January 16, 2026

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Minnesota imposed restrictions on the actions of immigration agents toward protesters in the state on Friday.... Judge Kate M. Menendez ordered agents not to retaliate against people 'engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity,' and not to use pepper spray or other “crowd dispersal tools” in retaliation for protected speech. The judge also said agents could not stop or detain protesters in vehicles who were not 'forcibly obstructing or interfering with' agents. The ruling, which granted a preliminary injunction, stems from a lawsuit brought by activists who said agents had violated their rights. The suit was filed before an immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Ms. Good, 37, had partially blocked a roadway where agents were working and did not follow commands to get out of her S.U.V.” Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Torrey Van Oot & Kyle Stokes of Axios: "A federal judge ordered ICE agents to stop retaliating against peaceful protesters and observers in Minnesota.... U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez barred ICE agents from arresting or pepper spraying people for simply observing or criticizing the federal government's actions. The judge also ruled that safely following ICE vehicles does not on its own justify a traffic stop, protecting an increasingly common tactic used by Minnesotans to track raids in the Twin Cities."

Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her. -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in a statement ~~~ 

~~~ Alanna Richer, et al., of the AP: “The Justice Department is investigating whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have impeded federal immigration enforcement through public statements they have made, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Walz’s office said it has not received any notice of an investigation.” The Washington Post's story is here.

Angie Hernandez, et al., of the Washington Post: “The family of a man shot in the leg by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday has disputed key elements of the Department of Homeland Security’s version of the incident, saying the shooting happened at the door of the man’s house as he let his housemate [-- Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna --] inside, rather than out in the street during a scuffle. The Department of Homeland Security has said an ICE officer shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis as he was assaulting the officer 'with a shovel or broom stick.' The agency said the incident began when the officer attempted to stop Sosa-Celis in his car, and that Sosa-Celis tried to flee and then got into an altercation with the officer outside, joined by two housemates. But Sosa-Celis’s mother, citing an account from her son, said DHS had actually been pursuing one of his housemates, who Sosa-Celis let into their house just before the shooting.... Sosa-Celis opened the door to let Ajorna inside, [Alicia] Celis said her son told her. Ajorna ran indoors. As Sosa-Celis went to close the door an ICE officer shot him in the leg, his mother said. The men retreated into the house, and people inside called emergency dispatchers, Celis said.”

Amy Taxin of the AP: “A 21-year-old college student who said he was blinded in one eye by a projectile fired by a federal officer during a Southern California protest said he faces a drastically different life now. Kaden Rummler said in an interview that he was in agonizing pain and underwent an extensive six-hour surgery to his left eye after he was injured at a Jan. 9 protest over the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. Rummler said he has no depth perception and can no longer drive. Shards of metal and a nickel-sized piece of plastic remain lodged in his skull, his attorney said, and he is considering suing. 'It’s going to affect every aspect of my life,' said Rummler, who hopes to pursue a career in forestry. A second demonstrator at the same protest outside a federal immigration building in Orange County told the Los Angeles Times he was also blinded in one eye by a projectile fired by federal agents. Britain Rodriguez, 31, said he was standing on steps outside the immigration building when he was struck in the face.”

New York Times: Here's a new analysis, using some new videos, of the shooting of Renee Good. “... the visual evidence shows no indication that the agent who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, had been run over. The footage provides visibility into the positioning between the agent and Ms. Good’s S.U.V., and the key moments of escalation. It also establishes how Mr. Ross put himself in a dangerous position near her vehicle in the first place.” From the 7:10-minute video embedded in the article: “... we can see there is a visible gap between the vehicle and his legs, indicating his feet are positioned outside the SUV's path.” This analysis is consistent with Asha Rangappa's analysis, linked below, and reported on January 10. The Times also used voice analysis to confirm that the person who called Renee Good a "fucking bitch" immediately after her death was the shooter, Jonathan Ross. At 10:45 pm Friday, the video was on the front page of the Times. 

Charles Homans of the New York Times Magazine: “Minnesota had been a haven for refugees since after World War II, when it was an early destination for Holocaust survivors.... This hospitality had historically been a point of pride for the state.... It was a product of a broader, deep-rooted civic idealism.... But ... a 2014 poll found that ... less than half supported welcoming Somali immigrants [largely because dozens of young Minnesota Somalians had joined ISIS and Al Shabab in Somalia. In 2016, Trump] ... promised his administration would 'not admit any refugees without the support of the local community....' [In a campaign] speech[, he] crystallized one of the core themes of [his] politics...: that the country’s foundational idea of a civic nation — one whose people are bound by a shared commitment to principles rather than ancestry or cultural identity — is a sort of liberal swindle. In Trump’s America, shared prosperity requires exclusion: a policing, by force if necessary, of the boundaries of who gets to call themselves American based in large part on where they come from.”

Dirty Energy Forever! This Is In-Sane. Claire Brown & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: “Over the past eight months, the Energy Department has taken the extraordinary step of ordering that generators at five coal-burning power plants that had been headed for retirement stay open and keep running.... At a White House event on Thursday, Trump administration officials said they planned to keep open as many coal plants as they could and prevent any further retirements over the next three years.... The moves are part of a sweeping plan by Mr. Trump to revive America’s coal industry, which has been declining for years.... Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels and a major driver of global warming.... Efforts to halt coal retirements are already causing complications. Two of the coal units that the Energy Department ordered to stay online in December are broken, and it’s unclear when they might be repaired. Some plants that were ordered to keep running had already shuttered their coal mines and stopped maintaining old equipment. Now, utilities and operators are straining to revive them.”

White House Open for Business: ~~~

(1) Kenneth Vogel & Susanne Craig of the New York Times: Donald “Trump ... hand[ed] out a raft of pardons [this week]. Among the lucky recipients: a man whose daughter had given millions to a Trump-backed super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico, a former F.B.I. agent who had pleaded guilty in a political corruption case and a California woman whom the president had granted relief once before. The woman, Adriana Camberos, was initially convicted in 2017 for her role in a scheme to sell millions of counterfeit bottles of the caffeinated drink 5-Hour Energy. After her sentence was commuted by Mr. Trump in 2021, she was convicted again in 2024 in an unrelated fraud. When she was pardoned in the new case this week, it marked the second time Mr. Trump had opened the prison gates for her. The pardons, most of which have not been previously reported, were supported by people with close ties to Mr. Trump’s orbit.... They continue a trend in which the president has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to reward allies and those who have paid his associates or donated to his political operation. They stand in contrast to Justice Department guidelines that prioritize the clemency applications of people who have completed their prison sentences or demonstrated remorse and a lower likelihood of recidivism.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Darlene Superville of the AP: “... Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, a White House official said Friday. Vázquez pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing was set for later this month. Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars... Vázquez’s attorneys ... accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped. They noted that Vázquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.... The official who confirmed the planned pardon indicated Trump saw the case as political prosecution and said the investigation into Vázquez, a Republican aligned with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had begun 10 days after she endorsed Trump in 2020.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I was looking for this: ~~~

(2) ~~~ Pedro Camacho of the Latin Times: "The first U.S.-brokered sale of Venezuelan crude under ... Donald Trump's new energy plan went to Vitol, a global oil trading firm whose senior U.S.-based trader has been a major donor to Trump's re-election campaign, people familiar with the transaction and public records told the Financial Times. John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol, was involved in securing a roughly $250 million deal for Venezuelan oil. Addison donated about $6 million to political action committees backing Trump's 2024 re-election effort, including $5 million to Maga Inc in October, according to OpenSecrets. Addison also attended a White House meeting with Trump last week alongside Ben Marshall, head of Vitol's U.S. operations, making Vitol the only company represented by two senior executives at the talks, as The Financial Times reports."

Elisabeth Bumiller & Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Capitol Hill sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland on Friday that they supported Denmark’s control of Greenland despite ... [Donald] Trump’s vow to seize it 'one way or another.’ But there appeared to be little progress in solving what has become a crisis in Denmark and Europe more broadly. Even as the delegation was meeting with Danish officials, Mr. Trump said at an event in Washington that he was considering using tariffs to pressure countries to accept the U.S. annexation of the semiautonomous territory some 2,000 miles from Copenhagen.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Ken W. says of Trump's threatened new tariffs: "So we'll be paying for buying Greenland --- even if we don't get it."  

~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) predicted members on both sides of the aisle would lock arms and require congressional signoff if it became clear Trump was preparing imminent military action. 'If there was any sort of action that looked like the goal was actually landing in Greenland and doing an illegal taking … there’d be sufficient numbers here to pass a war powers resolution and withstand a veto,'  Tillis said. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) went further, predicting that it would lead to impeachment and calling Trump’s Greenland obsession 'the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.'... Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not join the delegation [meeting with Danish officials] but he largely endorsed the message the contingent is sending in comments to reporters Thursday, saying 'there’s certainly not an appetite here for some of the options that have been talked about or considered' — an apparent reference to military action.” ~~~

We are NATO partners with Denmark, and so our full partnership stands.... Our obligations on Article 5, Article 2 of NATO stand, and we stand full-square behind those. -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, laying down the law to U.S. bully Donald Trump ~~~ 

~~~ Elena Giordano of Politico: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned Friday that a decision on who owns Greenland doesn't belong to .... Donald Trump. 'The future of Greenland is a decision for Greenland and for the Kingdom of Denmark,' Carney told journalists at a press conference in Beijing following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Carney urged NATO allies including the U.S. to 'respect their commitments' as he stressed Canada’s support for Danish sovereignty over the strategically vital Arctic island, which Trump has threatened to seize.”

Ken Moritsugu & Rob Gillies of the AP: “Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday. Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1%, growing to about 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters. 'Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that,' Carney said. Carney hasn’t been able to reach a deal with ... Donald Trump to reduce some tariffs that are punishing some key sectors of the Canadian economy and Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state.” ~~~

~~~ Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: “Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Friday Americans would be hurt by a trade deal between China and Canada as foreign nations seek new trade partners amid the Trump administration’s tariff wars. 'We just got absolutely rolled in this Canada – China deal. A stark foreign policy failure with domestic economic consequences,' Schatz wrote in a post on social platform X. 'The most basic principle in politics and geopolitics is loyalty to friends. And we weren’t just disloyal – we were hostile. So here we are,' he added.” 

Marie: Well, people at CBS News are speaking up: ~~~

~~~ Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Justin Baragona of the Independent: “During his November return to 60 Minutes, the iconic news show he had accused of election interference just a year prior, Donald Trump heaped praise on the 'great new leader' who had just been put in charge of CBS News. 'I don't know her, but I hear she's a great person,' the president gushed about Bari Weiss, the 'anti-woke' founder of the neoconservative site The Free Press and recently installed editor-in-chief of the network. Moments after the president lauded Weiss..., correspondent Norah O’Donnell wrapped up the interview and thanked Trump for his time.... Unbeknownst to Trump..., Weiss was actually on location for the interview and quickly approached the president to introduce herself. 'He was so happy to see her and she was so excited to meet him, they both leaned in and exchanged kisses on the cheek,' one source said.... Several people in the room were shocked by the exchange, and ... O’Donnell’s 'jaw dropped' over the friendly embrace between the network’s top editor and the commander-in-chief. 'I’m still kind of stunned by this,' a CBS News reporter said. 'It reeks of elitism.'”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Steve Benen of MS NOW: From a Reuters report by Steve Holland on his Oval Office interview of Donald Trump, "‘It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,’ Trump said. He boasted that he had accomplished so much that ‘when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.’" Benen: "Conservatives are likely to see the quote Trump offered to Reuters and shrug, brushing it off as a harmless aside. But throughout his career, he’s repeatedly rejected the idea that Americans can resolve their differences at the ballot box and asserted that he’d only accept election results that align with his hopes and expectations. Every time he muses about the United States not having elections, his authoritarian vision comes into sharper focus."

María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María! -- Donald Trump, in a social media post

How is it “mutual respect” when one side does all the “respecting”? -- Marie 

It is unclear what Ms. Machado gained out of her meeting with Mr. Trump. -- NYT reporters Max Bearak & Henrik Libell ~~~ 

~~~ Tom Phillips & Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: “The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she 'presented' her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s 'brutal, authoritarian state', told reporters she had done so 'in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom'. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the gift. Earlier in the day the Nobel organizers posted on X: 'A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot.'” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The ironies of this presentation are so many, I won't try to hit them all. Trump has lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize for years. Just last week, he said, "I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel [Peace] Prize more than me...." This is the same man who a couple of weeks ago not only ordered the kidnapping of Machado's political opponent Nicolás Maduro in a violent military operations that cost 80 Venezuelan lives, but he also ordered war crimes to be committed against dozens of Machado's countrymen. He currently is in the process of "banking" some of Venezuela's resources. Although Machado's party won the most recent election against Maduro, Trump did not install her or her party members to lead Venezuela after his coup. Instead, he said Machado did not have the "respect" of Venezuelans, and he retained the entire administration of her nemesis Maduro. Oh, and Trump claims that he is the acting president of Venezuela. So he took control of Machado's country by force, installed himself as fake president, and left Machado out in the cold. 

Speaking of the cold, Trump is currently threatening to acquire the ice-covered island of Greenland by military force. The military of several European countries, including Norway -- the country that awards the Nobel Peace Prize -- are mounting a joint military show-of-force against Trump's bellicose advances on Greenland. Greenland was twice settled by Norway, and Norway claimed Greenland as a territory as recently as 100 years ago. But Norway gave up its claims to Greenland -- peacefully -- when it lost an international court case to Denmark. Finally, Trump accepted Machado's Peace Prize on the same day he threatened to send the U.S. military into an American city to use force against the people of his own country. ~~~ 

Jack Nicas of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s now-clear endorsement of a Maduro loyalist [--  Delcy Rodríguez --] over a crusader for democracy [-- María Machado --] supports the notion that his goal in Venezuela appears to be first about creating a stable, allied source of oil — and then maybe, if and when the time comes, a democratic transition.... Around the same time [Ms. Machado was handing her Nobel Peace Prize to Mr. Trump], in Venezuela, Ms. Rodríguez was delivering her first State of the Union address — and skewering the United States.... Watching only Venezuelan state television in recent days could make one think that Ms. Rodríguez was bent on confronting Mr. Trump. But in the background, there have been clear signs of cooperation.” ~~~

~~~ Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, met with Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela, in Caracas on Thursday, reinforcing the Trump administration’s message that it sees the interim government as the best path to stability in the country in the short term.... The high-profile visit by Mr. Ratcliffe, and the message of cooperation, could be seen as something of a snub to the opposition, whose supporters have been frustrated that the Trump administration has not tried to put [Maria] Machado’s ally Edmundo González into power since Mr. Maduro was seized. Mr. González won the 2024 election, international election experts say, after Ms. Machado was barred from running, but [President Nicolás] Maduro refused to give up power.” 

Julia Manchester of the Hill: “The Trump administration has completed its first Venezuelan oil sale, valued at $500 million, an administration official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.... Revenue from it is being held in bank accounts, including one in Qatar, that are controlled by the U.S. government. 'President Trump brokered a historic energy deal with Venezuela, immediately following the arrest of narco terrorist Nicolás Maduro, that will benefit the American and Venezuelan people,' White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. '... President Trump is protecting our Western Hemisphere from being taken advantage of by narcoterrorists, drug traffickers, and foreign adversaries,” she continued.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Not mentioned in the Hill report or others is what a subscriber-firewalled article in the Financial Times says. The headline: "Donald Trump’s first Venezuela oil sale deal goes to megadonor’s company." So absolutely no funny business.

On Wednesday, it was JayDee's job to break a tie to reject a Senate war powers resolution on Venezuela. Despite being a former senator, he flubbed it: ~~~  

~~~ In fairness to JayDee, he is hardly the only administration officials who doesn't know how to fulfill the fundamental requirements of his job. Here's Karoline Leavitt during a press briefing, asking the Hill’s Niall Stanage for his opinion, then blowing up at him and insulting him after he offers an opinion Leavitt doesn't like: ~~~

Gregory Svirnovskiy & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to send the military into Minneapolis over widespread demonstrations after federal agents shot and wounded a man, and in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a protester by an ICE agent last week. 'If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,'” the president wrote on Truth Social.... He sharpened [his] threat [to invoke the Insurrection Act] recently after the Supreme Court ruled that his previous efforts to deploy the National Guard into Democratic-led cities exceeded his authority.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Wherein Frank Bruni & Bret Stephens of the New York Times are mostly in agreement about ICE's invasion of Minneapolis. (MB: Neither of these guys, IMO, is particularly wise or particularly liberal, which made their conversation more interesting to me. They seem to be expressing, albeit more articulately, the Joe Rogan take: "WTF is the gestapo doing in Minneapolis?" [I mean, would Rogan cite a Kipling poem?]) (Also linked yesterday.)

That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job. -- JD Vance, re: Jonathan Ross, who murdered Renee Good

You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. -- Stephen Miller ~~~ 

~~~ Hamed Aleaziz & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “The instructions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents explain in clear terms how to defuse dangerous encounters: Use “minimal force” when trying to remove people from cars. Issue commands in  'professional,' 'firm,' 'courteous' voices.... The fatal shooting of Renee Good last week by an ICE agent in Minneapolis — and the quick reaction by Trump administration officials to declare the agent a hero and Ms. Good a villain — has put a new focus on whether federal agents enforcing ... [Donald] Trump’s deportation drive have been properly prepared for confrontations on city streets.... Rather than encourage agents to de-escalate combustible encounters, as the agency guidelines emphasize, Mr. Trump and his lieutenants have provided tacit approval for more aggressive tactics.... Federal officers do not have 'absolute' immunity from prosecution....” ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday brushed aside a question about ICE agents potentially, and routinely, violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution by approaching people on streets or going to their homes to demand proof of their U.S. citizenship. During an exchange with reporters at the White House, one reporter asked Noem if she is comfortable with federal immigration agents and officers 'violating people’s Fourth Amendment rights by asking for papers without reasonable suspicion.' 'Every single action that our ICE officers take is according to the law and following protocols that we have used for years,' said the DHS secretary. 'They are doing everything correctly.'”

From the pinned item on a New York Times liveblog: “Newly released records from the Minneapolis police and fire departments detailed the chaotic moments that unfolded after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, who was found in her vehicle with two gunshot wounds to her chest and another to her forearm. The responders found Ms. Good unresponsive inside her Honda S.U.V. on Jan. 7, and after they removed her from the vehicle, she was not breathing and had an irregular pulse, according to one of the reports. She also had a possible gunshot wound to the left side of her head. By the time the workers took her out of her vehicle, she had no pulse, and they performed CPR on her as she was rushed to a hospital, the report said. The details, revealed in incident reports from the Minneapolis police and fire departments and 911 call logs obtained by The New York Times, sketched out the shock and fear of bystanders who frantically called for help after the agent, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opened fire. One of the 911 calls came from a man who appeared to be requesting assistance on behalf of homeland security officers on the scene.” An Independent report is here. ~~~

A bruise is internal bleeding. -- CBS News Veep David Reiter, in an internal email ~~~

~~~ Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. About That “Internal Bleeding.” Jeremy Barr of the Guardian: “Some CBS News employees expressed concern after the network cited two anonymous 'US officials' on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” after the incident. CBS initially published the account about officer Jonathan Ross on X, formerly Twitter. About 30 minutes later, the network followed up with another post, containing a link to an article by two correspondents that similarly cited 'two US officials briefed on his medical condition'. The report, which was not extensively covered by other news organizations, drew an immediate response on social media from critics who questioned the network’s sourcing – and whether it aligned with the Trump administration’s preferred focus. But there was also internal skepticism at the network about the report, according to emails viewed by the Guardian. It was met with 'huge internal concern' by some, one CBS News staffer said.... The network’s top editor, Bari Weiss, expressed a high level of interest in the story on an editorial call Wednesday morning, according to staffers who listened.” MB: Yeah, I'll bet she did.

~~~ Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent who is now a lecturer at Yale, describes the DOJ deadly force  policy and breaks down the crucial moments in Jonathan Ross's killing of Renee Good. Read the whole post, but here's the crucial point that got me: "Having switched his phone to his left hand and moved to the front of the vehicle as Good is reversing, Ross’ right hand is already on his holstered weapon. She has not yet put the car into drive! Remember that action beats reaction. If Ross was actually reacting to a threat posed by Good moving the vehicle forward — remember, the narrative that has been put out is that Ross believed Good was about to run over him with her vehicle — he would not be unholstering his weapon simultaneously with Good accelerating the vehicle." Emphasis original. MB: BTW, Rangappa writes that Ross said "Fuck you, bitch." What most people heard was "Fucking bitch," and most commentators have not definitively attributed the remark to Ross. However, during an interview this past Sunday (when Jake Tapper demonstrated what a pathetic fool she was), Kristi Noem said that "yes, it might have been" Ross who made the remark. I take that as a definitive "yes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One element I haven't heard mentioned relates to motivation. Many people are surprised that an ICE agent killed a white person who spoke pleasantly to him in an American accent -- unless for some reason he feared for his life. But (1) we already know that MAGA men hold women in low regard. (2) They expect women -- as second-class individuals -- to be submissive to them, to always obey them. (3) One reason they hate women is that women can maintain some power over them;  (3a) women can resist their instructions, for instance; (3b) women can belittle them; (3c) women can reject their sexual advances. (4) One type of woman you can be pretty sure will reject a man's sexual advances is a lesbian. And I'll bet Ross took Good and her wife for lesbians. So he was predisposed to despising the Goods. Rebecca had already mocked him. Ross may have taken Renee's de-escalatory assurances as belittling. And one piece of evidence we have that he despised Renee: his job was to run to try to help Renee good after he shot her; instead, he walked away, calling her a "fucking bitch." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. As if to make my point, Michelle Goldberg, linked next, writes, “Just this week, a woman named Patty O’Keefe described agents surrounding a car she was in, spraying chemical irritants through the vents, breaking the windows and dragging her out. She was thrown in the back of an ICE vehicle, where she said the driver taunted her: 'You guys got to stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.’” ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “If you read conservative media, you might have heard about a new danger stalking our besieged country. This week, Fox News warned about 'organized gangs of wine moms' using 'antifa tactics' against ICE. According to a column in the right-wing PJ Media, the 'greatest threat to our nation' is a 'group of “unindicted domestic terrorists” who are just AWFL: Affluent White Liberal Women.' (The acronym is wrong, but never mind.)... The editor of the conservative National Review, Rich Lowry, wrote a column ... describing [Renee] Good almost as a suicidal militant.... Conservatives aren’t wrong to see furious women as an obstacle to their dreams of mass deportation.... These activists both document ICE’s brutality and are often subject to it, demonstrating the casual violence that Trump’s paramilitary forces are bringing to American communities. ”

Chris Hippensteel of the New York Times: “A Minneapolis couple said that ICE agents deployed tear gas and stun grenades around them and their six children — the youngest only 6 months old — as they tried to maneuver their car out of a tense protest on Wednesday night. Shawn Jackson and his wife, Destiny, both 26, said they were driving home from a son’s basketball game when the family found themselves caught in a clash between protesters and federal agents in North Minneapolis.... When they tried to turn their car around to exit the blocked-off street, they were surrounded by federal agents.... Then, agents let loose on the crowd, the couple said. The crowd-control grenades went off around them and one tear gas canister rolled beneath the car, Ms. Jackson said. [Bystanders helped the couple get their children out of the car & into a nearby house.]... 'My baby was completely unconscious, not breathing,' Ms. Jackson said.... Once the Jacksons’ youngest child came around, emergency medical services arrived and took the couple and the three children most affected by the tear gas to a hospital.” A CBS News story is here.

Safiyah Riddle, et al., of the AP: “A U.S. citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis was dragged out of her car and detained by immigration officers, according to a statement released by the woman on Thursday, after a video of her arrest drew millions of views on social media.Aliya Rahman said she was brought to a detention center where she was denied medical care and lost consciousness.... In the video, one masked agent smashes Rahman’s passenger side window while others cut her seatbelt and drag her out of the car through the driver’s side door. Numerous guards then carried her by her arms and legs towards an ICE vehicle.... The Department of Homeland Security said she was an agitator who was obstructing ICE agents conducting arrests in the area. That video is the latest in a deluge of online content that documents an intensifying immigration crackdown across the midwestern city, as thousands of federal agents execute arrests amid protests in what local officials have likened to a 'federal invasion.'” MB: Yeah, for some off reason.

Murder in a Texas Immigrant Detention Camp. Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: “When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the Jan. 3 death of detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp, the agency said  'staff observed him in distress,' and it gave no cause of death. An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’s daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation. In the recording..., the employee said a doctor there 'is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,' which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest.... A 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, Lunas Campos died following a struggle with detention staff, according to an eyewitness account and an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post.... [The camp is] a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border where migrants have reported substandard conditions and physical abuse, and ICE’s own inspectors have cited dozens of violations of federal detention standards.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: Gosh, I wonder what they're saying about Campos' murder at DHS's D.C. HQ. They must be terribly upset about the murder of an inmate in their custody. Oh, here we go: “In an email Thursday evening, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said that Lunas Campos died after attempting to take his own life.”

After Ten Years, Trump's Healthcare “Plan” Is Hardly Even the “Concept of a Plan.” Richard Luscombe & Melody Schreiber of the Guardian: “Donald Trump has finally unveiled his long-awaited framework for healthcare affordability, almost a year and a half after announcing during a pre-election presidential debate that he had the 'concepts of a plan' for healthcare reform. The short document, titled the Great Healthcare Plan, provides four headline objectives, but few specific details as to how they will be achieved. The Trump administration says it intends to lower prescription prices and healthcare premiums; hold big insurance companies accountable by requiring them to publish their claim costs, overheads and profits; and push insurers and medical providers to provide greater transparency over pricing.... Edwin Park ... of Georgetown University ... [said,] 'The “plan” includes absolutely no detail even though the president and the administration have been promising a credible health plan within two weeks for many, many years. Instead, as in the past, this plan is more about increasing the number of uninsured, on top of the 10 million who will already lose coverage under HR1, the budget reconciliation law from last summer.'” 

     ~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post:  “The proposal does not include new ideas to expand health coverage or simplify America’s often-byzantine health care system. It also falls far short of Trump’s promises to deliver a replacement for the ACA....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to Jen Psaki & Lawrence O'Donnell of MS NOW, the "plan" is a two-page document where the first page is nothing but the title and the second page runs to about 350 words. (Art Intel says the Affordable Care Act, with its regulations, runs to about 20,000 pages.) Still, for Team Trumpendumb, even producing a few words was challenging: the Guardian reporters write that release of the "plan" "was delayed by wrangling over certain elements of it."

Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Pentagon Extracts First Amendment from Constitution. Ctd. Liam Scott & Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department said it plans to overhaul Stars and Stripes, the storied military newspaper that has long enjoyed editorial independence, to rid it of 'woke distractions' and refocus coverage on 'warfighting.' Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, announced the plan in a Thursday morning post on X. 'The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters,' Parnell wrote.... He wrote that the Pentagon will 'modernize'  the publication and 'refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.'... On Thursday, the conservative news site the Daily Wire reported that 'Fifty percent of the website’s content will be composed of War Department-generated materials, including digital or print materials made by War Department writers and images captured by combat cameras.' Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman, a congressionally mandated position tasked with defending the newspaper’s editorial independence, said the Daily Wire’s reporting is 'disturbing.'” An NBC News story is here.

     ~~~ Marie: The new Stars & Stripes war propaganda rag obviously will not be a publication our tax dollars should support.  

Judge Excoriates Trump. Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge said on Thursday that he would restrict the Trump administration’s ability to deport noncitizen members of two major academic organizations.... During a hearing in Federal District Court in Boston, Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee, called Mr. Trump an 'authoritarian' ruler who was failing to live up to his responsibility to uphold the First Amendment.... On Thursday, [Judge Young] described his outrage at how the administration had treated noncitizen students, whom he has found were targeted for removal from the country because of their speech. Under [an] ... order [the judge proposed], the administration would be forced to answer in court if it tried to deport any of the members of the two organizations involved, outlining to a judge why reasons other than their speech would justify their removal. He added that any adverse immigration enforcement against a member of the group would be presumed to be retaliation, and that the government would need to demonstrate that it was not.... He said his proposal was a targeted restriction on the Trump administration for what he described as a sweeping and unconstitutional abuse of power.” ~~~

     ~~~ Joanna Slater of the Washington Post: “In remarks laced with outrage and disbelief, U.S. District Judge William Young said Donald Trump and top officials have a 'fearful approach' to freedom of speech that would seek to 'exclude from participation everyone who doesn’t agree with them.'... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in an 'unconstitutional conspiracy' to deprive people of their rights, Young said.... White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said via email that 'it’s bizarre that this judge is broadcasting his intent to engage in left-wing activism against the democratically-elected President of the United States.'” MB: Yeah, most Reagan appointees are left-wing activists. 

Neil Vigdor & Rylee Kirk of the New York Times: “California scored a key victory on Thursday against the Trump administration over access to the names and personal information of the state’s 23 million voters, persuading a federal judge to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit filed last year demanding the data. The ruling by Judge David O. Carter of the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., appears to thwart the federal government’s efforts to comb through the election rolls in the nation’s most populous state to potentially challenge voters’ eligibility. About two dozen states are defending themselves from similar lawsuits filed by the Trump administration, which has sought to build a national voter roll with the information. Many of those states are governed by Democrats, who have argued that the release of sensitive information, such as driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, would be unconstitutional and would have a chilling effect on elections.”

Paul Krugman is surprised about how all of this is going down: "... the US has not replicated Hungary’s measured slide into authoritarianism. For Trump and his minions aren’t patient. They want retribution and subjugation. Threats and dominance displays are how they operate. They burn with racism, misogyny, and performative cruelty. So now we have Minneapolis, America’s laboratory of democratic destruction, where ICE agents have gone full Sturmabteilung, terrorizing and even killing not only people with brown skin, but anyone who protests or gets in their way.... A gradual destruction of democracy would have been hard to resist. After all, who wants to rock the boat when there’s money to be made, jobs to keep, perks to be had, convenient bothsideism to be upheld, if you will just be silent and keep your head down? Instead, however, the assault on freedom and civil liberties is open, lurid, and impossible to deny. While our institutions and our elites have failed us, ordinary Americans are rising to the occasion." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the Democrat turned independent who served one term before leaving office last year, was accused in federal court this week of conducting an affair with a member of her Senate security team, a married father of three. In a complaint filed in North Carolina, the ex-wife of Matthew Ammel, who worked on Ms. Sinema’s staff for two years, accused the former senator of seducing him and breaking up their marriage. Heather Ammel claimed in her suit that Ms. Sinema sent Mr. Ammel sexually suggestive photographs on Signal, the encrypted messaging app; chose him to accompany her on trips to Napa Valley and to the Sphere, an events venue, in Las Vegas; paid for him to enter psychedelic treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues; encouraged him to bring drugs on work trips so she could guide him through a psychedelic trip; showered him with gifts and concert tickets; and eventually entered into a sexual relationship with him that caused him to leave his family.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Alas, Whitney Houston is not around to sing "I Will Always Love You" to this story of "The Bodyguard." 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: “South Korea’s impeached and ousted former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to ​five years in prison on Friday on charges of fabricating an official document in an attempt to justify his short-lived imposition of martial law in late 2024 and illegally using his bodyguards to ​prevent his arrest on insurrection charges. The sentence on Friday from a three-judge panel at the Seoul Central District Court was the first in ​eight separate court trials stemming from his ill-fated martial law declaration. The ruling on the most consequential charge — insurrection — is scheduled to be delivered by a different panel of judges on Feb. 19. Prosecutors ​in that case have sought the death penalty for Mr. Yoon​.”