~~~ From the AP's liveblog: “Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter after his handlers said he saw his shadow outside his tree stump on Gobbler’s Knob. The groundhog’s forecast was announced Monday by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in rural Pennsylvania. If Phil hadn’t seen his shadow, that would have foretold an early arrival of spring.”-
Aidan Sadovi of the Daily Illini (University of Illinois):“In a post that included a stylized graphic matching a clip of a federal agent shooting and killing Alex Pretti, Illini Republicans stated that they 'stand with ICE' amid the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minnesota. The RSO referred to Pretti and Good, two United States citizens who were both killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the past month, as 'traitors.' As of Sunday, the group removed the graphic but kept the larger post, which garnered more than a thousand comments on their Instagram account. The post continues to state that 'it is, has, and always will be the mandate of our brave public servants, domestic and abroad, to fell the enemies of the United States of America.'” ~~~>
~~~ Arieh Kovler on Bluesky: "If a university student group had celebrated Charlie Kirk being killed, complete with a graphic made from an actual picture of the killing, the whole lot of them would have been expelled before the ink on the digital story was dry." Thanks to RAS for the links to the Illini story & to Kovler's response.
Hannah Yang, et al., of MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) (Jan. 31): "... the police chief in the small southern Minnesota city of St. Peter intervened Thursday to prevent federal immigration agents from taking a local resident into detention, although the city of St. Peter denied the intervention in a statement Saturday.... The resident, a woman, had been observing and recording video of immigration enforcement actions from her car Thursday afternoon when agents took her into custody. The woman ... is a U.S. citizen.... She shared [her dash-cam] video with MPR News [a portion is embedded below].... The agents open the [woman's car] door, which unlocked automatically when she put the gearshift in park, they drag her out and force her to the ground. She said the agents were overly aggressive ... as they pinned her down and handcuffed her, leaving her with multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises." The agents put the woman into one of their vehicles and drove off toward Minneapolis. Read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: You well may be made of stiffer stuff than I am, but I would be terrified if a gang of masked men were training guns on me and ordering me to get out of my car -- right after the murders of Renee Good & Alex Pretti by members of the same nation-wide gang of murderers, kidnappers & violent thugs.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump to Shutter Kennedy Center, Ruin It. Adam Nagourney & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump announced Sunday that he would shut down the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has been battered by cancellations and boycotts, for two years starting this summer. He said that would allow his administration to transform what he called 'a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center,' into 'the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind.' Mr. Trump’s announcement came after a major backlash by performers, contributors and audience members and amounted to a sudden change in direction for what has been a high visibility initiative of his second term.... But Mr. Trump, in his social media post, made no mention of the [many performers'] cancellations or the patrons who are now staying home: attendance at the National Symphony Orchestra is down 50 percent over last year. Instead, he presented it as his latest effort to rebuild part of Washington — following the demolition of the East Wing of the White House and his proposal to build a towering arch across from the Washington Monument.
“The president said that funding had been found for his new project — but did not say how much it would cost or where the money was coming from. Last year, Mr. Trump secured $257 million from Congress to help with capital repairs on the building, and his allies have credited him with having 'saved' the center. He offered no details of what kind of reconstruction he had in mind, other than to say it would entail 'Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.'” The AP's story is here.
Trump Bombs at Alfalfa Club. Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “Over the past week..., Donald Trump’s government has presided over the arrest of a prominent journalist, invoked false claims of fraud to seize ballots in Georgia and defended the shooting death of another protester in Minneapolis by federal agents. He’s also ... attended a lavish screening of his wife Melania’s documentary film, fixated on construction projects including a White House ballroom and griped repeatedly that he has not received adequate credit for his accomplishments. In a frenetic presidency that has been marked by jarring contrasts, he added another Saturday night: suiting up in black-tie regalia and telling jokes about invading Greenland and bombing Iran.... Trump’s appearance put him inside ... the annual dinner of the Alfalfa Club, an exclusive organization of CEOs, politicians and other Washington luminaries. But it was done in characteristic Trumpian fashion, at once unapologetic and awkward, with barbs aimed at political adversaries, grievances over perceived slights and punch lines that at times fell flat.... ” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe Stephen Miller wrote the “jokes.” To be serious for a moment about humor, Trump has no idea what it is. The only thing he thinks is funny is other people getting hurt. You slip on a banana peel: ha ha ha. He slips on a banana peel: waaaah! it's your fault and he sues you for $10 billion.
 |
| NYT image accompanying article. |
~~~ DOJ, Porn Publisher. Mike Baker & Julie Tate of the New York Times: “The Justice Department published dozens of unredacted nude images on its website, showing young women or possibly teenagers whose photos were contained in files related to the wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As part of its required disclosure of the Epstein files, the federal government was tasked with redacting both sexually explicit imagery and information that could be used to identify victims. But ... the New York Times came across nearly 40 unredacted images that appeared to be part of a personal photo collection, showing both nude bodies and the faces of the people portrayed.... The Times notified the Justice Department on Saturday of nude images that journalists had encountered and flagged more of them on Sunday.... Officials have largely removed or redacted the images that The Times flagged for them.... [In general, t]he redactions at times appear haphazard and contradictory.... Some victims are angry that their information was disclosed while powerful people’s names were shielded.”
This is corruption, plain and simple. Congress needs to grow a spine and put a stop to Trump’s crypto corruption. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a statement ~~~
~~~ David Yaffe-Bellany & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates purchased nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company last year, making the family business partners with the U.A.E. even as ... [Donald] Trump negotiated foreign policy matters with the Middle Eastern nation. The investment, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, was confirmed on Sunday by a spokesman for the Trumps’ crypto company, World Liberty Financial. Days before his father’s inauguration in January 2025, Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, signed the agreement with the investment firm for a $500 million investment in World Liberty, The Journal reportedhttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-1-2026.... That agreement gave the Emirati-backed firm a 49 percent stake in World Liberty.... The investment in World Liberty was one of two large transactions last year involving the Trumps’ crypto firm and the Emirati government.... The Trump family’s business dealings with the Emiratis have blurred the line between government and private enterprise, alarming ethics experts and congressional Democrats.” A CNBC story is here.
David Lynch of the Washington Post: “The dollar is under pressure on multiple fronts. After a long period of U.S. financial market outperformance, many foreign investors are rebalancing their portfolios to reduce excessive exposure to the United States.... Washington’s failure to address its mounting public debt, including crisis-level annual budget deficits at a time of low unemployment, isn’t helping. But perhaps the key to the dollar’s drop is the ripple effect of the president’s erratic policymaking, including abrupt stops and starts with tariffs and military action against a lengthening list of countries. After more than a year of nonstop upheaval emanating from the White House, many foreign investment managers are exhausted. 'There is a visceral dislike of this kind of policy chaos,' said economist Robin Brooks ... of the Brookings Institution. 'I think the dollar will fall around 10 percent [more] this year.'” ~~~
~~~ Ezra Klein of the New York Times: “The strategy of the Trump administration over the last year has been to move so fast, to do so much, that the opposition could never find its footing.... The media, the opposition, the electorate — they can only focus on so much. Overwhelm their capacity for attention and you overwhelm their capacity to think, organize and oppose. But what you are doing to the opposition you are also doing to yourself.... The Trump administration is overwhelmed — by its own violence, its own cruelty, its own lies, its own chaos. There is nothing unusual about a presidency being overwhelmed by crises. What is unusual about the Trump administration is that it has created those crises itself.... This White House and this president have treated freneticism as a virtue and discipline as a vice....
“Every organization comes to resemble its leader. Trump himself is easily distracted, desirous of flattery rather than counsel, impressed by crude displays of dominance and violence and obsessed with social media and cable news — and so too is his White House. The sycophancy among Trump’s aides is so crude as to be indistinguishable from mockery.... Trump appears to be trying to course correct, but he has neither the discipline nor the personnel to truly change his presidency’s direction.... This White House is not beset by crises. This White House is the crisis.”
Frank Bruni of the New York Times debunks Trumpophiles' excuse for Trump's failures and bad behavior: he is getting “bad advice.”: “He ended up with such a wretched crew of cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials because a wretched crew is what he was after; that way, he’d have underlings who owed their lofty titles and fancy perks entirely to him, sycophants who wouldn’t try to saddle him with scruples or tether him to sense, not so much a council for counsel as a font of praise.... Its members exist not to make him smarter but to validate his grievances and mirror his mood.”
⭐“This Is Not a Drill.” David French of the New York Times: “When I think back to the days and weeks before Jan. 6, 2021..., it’s hard to think of a single person who predicted that a MAGA mob would storm the Capitol ... or that an incredible 147 Republicans would vote not to certify Joe Biden’s clear and unambiguous presidential victory.... We must not make that mistake again.” So French imagines what the situation could be in late October this year. All of his imaginings are plausible; “some of it is already happening.... [Trump] is more dangerous now than he was then. His party controls the House and the Senate.... Trump has filled his administration with cronies and true believers, and his attorney general is one of his chief enforcers.... During his first term, the Trump administration largely complied with federal court orders.” The link is a gift link. French makes a convincing case that Trump will steal the 2026 election through a myriad of means. ~~~
~~~ AND of course there are legal ways for Trump to influence the outcome of the election. Here's one: ~~~
~~~ Jessica Piper of Politico: “Trump raised $26 million through his joint fundraising committee in the back half of last year, and another $8 million directly into his leadership PAC. And a super PAC linked to him has more than $300 million in the bank. All together, a web of campaign accounts, some of which he controls directly and others under the care of close allies, within the president’s orbit have $375 million in their coffers. The funds far outstrip those of any other political figure — Republican or Democrat — entering 2026, and have no real historical precedent. And Trump could put them to use this year for the midterms, or to shape future elections, even as he cannot run for president again.... Candidates cannot use leadership PAC money for their own election efforts. But the accounts — which are common across Washington and have long been derided by anti-money in politics groups as 'slush funds' — allow politicians to dole out money to allies or fund political travel.”
David McSwane of ProPublica: "The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations. Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city. CBP ... has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident.... Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like those of police SWAT units. Records show both men are from South Texas....
"Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said. By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So "untrained" or "lack of training" is no longer an excuse. These guys both have years of experience as Border Patrol officials. They knew what they were doing when they shot & killed Alex Pretti. Criminality is their culture. ~~~
⭐~~~ Garrett Graff: “However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.... To prepare [for testifying before Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 'Illinois Accountability Commission,' on the Trump administration’s 'Operation Midway Blitz' attack on Chicago], I spent the last week re-reading and re-familiarizing myself with DHS scandals and waves of corruption and mismanagement — and found myself horrified anew.... Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005.... In total, according to CBP’s own discipline reports, over the 20 years from 2005 to 2024 — the last year numbers are available — at least 4,913 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents have been arrested themselves, some multiple times.... You can watch my full testimony on YouTube here, and the text of testimony follows below. I also prepared an exhaustive 50-page 'Statement for the Record' that draws on much deeper specific detail about each of the problems I mention in my verbal testimony.”
Scott McFarlane of CBS News: "A half dozen former U.S. Capitol insurrection prosecutors, who helped lead the largest criminal prosecution in American history, have crafted a strategy memo to prompt Congress to investigate potential misconduct by federal immigration agents. The four-page memo ... details a series of investigative recommendations for Congressional committees to probe allegations of excessive force and other violations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis. The group of prosecutors recommends Congressional investigators use some of the same tools and techniques employed by the Justice Department between 2021 and 2025 in investigating the Capitol siege.... The recommendations were shared with ranking members of the House Homeland Security Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee, in the wake of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The Justice Department declined to open an investigation of the agent who shot and killed Good, while they were criticized for equivocating about an investigation into Pretti's killing."
Arelis Hernandez & Maria Paul of the Washington Post: “... federal data on family detention, and independent analyses of child detentions, suggest immigration authorities are increasingly ensnaring the youngest and most vulnerable lives in ... Donald Trump’s effort to deport massive numbers of undocumented immigrants. 'There are other options, regardless of what you believe about immigrants, but you do not have to put children in detention,' said Dianne Garcia, a pastor at a San Antonio church that serves an immigrant population. She said authorities are trying to instill fear in families so they choose to leave the country voluntarily.... An independent analysis by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization, concluded that at least 3,800 people under 18, including 20 infants, were detained in 2025. And ProPublica found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year sent about 600 children arrested inside the country to federal shelters.... That is more than the entire number of children detained in federal shelters during the four years of the Biden administration.” ~~~
~~~ “Children all across the country are being arrested and detained.... The children at Dilley [Immigration Processing Center in south Texas] with whom I’ve worked over the past year range in age from 2 to 16 years old.... All of these children and their parents were detained despite being eligible for release — ICE has the authority to release these families, who are not flight risks, on parole — and while seeking asylum and other humanitarian protections in the United States. None of these children or their parents had a criminal history anywhere in the world. The family detention facility at Dilley is a hellhole. Children and parents consistently report not having access to sufficient potable water, palatable food (both children and parents have told me they found worms in their meals), adequate medical care or meaningful educational opportunities. Lights are left on 24 hours a day, making it difficult to sleep. Officers have repeatedly threatened to separate families, including those I represent.”
~~~ "Republicans Want to Be Crueler to Immigrants' Children Than I want to Be to Stephen Miller." Steve M. Why is the administration forcing children to live in these conditions? "They're doing it because people in the administration, as well as their most devoted voters, relish the suffering of these immigrants, the same way they relish the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They want the people they hate to suffer, and that includes children of immigrants.... While I want the people orchestrating this orgy of brutality to be held accountable, I don't fantasize about piling on sadistic punishments for them. I think it would be justice for the president to die in prison, and for long terms to be meted out to Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, and many other Trump officials, as well as the cops who killed Good and Pretti. But this is America, where conservatives are rarely held accountable, so I don't expect any of this."
~~~ AND now for a contribution from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: ~~~
~~~ Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement halted 'all movement' at a detention center in Texas for families and quarantined some migrants there after medical staff confirmed two detainees had 'active measles infections,' the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday. The measles cases at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center were detected Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News. The ICE facility houses parents and children taken into federal custody over alleged violations of immigration law.... Dilley is the detention complex where ICE had been holding 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, both detained in Minnesota during an operation that garnered widespread outcry, until the family was released over the weekend due to a court ruling. Liam and his father returned to Minnesota on Sunday." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Late last week, there were reports that Liam and other children at Dilley were lethargic and sleeping throughout the day. I'd guess the onset of measles accounts for some of that. ~~~
~~~ Jack Dura of the AP: “Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by immigration officers in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas, were released following a judge’s order and returned to Minnesota on Sunday, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. The boy and his dad, Adrian Conejo Arias, who originally is from Ecuador, were detained in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas. Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman, confirmed the two had arrived home. She said Castro picked them up from Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them home on Sunday to Minnesota.”
To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave.... Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame. -- Portland, Oregon, Mayor Keith Wilson ~~~
~~~ AP: “The mayor of Portland, Oregon, demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave his city after federal agents launched tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators — including young children — outside an ICE facility during a weekend protest that he characterized as peaceful. Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets as thousands of marchers arrived at the South Waterfront facility on Saturday. Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who joined the protest, said she was about 100 yards (90 meters) from the building when 'what looked like two guys with rocket launchers' started dousing the crowd with gas.... The Portland Fire Bureau sent paramedics to treat people at the scene, police said. Police officers monitored the crowd but made no arrests Saturday.”
Heather Cox Richardson didn't get around to posting this essay till today, but she does conjure up an awful lot of things about February 1 that are worth celebrating. It's never too late.
Avery Lotz of Axios: "House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) predicted Sunday that the House will end the partial government shutdown by Tuesday, even as he prepares to move forward without Democratic support for Department of Homeland Security funding.... Johnson faces the difficult task of quashing internal GOP tensions after the deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota scattered appropriations talks. The funding bill would launch a two-week window for high-stakes negotiations over DHS." MB: I wonder if Bible Mike will swear in Representative-Elect Christian Menefee (D-Texas) before or after the vote(s) on the funding bill.
The DOJ isn't the only Great American Porn Publisher. There's also Elon Musk. But Musk is into it on purpose. For "relevance": ~~~
~~~ Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: “As part of [Elon Musk's] push for [artificial intelligence start-up xAI's] relevance, xAI embraced making sexualized material, publicly releasing sexy AI companions, rolling back guardrails on sexual material and ignoring internal warnings about the potentially serious legal and ethical risks of producing such content.... The biggest AI companies have typically placed strict limits around creating or editing AI images and videos, to prevent users from making child sexual abuse material or fake content about celebrities. But when xAI merged its editing tools into X in December, giving anyone with an account the ability to make an AI picture, it allowed sexual images to spread at unprecedented speed and scale.... California’s attorney general, the United Kingdom’s communications regulator and the European Commission have opened investigations into xAI, X or Grok over the features, which regulators allege appear to violate laws against AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material.”
Woe Is Target, Inc. Kim Bhasin of the New York Times: “... just south of Target’s downtown national headquarters in Minneapolis, federal immigration agents ... killed Alex Pretti.... Minnesota residents have been pushing Target, which is among the state’s biggest employers and one of its most prominent corporate citizens, to speak out against immigration officials.... Feb. 1 begins a new era for America’s big box stores. That day, new chief executives are taking over at Target and its top rival for price-conscious consumers, Walmart. Both are replacing executives who had run their companies for more than a decade and have been credited with transforming their brick-and-mortar empires into digital powerhouses....
“[Walmart's r]evenue rose nearly 6 percent in its most recent quarter and the company raised its full-year forecast in November. The retailer, with more than 4,600 stores in the United States, is investing billions to upgrade stores and is gaining market share from a host of competitors. Target has been mired in a long sales slump and has lost ground.... Target’s pressures have been worsened by boycotts, as it has found itself entwined in politically charged debates over race, gender identity and gay rights. Both conservatives and progressives have been angered by its actions, eroding its reputation across the political spectrum. Target faced its most intense consumer backlash last year after it rolled back the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that it had once championed.”
It's really something when Canadians -- and even a Canadian for-profit company -- show more concern for the rights of U.S. residents than does the U.S. president* and his administration: ~~~
Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: “A Canadian company said on Friday that it would no longer sell a warehouse in Virginia to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had planned to use the site as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility.... The warehouse in Virginia belongs to Jim Pattison Developments, which is based in Vancouver. After its planned sale was made public in January, the company became one of a number of international companies facing questions about their work with ICE.... The Hanover County[, Virginia,] Board of Supervisors said in a statement that it opposed the acquisition, but had limited power to stop a federal building from opening.... Emily Lowan, who leads the Green Party in British Columbia, called for a boycott of the company.... Jim Pattison Developments said in a statement last week that it had accepted an offer to sell the warehouse to a U.S. government contractor before its potential new owner and use were made known.... On Friday, the company released a one-line statement that the sale would not proceed.”
Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: “Carolinians from the mountains to the coastal islands were taking in a rare frigid world on Sunday, as back-to-back weekends of Arctic blasts sunk temperatures into the single digits at times, halted travel on treacherous roads and dumped blizzard-like conditions across both states.... 'This has truly been a historic storm...,' said the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C., which was on the low end of the snowfall spectrum with about 5.8 inches.... Gov. Josh Stein of North Carolina said in a news conference on Sunday that there had been more than 1,000 [motor vehicle] collisions over the weekend, leading to two deaths.... There were more than 10,000 customers in the Carolinas without power early Sunday afternoon. Air travel was also affected on Sunday....”
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “... tens of thousands of people ... have now gone a week without power or heat after a widespread ice storm knocked out power lines across [parts of the South].... By Sunday, the weeklong paralysis from the storm across Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana had given way to weariness, anger and fear.... At least three dozen people have died across the three states in connection with the storm.... It is rare to experience a loss of power during a sustained stretch of ice and freezing temperatures, with cold so fierce that it has left hundreds of workers struggling to navigate icy roads as they try to fix the electrical system. Anger was continuing to boil over toward the leadership of the Nashville Electric Service.... Nashville accounts for a majority of the power outages in Tennessee, with about 33,000 customers still without power as of early Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, the agency acknowledged that it may take at least another week for some neighborhoods to return to full power, with at least one ZIP code predicted not to see full service restored until Feb. 11.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Costa Rica Presidential Election. Emiliano Mega & of the New York Times: “Laura Fernández, a candidate handpicked by the departing president as his successor, won Costa Rica’s presidential election on Sunday after running on a tough-on-crime platform, according to a preliminary count of the votes.... Ms. Fernández, capitalizing on President Rodrigo Chaves’ popularity, reached the threshold needed to win in the first round of voting, a feat no presidential candidate had achieved in more than a decade.... With her victory, Mr. Chaves’s populist movement, which has moved to dismantle many of the country’s institutions — including by overhauling the Supreme Court and obstructing the work of watchdog agencies — will remain in power for at least four more years.... Ms. Fernández’s agenda includes imposing states of emergency in high-crime districts that would allow for constitutional guarantees to be suspended. Similar measures in El Salvador have led to a widespread pattern of arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances, according to human rights groups.”
⭐Russia, et al. Rael Ombuor & Katharine Houreld of the Washington Post: “Hundreds of Kenyans have been recruited by the Russian military to serve on the front lines in Ukraine, according to former recruits and their families. Many have never returned. Most men said they were tricked — offered civilian or 'safe' security jobs in Russia, only to be handed a weapon and sent to the battlefield. Others were current or former soldiers who joined up as mercenaries, lured by promises of higher wages. The survivors described inhumane treatment by Russian commanders and harrowing scenes of slaughter.... The effort extends across the continent. The Post spoke to recruits or their family members in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania and Nigeria, and it heard anecdotal accounts of fighters in Ukraine from eight other African countries, including Ghana, Zimbabwe and Cameroon — hidden victims of the largest European conflict since World War II.”
15 comments:
Six more months of distractions
Bestest Backslider
Lindsey Graham
"Lindsey Graham was slurring his words again on "Fox News Sunday" this morning"
This is supposedly one of the primary voices in Fat Hitler's ear egging him on to attack Iran and dropping more bombs around the world.
"Critical Federal Data Collection Is Disappearing
The Trump administration has disrupted data collection on everything from homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy.
NOTUS spoke to 18 data experts and researchers who rely on federal data who said the breadth of information no longer being collected or distributed by the federal government has been nearly impossible to track. Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access.
The current reality is that the federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection. NOTUS verified dozens of instances of lapsed federal data to capture the range of information that is no longer being collected, has been paused or is now not available to the public."
The Independent
"A whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is so highly classified it’s being kept locked in a safe and still hasn’t been shared with Congress, according to an explosive report.
The Wall Street Journal described a “continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle” over how to assess and handle the complaint, with one official telling the newspaper that disclosure of its contents could cause “grave damage to national security.”
Members of the House and Senate intelligence panels first learned of the complaint in November, six months after it was filed, when a copy of Bakaj’s letter was shared with them, WSJ reports. Since then, Democratic staffers have tried unsuccessfully to learn more about it, congressional aides told the newspaper."
"WH Posts Laughably Deceptive Steel Production Graph"
Cruelty is the Point, lol
Military Commanders Pressured Troops To Watch “Melania”
Service members at eight U.S. military facilities report being encouraged to attend screening of First Lady documentary"
The latest tranche of Epstein, Epstein, Epstein papers are horrific, including the recounting of actions by one Donald J. Fuckface. Here's my question. We all know that Fatty had his trolls at the Department of Injustice and the Federal Bullshit Institute go through this stuff with a fine tooth comb. We also know that the primary job of these formerly respectable branches of government is to protect the Fat Sexual Abuser. So...if this is the stuff they deemed acceptable to release, how bad is the stuff they're hiding, stuff we likely will never see?
Oh, and now Fat Hitler's personal lawyer (who moonlights as second in command at the Injustice Department), Todd Blanche sez "The Epstein case is OVER!" Sounds like he's channeling Queen Ann Romney who once sputtered "We've given you people enough!".
I guess this means the rest of the 8 million pages or however many documents they're still trying to hide, in spite of the direction of Congress to produce everything, will be shredded or maybe the dog will eat them.
Every single article brings us along on stories about coverups and jump-backs from truth-- was there ever a more piggish administration?? And not one person brave enough to expose any of it. I do want to draw and quarter Tulsi Gabbard-- she has always been a turncoat, and maybe now she is a dangerous one. But hells bells, let's protect her at all costs. Also love the military having to watch a "documentary" about a former nude model who somehow latched herself onto a washed-up real estate failure and business criminal who lucked into a time of idiocy being enjoyed by the voters, the supine court, the congressional morons on the right, the legacy media and the plutocrats of the country. Honestly-- will anything ever resemble justice again? Love being a stupid banana republic.
Arieh Kovler
"If a university student group had celebrated Charlie Kirk being killed, complete with a graphic made from an actual picture of the killing, the whole lot of them would have been expelled before the ink on the digital story was dry."
Illini Republicans stand with ICE in executing Americans
"The post continues to state that “it is, has, and always will be the mandate of our brave public servants, domestic and abroad, to fell the enemies of the United States of America.”"
I had four years of grad school at the University of Illinois and I am burning mad about the so-called college republicans and their support for public executions, and general bigotry, racism and selfishness. I wrote a note to the U of I Daily Illini, but I am sure those little bullies and incels will not be signing up to be cannon fodder as their elders were a generation ago. They are mirror images of the masked thugs that have hurt people, destroyed property, are play-acting, deported innocents and now executed two people who were protestors. They are disgusting NONpatriots and I want to slap all their smug little faces. They learned well from their MAGA elders-- these are people that are not retrievable and I wish them nothing but lives of disrespect and poverty.
Thanks, Jeanne. It dawned on me that I have an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois. So I wrote a nice, polite letter to the chancellor and asked him what he was going to do about these kids promoting cold-blooded murder. I asked him for a response. I won't hold my breath.
Marie,
Considering the simpering sycophantic university boot lickers we have today striving mightily to avoid castigation from the Fat Fascist, I’m guessing your response will begin “Dear Traitor…”
@Akhilleus: Ha ha. I'm sure you're right. And in paragraph 2, they'll ask me to donate my life savings to the the alumni fund.
ICE was here...
One indication that Fat Hitler's murderous thugs have been in your area is the increasing number of abandoned vehicles left sitting in the middle of streets and even highways, often left running with the keys in the ignition and the personal belongings such as wallets of the people they grab left on the car seats.
"The most telling scenes for Andrew Hazzard are the abandoned cars in the middle of the streets. On a recent Friday morning, the Sahan Journal reporter was out in south Minneapolis, where he lives, looking for federal immigration activity.
'I know they’re very active in the morning,' he said.
Over the past several weeks, Hazzard has noticed trends, but the one that encapsulates what he says 'feels like an occupation' is the abandoned vehicles."
Since ICE was deployed to Minneapolis in early December, Hazzard’s been on the ground covering the events that make national headlines: the tear gas, the larger clashes between ICE and observers or protesters. But for him, it’s the abandoned cars that really characterize what’s happening in the Twin Cities."
Besides leaving cars and personal belongings available to be stolen, abandoned cars left in the middle of a street pose a serious safety hazard. Fat Hitler and his scurrilous gang of crooks and ethnic cleansers bleat that their goal is to keep Americans safe, but pepper spraying citizens, beating their heads in, throwing them to the ground and stomping on them and leaving abandoned vehicles running in the road don't exactly scream "public safety". But then again safety isn't the point, is it? The goal is intimidation, spreading of fear, putting citizens who don't bow before them in the hospital, and leaving chaos in their wake...those are the goals.
Post a Comment