ICE shot a mother in her car in Minneapolis

Update

How to Message the Occupation of Minnesota: "One-pager" and more from Antonia Scatton and the Minnesota Messaging Group Antonia Scatton, Reframing America, Jan 26, 2026

8 weeks under siege in Minnesota President Trump unleashed federal agents on Minnesota to be foot soldiers in a brutal retribution campaign that’s violating the most basic freedoms of the United States. Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer, January 23, 2026

Thomas Zimmer says: "At the start of 2026, America is no longer a democracy," but "being lawless, immoral, and violent does not make the Trumpists omnipotent. Their authoritarian desires are limitless, but their ability to impose them on the country is not. Let us not adopt and perpetuate the propagandistic assertion of inevitability." In particular, what's happening in Minneapolis right now "is not law enforcement. It is an occupation. But in Minneapolis, as in every other urban center these masked goons descend upon, the local community is rallying in solidarity." A lot of people are upset about what ICE is doing, which curtails Trump, as "the regime still needs millions to comply in order to keep the machine going." (The Limits of Violent Authoritarianism, Jan 20, 2026, for paid subscribers)

Daycare harassment in Minneapolis

See:

"If we trace the chain of events that caused ICE agents to be deployed to Minneapolis in the first place, they are anchored in Trump’s lies. Trump has openly claimed that Minneapolis is being targeted because of its large Somali population, which is predominately Black and Muslim (a largely refugee population, by the way, that was assisted with resettlement by Lutheran Social Services with government support). At a cabinet meeting in December, as more than 2,000 ICE agents were first being deployed to Minnesota, Trump went on a racist screed, describing Somalia as a country that “stinks and we don’t want them in our country.” He went on to compare Somalis to “garbage” and falsely claimed that Somali gangs had “taken over” Minnesota and were “roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’”"
— Robert P. Jones, Trump's Lies Are Killing Us: The Deadly Consequences of Big and Little Lies Everywhere Trump's deadly lies represent a new stage in the backsliding of America away from democracy. White Too Long, Jan 09, 2026

"Kristi Noem, replete with even longer extensions and even more pancake makeup, stormed into Minneapolis on Tuesday [January 6, 2026] with 20,000 henchmen from Homeland Security because a few daycare facilities in the city had possibly violated Medicare funding rules."
— Denny Carter, The Content Regime Cranks Out More Content: Kristi Noem went to Minnesota to make some movie trailers for her fashy fans, Bad Faith Times, Jan 7, 2026

See also: DHS Sends 2,000 Agents To Minneapolis In Immigration, Fraud Crackdown (Jan 6, 2026)

Josh Powell says:

"The chaos is strategic. They want to blow every circuit in our collective ability to process what’s happening in real time. They want us so exhausted by the spectacle that we miss the systematic looting happening while we’re distracted.

And nowhere is this more apparent than in the Nick Shirley daycare video and Trump’s punishing response to this wannabe Charlie Kirk (the first wasn’t bad enough apparently) propaganda.

A 23-year-old social media grifter posts an amateur video the day after Christmas claiming—without evidence—massive fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota. Within 72 hours, Trump freezes $10 billion in aid to the poorest families across five Democratic states. Within a week, federal agents deploy to Minnesota and Trump is calling Somali Americans “lowlifes” demanding they be sent “back from where they came.”

— Joshua Powell, Tick, Tick, BOOM - The Bomb Slowly Going Off in America's Blue States A YouTuber's fake fraud video gave Trump the pretext he needed to freeze $10 billion in aid to Democratic states. Boom - there goes Venezuela. Chaos is the point. What's he really up to? Does he Know? Jan 07, 2026

CPAC Invites Controversial Far-Right YouTuber Nick Shirley To Speak At 2026 Conference Shirley was also a guest of Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) at the State of the Union address. Anthony Orrico, HuffPost, Mar 12, 2026

Governor I was not familiar with your game

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— Eli Valley (@elivalley.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 4:51 PM

Trump administration suspends $10 billion in federal aid for children and families in five Democratic states

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— EL País Unofficial (@elpais.skyfleet.blue) January 8, 2026 at 8:35 AM

Lawmakers can't get into ICE facilities

Rep. Angie Craig: "We were told because this facility is being funding by the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' not the congressional appropriations act, that we would not be allowed to enter the facility. That's complete nonsense ... I informed them they were violating the law. They said they didn't care."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 10, 2026 at 11:53 AM

Judge halts Trump freeze of social assistance and child care funds in five Democrat-led states, for now Tami Luhby, CNN, Jan 8, 2026

ICE shoots a mother in her car

It is now confirmed from multiple sources that ICE shot a legal observer dead on Portland in Minneapolis between 34th and 33rd street. The victim is dead

— Minnesotan Kaiju (@whisperingpines.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 11:28 AM

A 23 year old larping as a journalist made a misleading and inaccurate YouTube video that the administration full of chronically online shitposters used to justify the “largest immigration operation ever” and now someone is dead

— Mia Sato (@miasato.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 1:58 PM

Nehls: I just recommend that people comply with officers' instructions. Reporter: They did tell her to move her car and she moved her car..

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 3:58 PM

Troy Nehls told journalist Pablo Manríquez “We gotta put a bedsheet ― a big bedsheet ― over the Statue of Liberty. She’s gotta go to sleep for a while ’cause we’re not letting anybody in anymore.” 'Racism And Bigotry': Critics Torch MAGA Lawmaker Over Bonkers Statue Of Liberty Plan: Rep. Troy Nehls wants to cover up the statue — and its welcome message for immigrants. Ed Mazza, HuffPost, Jul 1, 2026

This guy did it

his name is Jonathan Ross and he shouldn't get a good night's sleep for the rest of his life www.startribune.com/ice-agent-wh...

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— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 2:09 PM

BREAKING: The Hennepin County District Attorney's office says they have jurisdiction to charge the ICE agent involved in the fatal Minneapolis shooting.

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— MS NOW (@ms.now) January 8, 2026 at 3:58 PM

Why?

I’m re-upping this because we need to focus.No country should allow masked enforcement officers to terrorize communities. But this country’s history makes this practice ESPECIALLY repugnant. So long as we allow anonymity & impunity there will be brutality. NO MASKS open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 3:26 PM

Frey: So, they are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly: That is bullshit.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 1:39 PM

@chrislhayes.bsky.social: “A 37-year-old American citizen, the mother of a young child is dead tonight. She was shot in the face by an agent of the federal government, and that government has spent the day telling despicable lies about her.”

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— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 8:05 PM

Bystander Videos Capture Different Perspectives Of Fatal ICE Shooting: The videos raise serious questions about claims federal officials have made about the shooting. Li Zhou, HuffPost, Jan 8, 2026

This is literally what they do whenever a Black person is killed by police. No matter how solid the evidence is, they will keep pushing that lie, not just to poison the conversation and make sure the killer walks free, but to reassert the political idea that these people deserve to be killed.

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— Zito (@zeets.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:41 AM

WITNESS: "I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further. That’s absolutely not what it was… ICE agents didn’t let anyone help her for 15 minutes, then medics couldn’t get through with their ambulance.”

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:35 PM

Walz: "I couldn't help but think, and it scares me a bit -- 'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most important directive.' It certainly feels like that in this moment."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 12:57 PM

Q: After you told ICE to get the F out, Republicans are criticizing you for escalating tensions FREY: I'm sorry if I offered their Disney princess ears, but if we're talking about what's inflammatory, on one hand you got someone who dropped an F bomb & on other you have someone who killed someone

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 7, 2026 at 10:25 PM

i think it is ok to reiterate that the victim as a us citizen. yes, noncitizens are equally entitled to human rights. but also, it's important to illustrate how ice isn't about immigration at all

— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 8:41 PM

Make it viral.

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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:22 PM

To anybody who is offended by the governor of Minneapolis telling ICE “get the fuck out of our city,” but not offended by ICE ethnic cleansing secret police summarily executing a local mom, a message: Go fuck yourself. Learn the difference between a swear word and an obscenity.

— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 10:35 AM

Minneapolis Incident Marks 9th ICE Shooting In 4 Months, Jan 8, 2026

Afterward

ICE agents stopped by protesters after the shooting an observer in Minneapolis, according to witnesse. ICE deployed pepper spray and tear gas.

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— Jon Collins (@jcollins.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 12:15 PM

a major american city is being forced to close schools because armed government agents are raiding and pepper spraying and terrorizing children and teachers for social media content

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— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:53 AM

Just seen Grok putting the body of the victim of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis into a bikini. Digital corpse desecration now available to the public.

— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 8:30 AM

I just watched two women get kidnapped right in front of me in Northeast Minneapolis. ICE is still terrorizing our city.

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— Eric Holthaus (@ericholthaus.com) January 8, 2026 at 11:14 AM

The MAGA media machine is saying that she deserved it

“in america, you deserve to be murdered by the state if you have gender pronouns in bio”

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— onion person (@junlper.beer) January 7, 2026 at 6:56 PM

this is the Fox News signal that Good deserved to die

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— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) January 8, 2026 at 7:15 AM

Homan: "We gotta stop the hateful rhetoric. Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It's just ridiculous. It's gonna infuriate people more which means there's gonna be more incidents like this."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 11, 2026 at 9:52 AM

"You deserve to die if you disagree with us" is their position. bsky.app/profile/atru...

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— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 9:37 AM

Since last year, Trump admin planned what to do if ICE agents were accused of crimes (even murder): Protect them “no matter what." Trump laid out ways to retaliate: —Refuse to hand over an agent —Charge local officials with “obstructing" —Threaten to cut off more funding led by @swin24.bsky.social

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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 2:55 PM

Trump regime won't allow the state of Minnesota to investigate

According to my sources, the FBI was initially open to a concurrent investigation with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (the state agency that would do this investigation). Trumpy U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen heard about this and intervened, barring the FBI from cooperating with local police.

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 11:35 AM

Walz: "We have learned that the Trump administration has now denied the state that ability to participate in the investigation. I want to make this as clear as possible: Minnesota must be part of this investigation ... it feels very very difficult that we will get a fair outcome."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 12:41 PM

This is not the law.

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— Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 1:59 PM

Some quick thoughts on how Trump takes advantage of the period of uncertainty between an event and full understanding of what happened — from the 2020 election to Minnesota. www.pbump.net/o/trumpism-d...

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— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) January 8, 2026 at 11:15 AM

VPOTUS JD Vance lied: "That woman was part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to doxx, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job."

You can tell things are going well when the VP is tweeting through it.

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— hannah gais (@hannahgais.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 1:58 PM

AOC: That is a fundamental difference between VP Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 9:31 PM

JD Vance Is 'Not Happy' Renee Good Was Killed, But..., The vice president is in charge of creating the bad-faith unreality in which Renee Good was a terrorist., Denny Carter, Bad Faith Times, Jan 9, 2026

Rep. Randy Fine: "It's time for Americans to say 'enough,' and if you get in the way of the government repelling a foreign invasion, you're gonna end up just like that lady did yesterday."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 8, 2026 at 9:30 AM

Pinning your hopes on police orgs breaking with ICE is not sound thinking. sherrilyn.substack.com/p/whether-it...

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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 11:48 AM

"If the greatest lie the devil ever told was to convince us that he wasn’t real, the greatest lie the oil industry ever told us is to convince us that they don’t want oil" @antoniajuhasz.bsky.social interviewed by @emdashsanders.bsky.social, on the fossil fuel industry's latest big lies:

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— Ketan Joshi (@ketanjoshi.co) January 10, 2026 at 10:34 AM

Live Updates Noem says DHS sending ‘hundreds more’ CBP officers to Minneapolis (CNN)

I will be holding a press conference at 3:30p CT today with @mayorjacobfrey.bsky.social and Mayor Her to discuss our lawsuit to halt ICE’s surge into Minnesota. Watch live:

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— Attorney General Keith Ellison (@ag.state.mn.us) January 12, 2026 at 4:27 PM

Federal Agents In Minnesota Wreak Havoc As They Demand Papers, Conduct Arrests, HuffPost, Jan 13, 2026

DHS Used Neo-Nazi Anthem for Recruitment After Fatal Minneapolis ICE Shooting The federal government is openly embracing white nationalist online content — including in a recruitment post after Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good. Austin Campbell, The Intercept, January 13 2026

ICE's killing and brutality is breaking through big time with disengaged voters. Joe Rogan just harshly criticized ICE as "Gestapo." And new data I've obtained finds very high percentages of young and working class have seen video of Minneapolis shooting. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2052...

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) January 14, 2026 at 1:57 PM

Trump Threatens To Use The Insurrection Act To 'Put An End' To Protests In Minneapolis Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act allowing him to deploy troops as protests against ICE persist in Minneapolis. Steve Karnowski, Alanna Durkin Richer, Hallie Golden and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press, Jan 15, 2026

Action

Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators. ICE can’t function without help from the private sector. So we should force the private sector to stop helping. Eric Blanc, Wes McEnany, and Claire Sandberg, The Nation, January 9, 2026

Events, Petitions, and Volunteer Opportunities, Mobilize

Support the organizations doing this work:
Black Immigrant Collective — Black-led organization providing legal clinics, mutual aid, and policy advocacy
Unidos MN — Grassroots organization building power with working families for social, racial, and economic justice
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) — All-volunteer grassroots organization led by BIPOC and immigrant community members
Immigrant Defense Network — Network of 90+ organizations protecting immigrant rights in Minnesota.Learn about ICE (immigration) raids
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) — National organization at the intersection of immigration justice and anti-Black social structures

Support local mutual aid:

Stand With Minnesota
Twin Cities Mutual Aid
Pow Wow Grounds (accepting donations for community needs)
Northern Coffeeworks (supporting weekly food deliveries to immigrant families)

"As the parent of two young children, I was enraged by daycare centers across the U.S. dealing with harassment as they got the #pizzagate treatment from Shirley and other MAGA activists. Even moreso by the fact that some media outlets chose to both sides what was happening, rather than acknowledge the insanity and danger of wannabe MAGA influencers showing up to random daycare centers with video cameras to harass workers and children."
— Melissa Ryan, In Cold Blood: State-Sponsored Violence, First, they came for the daycares. Then they murdered a mom. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Jan 11, 2026

Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

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— Mr. Dan Zak (@mrdanzak.com) January 15, 2026 at 2:22 PM

Aliya Rahman told ICE she was disabled She told them she was on her way to a doctor appt They broke her window, cut her seatbelt & dragged her away like an animal She was headed to the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when they grabbed her. She was denied access to a doctor & tossed in detention

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— Kelly (@broadwaybabyto.bsky.social) January 15, 2026 at 11:49 PM

Biometric data gathered when he went in for a green card interview. That's what they used.

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— Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof (@evanbernick.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 3:41 PM

CBS reportedly isn't comfortable with its own decision to run a story that the ICE guy suffered injuries when shooting Good.

On X

"under the 10th Amendment in the U.S. constitution, federal authorities do not have the power to command local law enforcement." (HuffPost)

He hopes he doesn't lose your vote when his ICE operations kill your child:

Trump: "ICE is gonna be too rough with somebody. They're gonna make a mistake sometimes. I felt horribly when I was told the young woman had the tragedy. But when I learned her father is - I hope he still is, but I don't know - was a tremendous Trump fan. It's terrible. It's so sad. It just happens"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 20, 2026 at 2:32 PM

Every Stephen Miller tantrum and DHS recruitment ad speaks in these existential terms about "defending your culture" to elide the fact that they need people with the courage to wear a mask while interrogating a sixth grader

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— Gillian Branstetter (@gbbranstetter.bsky.social) January 21, 2026 at 1:07 PM

one of few human obligations nearly everyone agrees on is that to avoid living in such a way that a sentence like that must be written about something you’ve done to a small child

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— rax ‘levon honkers’ king (@raxkingisdead.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 9:11 AM

The existence of this agency, staffed the way it is today, is just completely incompatible with a democratic society.

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— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 11:42 AM

How Right Wing Influencers Used AI Slop to Turn Renee Good Into a Meme, Owen Carry, 404 Media, 26 Jan 2026

"Minnesota is the only state challenging Trump’s anti-trans executive orders to “stop President Trump and his administration from bullying vulnerable children,” according to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. The state also sued to prevent the administration from pulling its federal funding.

Ellison is defending the state’s policy in court. He also proactively issued a legal guidance document in February that clarifies Minnesota law still requires schools to allow children to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity."

— Education Department refers Minnesota trans athletes probe to Justice Department: The move could lead to the state losing its federal funding over its transgender athlete policies. Bianca Quilantan, Politico, 01/26/2026

‘I Don’t Let Bullies Win’: Ilhan Omar Assaulted at Town Hall Amid Repeated Trump Attacks “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand,” said the Democratic lawmaker following the attack. “We are Minnesota strong and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.” Jon Queally, Common Dreams, Jan 27, 2026

"According to Reuters, this is the 14th person who has died while in ICE custody in 2026." (HuffPost, March 30, 2026)

Degraded info quality leads to authoritarianism

Today, "I Peeked at Grokipedia", and it's as horrible as you might imagine. A fake encyclopedia, deliberately rightwing.

I retreated to read one of my subscriptions, written by a human. Brian Klaas in the Garden of Forking Paths ("Brain Food," Oct 23, 2025):

"Now, Fukuyama is out with a new essay (on Substack) in which he reaches the same conclusion that I’ve been pushing for years: the rise of authoritarian populism, across the globe, at around the same time, isn’t primarily due to material or economic backlash, but rather to the breakdown of information systems, facilitated by the rise of the internet and the spread of social media.

* * *

Of course, monocausal explanations for complex phenomena are silly; there’s not just one reason why Trump emerged at the same time as all the other would-be despots of his ilk. But Fukuyama, like me, has concluded that the most salient cause—the biggest driver—is the breakdown of information pipelines."

Relatedly, Avram Alpert writes ("What we misunderstand in the debate over free speech," The Guardian, Oct 23, 2025):

"Most defenders of “free speech” only seem to care about the freedom to express themselves. They fight for the right to say anything, not whether the speech itself comes from a position of freedom.

...free speech, properly conceived, is not just about the right to say what one wants. It is also about being the kind of person who has been so conscientious in their thinking, learning and discussion that they have become a free subject whose speech is directed toward the pursuit of truth.

* * *

There are many factors – both benign and malign – that have incredible power to influence our thinking. Our minds, for example, tend to overemphasize negative and frightful information through what psychologists call “affect heuristics” and “availability heuristics” – shortcuts in our thinking bequeathed by evolution so that we quickly recall information and react immediately to danger.

But these same shortcuts can make us susceptible to manipulation – even when we know we’re being manipulated. That’s what makes a false idea like “immigrant crime” so powerful. Even though statistics show that migrants commit far less crime than others, these heuristics trick our minds into recalling recent news stories and becoming afraid. So when someone insists on their right to demonize immigrants, that is not free speech – it is fear speech. Again, we neither can nor should make fear speech illegal, but we can create cultural norms that promote genuine free speech.

This includes an open and engaged public sphere, an educational and scientific research system that expands knowledge, active public venues that encourage people to learn about each other’s points of view, and public labors to produce and circulate factual information and counter propaganda and misinformation."

"Trump — in an unhinged Truth Social post over the weekend — claimed that [comedian Seth] Meyers “endlessly” discussed electric catapults (or part of a carrier used to help aircraft achieve faster takeoff speeds) during his Thursday monologue before calling the host “100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!!” (HuffPost, Nov 3, 2025)

Elon Musk’s Anti-Woke Wikipedia Is Calling Hitler “The Führer”: The anti-woke Wikipedia alternative aims to create a parallel version of the truth for the right wing. Tekendra Parmar, The Intercept, November 26 2025

TX House Dems sent AG Paxton a letter demanding immediate investigation and enforcement on AI-generated sexual exploitation on X, plus age verification compliance and clear victim reporting pathways. #TxLege #HD70

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— Representative Mihaela E. Pleșa (@plesafortexas.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 4:15 PM

The Public Health Cost of Eliminating Race and Ethnicity Data 09.04.26 | 6 min read | Text by Vi D. Le & Melanie Klein

No democracy, but hope

Chris Kluwe tells Marisa Kabas (interview published today) that the US is currently under "weak authoritarian rule," which means "we still have the potential to get back our democracy. We just have to show up and fight for it," and that's why he's running for office even though currently there is no democracy.

KABAS: Do you think we still have a democracy?

KLUWE: Currently? No. I believe we are currently in authoritarianism, and I think that's been made very clear, both due to the fact that the Republicans, as well as the Supreme Court, refuse to reign Trump in. He's deploying the National Guard to multiple states. He's deploying the military into US cities. And he has publicly proclaimed that he wants to be a dictator. And call me silly, but when Donald Trump says he wants to do something, I listen, because whenever he says he wants to do something, he always tries to do that thing.

KABAS: I think running for office, though, shows some faith that a system still exists, right? That you can affect change from the inside in some way. So if we aren't living in a democracy, what do you hope to achieve by running and working within the system as it currently is?

KLUWE: So right now, we're currently under authoritarian rule, but it's still weak authoritarian rule. The courts are still pushing back on the lower levels, both federally and state, and there are a lot of states that are pushing back. Obviously, Newsom has been doing the redistricting stuff. Governor Pritzker has been talking about ‘you can't come into Chicago.’ I think I saw something in Philadelphia where if ICE or DHS breaks the law, they're going to prosecute and charge them. And so we still have the potential to get back our democracy. We just have to show up and fight for it.

I find this passage helpful because sometimes people do ask about the point of trying to leverage the old system at all if it's already broken and overtaken. The hope is that the old system may have some useful tools to take power from the authoritarians and build a better future.

In a post on Democracy Americana (September 28, 2025), Thomas Zimmer reflects on the sense of whiplash:

"Is Trump winning? Is he losing?

The only productive way forward is to reject the question. Binary categories of “Winning/losing” – or “weak/strong” – are just not very helpful right now. They tend to reproduce mood swings more than they help generate plausible analysis."

Zimmer says again, a few months later:

"While I share the general assessment that the MAGA assault has been running into trouble, I maintain that binary categories of Trump “winning vs losing” are not particularly helpful. They tend to reproduce mood swings more than they help generate plausible analysis. Every Trumpian embarrassment is destined to cause a new round of “Trump is weak, he is losing” pieces; every authoritarian escalation is accompanied by a chorus of “Democracy is dead, MAGA won” post-mortems. As unsatisfactory as that may feel, we should allow ourselves to grapple with the murkiness of what is a highly ambiguous, even contradictory moment in U.S. history.

One particular issue I have with the “Trump is losing” framework is that it tends to underestimate how quickly things could get out of hand. I don’t just mean that in a “Something bad could always happen” kind of way – everyone acknowledges that sort of general contingency. I am more concerned with how ideology and ineptitude may conspire to make escalation almost inevitable. MAGA is ideologically and psycho-politically incapable of moderating: It is a hysterical movement that exists in a constant state of imagined emergency: Under siege, enemies everywhere – there is no room for compromise or restraint. Every crisis, every defeat only heightens their sense of being under siege, legitimizing and amplifying calls to hit harder, more aggressively."
(The Limits of Violent Authoritarianism, Democracy Americana, Jan 20, 2026, for paid subscribers)

Trump isn't leaving peacefully or legally. All the signs are there. Here's another. www.cnn.com/2026/04/22/p...

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— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) April 22, 2026 at 6:35 PM

DC takeover is a 'red trial balloon'

Brad Reed:

"In a post on his Truth Social page on Monday morning, Trump framed the decision to deploy the National Guard as necessary to combat crime in the nation's capital.

"Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today!" Trump claimed. "Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER!"

However, the president's claim that the National Guard is needed to protect Washington, D.C. residents from purportedly unprecedented criminal violence does not hold water given that the city has seen a dramatic fall in crime recently.

* * *

Karen Attiah, a columnist for The Washington Post, warned her Bluesky followers against writing off the deployment as an effort by the president to distract from his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

"Threats of the militarization of cities—including D.C., which has been fighting for self determination for generations—isn't a 'distraction,'" she said. "It's a massive, giant, red trial balloon for what an American president can do [in] YOUR city... I need people to wake up.""

— Trump Plan to Deploy National Guard in DC Called 'Giant, Red Trial Balloon': "Trump's move to mobilize the National Guard against Americans in D.C. is another telltale sign of his authoritarian ambitions," said Democratic Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh. Common Dreams, August 11, 2025

Brad Reed again:

"Shortly after Trump made his announcement, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb indicated that he was not taking the president's attempt to take over his city's police force lying down.

"The administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful," he declared in a post on X. "There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in D.C. reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year. We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents."

— Trump Says 'Other Cities Are Hopefully Watching' as He Deploys National Guard, Takes Over DC Police: "The administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful," declared Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Common Dreams, August 11, 2025

Hapless humanoid holding balloon by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Balloon envelope by Hans from Pixabay

Arthur Delaney: "It’s the first time a president has invoked the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973 to take over the city’s police, but it’s become routine for Trump to declare dubious emergencies expanding his power." (Trump’s D.C. Police Takeover Is His Latest Made-Up ‘Emergency’ Power Grab: The president offered misleading statements about crime trends in the nation’s capital. HuffPost, Aug 11, 2025)

A year ago, Judd Legum wrote:

"Violent crime, however, is not "skyrocketing" in D.C. in 2024. According to data maintained by the D.C. Metropolitan Police, after a significant increase last year, violent crime is down 27% through May 17 compared to 2023. This includes a 24% reduction in homicide, a 29% drop in assault with a dangerous weapon, and a 27% decline in robbery."

— "The truth about crime in DC", Popular Information, May 20, 2024

Speaking as a DC resident: statehood now. It is absurd that Trump can do this in our city.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM

i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) August 28, 2025 at 8:38 AM

Walter Benjamin warned us about this. Fascism is all about reproducing aesthetics artificially until the artificiality itself becomes more real than what it imitates.

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— Joel S. (@joelhs.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM

Martin Austermuhle's article, "What to know about Trump’s deployment of federal police in D.C.: Republicans paint D.C. as a lawless war zone that only they can fix" (6 min read, The 51st, 8 Aug)

Ashraf Khalil's article, "National Guard troops begin arriving amid Trump's Washington, DC, takeover: The law lets Trump control the police department for a month, but how aggressive the federal presence will be and how it could play out remained open questions" (Associated Press, 12 Aug)

REPORTER: There are people upset with the president, believing the National Guard members shouldn't have been there PIRRO: I don't even wanna talk about whether they should've been there. We ought to kiss the ground and thank God that the president said it's time to bring in more law enforcement

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM

The Intercept wrote in a December 6, 2025 email to its readers:

Donald Trump’s military occupation of U.S. cities has already cost the American public $473 billion, according to an expert estimate provided exclusively to The Intercept.

* * *

Through mid-November, the estimated cost per city for Trump’s National Guard deployment is:

$270 million – Washington, DC
$172 million – Los Angeles, CA
$15 million – Portland, OR
$13 million – Chicago, IL
$3 million – Memphis, TN

‘Minneapolis Is the Test Case’: Trump Threatens Insurrection Act to Put Down Protests “The Insurrection Act was always the plan,” warned one critic of the president. Brad Reed, Common Dreams, Jan 15, 2026

Thomas Zimmer says: "In an immediate sense, the Insurrection Act would allow Trump to militarize the conflict even further, to put more people with guns in the streets of Minneapolis. It could potentially establish an extremely dangerous precedent, eroding the barriers against using the Insurrection Act as a vehicle to suppress protest. But the Insurrection Act, as much as Trump wants us to believe otherwise, does not suspend the constitution and civil liberties, it does not establish martial law or a military dictatorship. Federal troops patrolling the streets would still be constrained by the law, restricted to regular law enforcement powers." (The Limits of Violent Authoritarianism, Jan 20, 2026, for paid subscribers)

Trump Is Threatening To ‘Take Back’ DC Based On Who Wins Mayoral Primary The president said he "wouldn't like it" if Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic front-runner who has vowed to fight Trump's overreach, wins. Arthur Delaney and Jennifer Bendery, Jun 16, 2026

Wow: The National Guard has signed a $292 million contract to house thousands of troops deployed to D.C. in 2,000 apartments in the city, instead of in hotels or other places where they've been put up. www.notus.org/defense/nati...

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— Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle.bsky.social) July 24, 2026 at 12:52 PM

Keeping National Guard In D.C. Until 2029 Will Cost A Fortune, HuffPost, 2026

Asst. AG Scolds DC Council For Asking State Govs To Withdraw National Guard Troops, Caroline Wilburn, HuffPost, August 12, 2026

Quotes on lying

"What I see as white, I will believe to be black if the hierarchical Church thus determines it."
Ignatius of Loyola. Quoted by Tom Beaudoin. Consuming Faith: Integrating Who We Are with What We Buy. Lanham, Md.: Sheed and Ward, 2003. p. 54.

"Men hate those to whom they have to lie."
Victor Hugo, quoted in the Associated Press, quoted in The Week, Sept. 26, 2014, p. 17.

"The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves."
V. S. Naipaul, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, quoted in The Week, May 24, 2013, p. 17.

"What does the specific hypnotic experiment with which we started show? (1) The subject wills something, namely, to read his manuscript, (2) he thinks something, namely, that C has taken it, and (3) he feels something, namely, anger against C. We have seen that all three mental acts—his will impulse, his thought, his feeling — are not his own in the sense of being the result of his own mental activity; that they have not originated in him, but are put into him from the outside and are subjectively felt as if they were his own. He gives expression to a number of thoughts which have not been put into him during the hypnosis, namely, those “rationalizations” by which he “explains” his assumption that C has stolen the manuscript. But nevertheless these thoughts are his own only in a formal sense. Although they appear to explain the suspicion, we know that the suspicion is there first and that the rationalizing thoughts are only invented to make the feeling plausible; they are not really explanatory but come post facto.
* * *
An example of irrational rationalization is brought forward in a well-known joke. A person who had borrowed a glass jar from a neighbor had broken it, and on being asked to return it, answered, "In the first place, I have already returned it to you; in the second place, I never borrowed it from you; and in the third place, it was already broken when you gave it to me.'"
Erich Fromm. Escape from Freedom. New York: Avon, 1941. pp. 212-213, 218.

In his Novum Organum Bacon tried to give a systematic survey of these human prejudices. He has given a list of the different kinds of idols: the idola tribus, the idola specus, the idola fori, and the idola theatri, and he tried to teach how to overcome them in order to clear the way which at last will lead to a true empirical science.
Ernst Cassirer. Symbol, Myth, and Culture: Essays and Lectures of Ernst Cassirer 1935-1945. Donald Phillip Verene, ed. (1979) New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 264.

“The artist is the most interesting of all phenomena, for he represents creativity, the definition of man. His unconscious is full of monsters and dreams. It provides the pictures to consciousness, which takes them as given and as "world," and rationalizes them. Rationality is only the activity of providing good reasons for what has no reason or is unreasonable.”
Allan Bloom. The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. p. 206.

“She [Sissela Bok] points out that Plato, in his Republic, says that because physicians may use falsehood as a form of healing, they enjoy a right to dissemble that laymen do not.” Leah Hager Cohen. I Don't Know: In Praise of Admitting Ignorance (Except When You Shouldn’t). New York: Riverhead Books, 2013. p. 86.

[John] Grambling’s ability to rationalize his behavior is typical of the attitude that psychopaths have toward their victims. ... “In Grambling’s mind, anyone who is stupid enough to trust or believe him deserves the consequences,” said Rosner.
* * *
When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they [psychopaths] are seldom perplexed or embarrassed--they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener. Much of the lying seems to have no motivation other than what psychologist Paul Ekman refers to as a “duping delight.”
Robert D. Hare. Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. Atria, 1993. (Released by Guilford Press for Kindle, 2011.)

"So often we fight the facts because they do not fit into our preconceived notions of reality, because reality does not conform to what we want or need. We cease to be rational. We begin to rationalize. Rationalization is finding reasons for not being reasonable. It is looking at facts through lenses distorted by desire."
Sherwin T. Wine. Staying Sane in a Crazy World: A Guide to Rational Living. Birmingham, Mich.: The Center for New Thinking, 1995. p. 69

Surely Isaac can tell the difference between Jacob and Esau, yet once he decides to accept the ruse, he cannot resist punishing the boy with fear of discovery. Again and again Isaac asks his son, 'Which one are you?' He goes so far as to bring the boy near to sniff at him. Isaac knows just how corrupt Jacob is as he exclaims, 'Behold, the scent of my son is like the scent of a field blessed by God,' from which we are to understand, perhaps, rich in natural fertilizers.
Burton L. Visotzky. The Genesis of Ethics. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1996. p. 157.

“The first rule of black business everywhere is: never let anyone know what you're thinking. Didier's corollary to the rule was: always know what the other thinks of you.” Gregory David Roberts. Shantaram. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2003. p. 56.

”…[assimilated Catholic] Americans mostly find a way to stay in their faith by adhering to values most important to them and quietly ignoring those they disagree with."
Victor J. Stenger. God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2008. p. 208.

“The first thing the devil does when he wants you back is offer you a few small lies that you can tell yourself as you walk yourself over to his side.”
Larry Beinhart. Salvation Boulevard. New York: Nation Books, 2008. p. 121.

"Five years after the name Bernie Madoff became synonymous with extravagant fraud, the only thing that makes him unique is the size of his swindle, said Al Lewis. In truth, his scheme was 'simple, common, and frankly, quite pedestrian.' We know this because Ponzi schemes continue to happen 'all the time.' Hundreds of perpetrators have been uncovered since Madoff's crime came to light, and those are just 'the ones who got caught.' The fraudsters all rely on the same classic scam: 'Lure investors with promises of solid returns with no risk.' It works like a charm. The only reason you don't hear much about these schemes, some of which net billions of dollars, is that 'Madoff's Ponzi was so large it ensures minimal attention for all the smaller Ponzis to come.' In fact, some schemes involving 'only a few million dollars' aren't even being prosecuted. The government just asks swindlers to stop what they're doing and release their ill-gotten gains. The world will have Ponzis 'as long as people are willing to fall under the spell of a slick-talking salesman, or follow the uninformed advice of their admired friends, without asking questions.' Even after Madoff, plenty of people still can't recognize what's too good to be true."
The Week, December 27, 2013, paraphrasing Al Lewis, "Why we'll always have the Madoffs." MarketWatch.com.

“It is likely that neither on one hand nor the other — not when he declared himself unquestionably Francoist or when he declared himself an incipient democrat — was Suárez telling the truth, but it’s almost certain that, like a transparent being whose deepest secret consists of not having secrets or like a virtuoso actor declaiming his part on a stage, he always believed what he was saying, and that’s why everyone who heard him ended up believing in him.”
Javier Cercas. The Anatomy of a Moment: Thirty-five Minutes in History and Imagination. (2009) Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean. New York: Bloomsbury, 2011. p. 305.

Once I asked him where he had been until two A.M. the night before. I always got answers that did not exactly satisfy, but that worked.
They worked because the explanations you most want to hear are also the easiest to deliver. They require so little evidence. One sentence will suffice, something short and offered up by your spouse with a surfeit of confidence.
* * *
It becomes too much to keep track of unless you plan on scribbling everything down in your infidelity ledger. I would build just enough truth into my excuses that they would be easier for me to remember. I would say where I had been but not precisely whom I had been with. Or I would use the phrase "a whole bunch of people." This Bill came to hate. It was a red flag for him even before he knew why. This is easy to understand. Any spouse who is even half-awake would prick up his ears at such defiant nonspecificity.
Wendy Plump. Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (and Other Affairs). New York: Bloomsbury, 2013.

"The snag is that voters define 'loopholes' as other people's tax breaks. Their own, they rather like."
"How to save Obama's second term," The Economist, May 25, 2013, p. 13.

“What a shitty time we’ve lived to see…We once lived in a totalitarian state that had two main features: totalizing terror and a totalizing lie. I hope that totalizing terror is no longer possible in our country, but we have now entered a new era of a totalizing lie.”
Yuri Samodurov, former Soviet dissident, quoted by Masha Gessen. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. (2012) New York: Riverhead, 2014.

“He said ‘categorically’ that a White House investigation indicates ‘that no one in the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident.’ Nixon added, ‘What really hurts is if you try to cover it up.’”
Allan J. Lichtman. The Case for Impeachment. Dey Street Books, April 18, 2017. p. 26.

"When lies are political, they are particularly prone to what is called 'motivated reasoning'..."
Brian Klaas. The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy. Hot Books, 2017.

Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein questioned on Sunday [May 27, 2018] if President Trump’s actions are leading the country toward authoritarianism.
* * *
“I think we can look at a big picture now with some real definition, in which the perilous moment for our country right now, and it's a question of whether lies, authoritarianism and the character of the president of the United States are going to take us to an authoritarian place where we have never been in, which he will bury a duly constituted and legal investigation that will determine whether or not the president is above the rule of law,” Bernstein told CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
Luis Sanchez. “Carl Bernstein questions whether Trump is leading US toward authoritarianism.” The Hill. May 27, 2018.

"Important read. The two truth problem is why mockery can work when correcting lies doesn’t. You are leaving people room to still believe the lies. Jokes say that you are believing a stupid thing. Long standing political truth that it is dangerous when people start laughing at you." — Maximum Mary (Bluesky), talking about this article on Empty Wheel, Sept 15, 2024

Selling a Defective Dream. How did multilevel marketing schemes come to be legal, let alone so widespread? The answer has to do with how we think of workers and how we think of consumers. Zephyr Teachout. NY Review of Books. December 4, 2025