascism emerges specifically to paper over the truth that capitalism fails us. It emerges to cover up the rot, the stench of capitalist excess. It rises at times when the masses of people grow angry at the ruling class, and waves flags in an effort to get the bull to charge at the immigrants rather than the billionaire. And, for a time, it works.

But now we find ourselves at a different stage."

J. P. Hill, The facade of unreality is crumbling: Cooking the books, endless distraction, and truth breaking through, New Means, Aug 05, 2025

I can't believe I'm posting this video - but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland. Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.

[image or embed]

— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 9:44 PM

"Three-quarters of Americans say they oppose the United States attempting to take control of Greenland" CNN, Jan 15, 2026

this alone is worth an impeachment tbh

[image or embed]

— Reconstructionist (@unavaleable.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 11:04 AM

As world leaders, businesses and civil society gather in #Davos for the #WEF, here is a timely reminder why Greenland is indispensable to global #climate science 🧪 via: Prof Martin Siegert in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/why-greenlan...

[image or embed]

— International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (@iccinet.bsky.social) January 20, 2026 at 3:32 AM

Europe is learning that a ‘deal’ with Trump doesn’t exist Analysis by Allison Morrow, CNN, Jan 21, 2026

Trump’s Greenland ‘Deal’ Appears To Exist Only In His Head: Denmark says it has no intention of ceding any territory on the Arctic island, raising the question of what he achieved beyond sowing chaos and bad blood. S.V. Date, HuffPost, Jan 22, 2026

Europe’s Strategy Of Treating Trump Like A Royal Toddler Didn’t Work — So Now What? A year of fawning and constant praise was rewarded with Trump's refusal to help Ukraine and a threat to take Greenland by force because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. S.V. Date, HuffPost, Jan 21, 2026

They speak Kalaallisut, aka Greenlandic. How is the Trump regime going to perpetrate disinfo on them?

U.S. Military Pushing For More Access To Greenland: Report (HuffPost, April 1, 2026)

They just tear-gassed us. They tried to run us over in a van holding a peaceful protester. They shot us with pepper balls. They dragged another protester into the facility.

[image or embed]

— Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) September 19, 2025 at 8:54 AM

As I told @newrepublic.com, "Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity there."

[image or embed]

— Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) September 19, 2025 at 8:40 PM

Read: Congressional Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Thrown To The Ground By ICE Officer At Protest: "It is time to be willing to be manhandled by officers," she said. "Because guess what? The people in that facility are enduring even worse shit right now." Sebastian Murdock Sep 19, 2025 (HuffPost)

To which: "Fox News host Laura Ingraham offered some succinct words of praise for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who was seen throwing a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground during a protest in the Chicago area: “Good work.”" (HuffPost)

Scoop: CBP tells me the Chicago drone ban I wrote about earlier today was prompted by "credible threat" that agents will be attacked by small drones during protests. We asked for proof of claim and will update with any pertinent information provided. www.twz.com/air/cbp-clai...

[image or embed]

— Howard Altman (@howardaltman.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 9:40 PM

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

[image or embed]

— Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart (@mskellymhayes.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 11:23 AM

DHS posted a sizzle reel about it.

[image or embed]

— istanbulshiite.bsky.social (@istanbulshiite.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 3:48 PM

I argued the other day that DHS efforts to create erotic brown-abuse spectacle was being drowned out by Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies. Looks like the operation that targeted 5 guys and arrested <40 but violated all kinds of Fourth Amendment rights is an attempt to up their game.

[image or embed]

— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM

Important to bear witness, not just to bear witness, but to drown out their abuse-porn w/Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies. www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/29/b...

[image or embed]

— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 4:57 PM

With deportation continuing apace amid the federal government shutdown, advocates speculated that the latest scheme to pay off immigrant children was deliberately timed by ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to minimize public attention.

[image or embed]

— The Intercept (@theintercept.com) October 3, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Holy shit. Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

[image or embed]

— Kate Klonick (@klonick.bsky.social) December 4, 2025 at 12:41 PM

Unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are being arrested by ICE

Trump Administration Diverted $2 Billion in Pentagon Funds to Target Immigrants, Lawmakers Say: The Trump administration is funding its anti-immigrant campaign with money set aside for defense, Democratic lawmakers wrote. Noah Hurowitz, Nick Turse, The Intercept, December 11 2025

"...MAGA doesn’t have a plan or anything like a coherent strategic vision for what that imminent future is supposed to look like.

MAGA rose to power with a short-term strategy aimed at quickly overwhelming the system. It manifested, for instance, in the so-called “180-Day playbook,” the sole part of Project 2025 that was never made publicly available. The “playbook” consisted mainly of dozens, perhaps hundreds of presidential executive orders, drafted in advance, ready to be deployed from Day 1 back in the White House. Within just a few months, the Trumpists sought to neutralize all meaningful political and societal resistance, forcing a comprehensive regime change."
Thomas Zimmer, What the “MAGA Civil War” is Really About, Democracy Americana, December 19, 2025

Here is the Agreement Giving ICE Medicaid Patients' Data: On Tuesday, ICE was allowed to continue using Medicaid data in deportation cases, Joseph Cox, 404 Media, Jan 6, 2026

This is a bad and inaccurate analogy:

Rep. Keith Self on anti-ICE protesters who disrupted a church service in the Twin Cities: "I compare them to Hamas who live-streamed the attack in Israel that killed hundreds of people. They want to instill terror."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2026 at 10:08 AM