Ryan Mancini of the Hill: “House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday listened to the testimonies of U.S. citizens who said they were assaulted, injured or shot by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers, starting with the brothers of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman shot and killed by a federal immigration officer last month.” ~~~
~~~ Here is testimony from Good's brothers Luke & Brent Ganger: ~~~
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: “Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.... The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference.” MB: That is to say, Tulsi is looking for long-dead Hugo Chavez of Venezuela fixing voting machines and Italians shooting laser beams to screw up said voting machines. (One would think these two conspiracy theories would negate each other, but reasonable inferences are not applicable to conspiracy theories, I presume. Two completely contradictory theories evidently can coexist in one big, crazy worldview.)
Christopher Harris of CBS News: "Fulton County plans to file a motion challenging what local leaders call an unprecedented and improper seizure of 2020 election records, following an FBI search of the county's elections office last week. Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. announced the legal action Monday in response to a federal search warrant executed Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City. FBI agents seized hundreds of boxes of ballots, voter rolls, ballot images, and other election records from the 2020 presidential election.... Arrington, the only practicing attorney on the Fulton County Commission, said the county intends to challenge both the scope of the warrant and how it was carried out. He said the FBI was authorized under a separate court order to copy election records, but instead took physical custody of original ballots ... along with voter rolls.... Arrington said[,] 'Now we cannot verify that we've received everything back because there was no chain-of-custody inventory taken at the time the records were seized.'" ~~~
Riley Beggin & Kadia Goba of the Washington Post: “The U.S. House passed a set of spending bills Tuesday that will end the partial government shutdown while buying time for bipartisan negotiations over new accountability measures for immigration enforcement. The measures now go to President Donald Trump to sign into law and reopen the government. The agreement kicks off a 10-day sprint for Republicans and Democrats to agree on policy changes to how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate during immigration raids.... The vote was 217-214. House Democrats pledged not to help House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) kick off the process of considering the legislation, though 21 voted for the final bill Tuesday afternoon. Twenty-one Republicans, meanwhile, voted no.” ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Scholtes, et al., of Politico: “But what’s left unfinished — funding for the Department of Homeland Security — will be a doozy, with partisan tensions over ... Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda threatening another lapse for the embattled department that also includes TSA, FEMA and other crucial agencies.... Trump is expected to swiftly sign the legislation, ending the partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning after the Senate passed the altered package, punting the measure back to the House. But if Republicans don’t concede to enacting significant new mandates for DHS by the new Feb. 13 deadline, the department many Democrats have called 'rogue' will face another funding lapse or short-term patch. 'We have a list that we want done, and we aren’t settling for half-measures,' Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the No. 3 party leader, told reporters Tuesday.” ~~~
~~~ Rema Rahman of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Tuesday signed a bill to end a partial government shutdown after the funding legislation was held up by lawmakers who have been agitated over the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration enforcement efforts.”
Frank Thorp, et al., of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he was 'not in favor' of federalizing elections a day after ... Donald Trump said on a podcast that Republicans 'ought to nationalize the voting.'... 'That’s a constitutional issue,' [Thune] added.... Thune ... emphasized that he is 'a big believer in decentralized and distributed power.... It’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,' he added. 'So it, in my view, at least, that’s always a system that’s worked pretty well.'... House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that 'it’s always been the responsibility of the states to administer elections and it’s a system that works well, so long as the states make it a priority to ensure the integrity of our elections. And we have real concerns about some of the blue states, frankly, that have not been doing that well.' He said that Trump was 'expressing that frustration' and added, 'We're looking for solutions.'" Related story linked below.
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The voters, in their inimitable stupidity, have turned the nation over to a madman.
⭐Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: Donald “Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to 'nationalize' voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat. During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to 'take over' voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them. 'The Republicans should say, “We want to take over,’” he said. 'We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.' Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country.... Mr. Trump’s remarkable call for a political party to seize the mechanisms of voting follows a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ "The Alarmists Have Been Right." Paul Krugman: "The startling extremism of the Trump regime, even compared with other modern wannabe dictatorships, is obvious to the naked eye.... We’re on a uniquely steep descent, at least for modern times[.]... It’s a horrifying picture. Yet the flip side of the naked extremism of the MAGA power grab is that it has produced a remarkably strong backlash.... [For Trump & Stephen Miller,] there isn’t any strategy. These people aren’t evil masterminds — evil, yes, but masterminds, no. They’re just thugs too crude and undisciplined to control their own thuggishness. They were caught off guard by the strength of the resistance.... Trump is now calling for 'nationalizing' the midterms, meaning to put voting and the counting of votes under his administration’s control. He can’t do that, but his demand is a clear sign that he will not accept the public’ s verdict in November. So it’s just being realistic to say that MAGA will try, somehow, to prevent voters from having their say." ~~~
~~~ William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: The day after the F.B.I. raided the election center in Fulton County, Georgia, “Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, met with some of the same F.B.I. agents [who conducted the raid], members of the bureau’s field office in Atlanta, which is conducting the election inquiry.... Ms. Gabbard['s] ... continued presence [at the site] has raised eyebrows given that her role ... does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work....Ms. Gabbard used her cellphone to call Mr. Trump.... The president addressed the agents on speakerphone, asking them questions as well as praising and thanking them for their work on the inquiry.... One U.S. official said the call was fairly short, perhaps just a minute long.... In a letter to lawmakers who were pressing for more details, Ms. Gabbard denied that Mr. Trump asked questions or issued directives during the call. Mr. Trump personally ordered Ms. Gabbard to go to Atlanta for the search, and coordinated her actions with Andrew Bailey, one of two deputy F.B.I. directors....” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Eric Tucker of the AP: “Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers in a letter Monday that she attended an FBI search of the elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, last week because ... Donald Trump asked for her to be there. She also acknowledged that she 'facilitated' what she described as a brief phone call between Trump and FBI agents who carried out the search but insisted that neither she nor the president had issued any directives. The letter to top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees marked Gabbard’s first detailed explanation for her unusual presence at an FBI search during which agents armed with a warrant seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia’s most populous county.”
Maybe instead of going on a field trip to lurk around boxes full of Fulton County ballots, the Director of National Intelligence should have stuck to her day job and studied up on things like this: ~~~
~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian: “The New Start treaty between the US and Russia will expire on Thursday, removing the last remaining mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals. The milestone will be a death knell for more than five decades of arms control at a time of surging global instability, contributing to a general collapse of the rules-based international order established after the second world war.... Alexandra Bell ... of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: 'When it comes to nuclear risks, everything is trending in the wrong direction over the course of 2025. Nuclear risks have become more complex, more dangerous and we have seen leaders fail in their obligation to manage those risks. And we are two days away from watching the United States and Russia fritter away half a century of work to maintain nuclear stability between the two largest nuclear states.'” ~~~
~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “Donald Trump — a president who claims to be very concerned about 'nuclear,' his odd, one-word appellation for all things relating to nuclear weapons — has decided to let the treaty lapse. In July, Trump said that New START was /not an agreement you want expiring,' but last month he backtracked: 'If it expires, it expires.'... On Thursday, the two largest nuclear powers will be free to begin a new arms race, a needless competition that both nations have managed to avert for decades. Indeed, even the Russians think the treaty should be renewed.... Trump is surrounded by people who oppose most treaties, regarding them as little more than annoying limitations on American power, and who view arms-control agreements as a sign of weakness.” Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link.
Michael Bender, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university.... But shortly before midnight, six hours after The Times reported that Mr. Trump had backtracked, he claimed the story was wrong and attacked The Times and Harvard. He said he was now seeking $1 billion 'in damages' from Harvard and that the administration’s investigations of Harvard should now be criminal.”
Shawn McCreesh, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump insisted on Monday that he was not going to tear down the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one day after his abrupt announcement that he would shut it down for two years for major renovations starting in July. 'I’m not ripping it down,' Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. 'I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure, we’re using some of the marble, and some of the marble comes down.'... Mr. Trump once suggested he would not touch [the East Wing of the White House...,] which now sits in piles of frozen rubble.... Mr. Trump’s insistence that the center must be shut down struck his critics as little more than a face-saving maneuver, since the place has been in a downward spiral ever since he named himself chairman.” ~~~
~~~ Darlene Superville of the AP: Trump's “comments strongly suggested that he intends to gut the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the process.” ~~~
~~~ Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post: “Now there is grave concern from artists and patrons that the [Kennedy Center] itself may disappear.... Trump [said] Monday that he wasn’t 'ripping it down' but then went on to describe a process that could tear the structure down to its steel framing. Given Trump’s sudden demolition of the White House’s East Wing in October, and the mix of vague promises and bombastic language in his social media post, which promises “a new and spectacular Entertainment Complex,” it certainly seems possible that the 1971 building, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, could be partially or completely erased. And with it, the center’s basic function, as a venue for the arts, along with its history, its distinguished legacy and its last remaining audience.... The center’s ambition, articulated by John F. Kennedy and emblazoned on the wall of the building, was to symbolize a nation 'which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is true that Trump is eliminating a great deal of performance art in the city. But in all fairness, he is bringing the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the White House and building a 100,000 seat stadium to accommodate the Roman Colosseum-like gladiator extravaganza. And you want, what? Opera divas and violinists? Where's your vision?
Jack Revell of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News (Feb. 1): “... Donald J. Trump has claimed that he has the right to funnel as much taxpayer money into his own accounts as he likes. When asked by a reporter on Saturday evening what it was like to be on both sides of a lawsuit, Trump, 79, responded that 'no one would care' if he awarded himself taxpayer funds for his own hand-selected 'charities.' As a private citizen and as president, Trump has launched multiple lawsuits against the U.S. government. He is now in charge of them and is seeking damages of more than $10 billion. 'I have to work out some kind of a settlement,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One. 'I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself.... I think what we’ll do is do something for charity. We’re thinking about doing something for charity, where I’ll give money to charity.... We can make it a sensational amount, and nobody would care because it’s going to go to numerous, very good charities,' the president said.”
Marcie Jones of Wonkette outlines a number of claims revealed in the big dump of Epstein files. And here's one she doesn't mention:
~~~ Shuvrajit Das Biswas of the Hindustan Times: “Jeffrey Epstein is the one who introduced Melania to Donald Trump, a document related to the late convicted child sex offender claims. The document is part of the tranche of files the Department of Justice released on Friday in accordance with the transparency act. Notably, this claim goes against the established narrative that Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent, introduced the current President and First Lady of the US back in 1998 at a New York Fashion Week party. The document which has Federal Bureau of Investigation on the header, noted 'ZEMPOLI was trying to buy Elite Models with EPSTEIN. EPSTEIN introduced MELANIA TRUMP to DONALD TRUMP.' A snapshot of the document, accessible in the DOJ library, was shared widely online.” MB: Melanie threatened to sue Hunter Biden and others for claiming (or claiming they had heard) Epstein introduced her to Trump. ~~~
~~~ AND Jon Stewart has some thoughts: ~~~
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The Justice Department failed to tell a magistrate judge about a 1980 law protecting journalists in its application materials for a warrant to search a Washington Post reporter’s home last month as part of a leak investigation, an unsealed court filing shows. Gabe Rottman ... of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which had asked the judge to unseal the materials, called that omission significant. 'By not alerting the judge to the existence of a federal law that is supposed to limit searches for reporting materials, it may have greased the skids for the judge agreeing to the warrant when otherwise the judge might have scrutinized it more carefully,' Mr. Rottman said. The 1980 law, the Privacy Protection Act, says 'it shall be unlawful' for investigators to search for or seize journalistic work product and documentary materials unless the reporters themselves are suspected of committing certain crimes related to those materials.... The search last month was part of an inquiry into whether a Pentagon contractor had violated the Espionage Act.... The disclosure that the department’s submission, at a minimum, failed to flag the existence of the 1980 law’s limitation for the judge comes as the administration has put pressure on journalism on multiple fronts.”
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “Jeannine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, on Monday threatened jail time for anyone who enters the capital with a gun. In remarks on Fox News that could deepen a growing rift between gun owners and the Trump administration, Ms. Pirro declared that if anyone brings 'a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail. I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.' Her remarks prompted swift pushback from the Republican Party’s pro-Second Amendment wing, which was thrown into a cycle of confusion and frustration over comments from ... [Donald] Trump and some in his administration after Alex Pretti, a licensed gun owner, was shot by federal immigration agents last month during a protest in Minneapolis.... After the shooting, Mr. Trump and some senior administration officials sought to blame Mr. Pretti for carrying a concealed firearm during the protest. 'I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that’s a lot of bad stuff,' Mr. Trump said last week in Iowa.” An Axios report is here.
Rebecca Santana of the AP: “Every Homeland Security officer on the ground in Minneapolis, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be immediately issued body-worn cameras, Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday, in the latest fallout after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents. Noem said the body-worn camera program is being expanded nationwide as funding becomes available. 'We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,' Noem said in a social media post on X.... Homeland Security has said that at least four Customs and Border Protection officers on the scene when Pretti was shot were wearing body cameras. The body camera footage from [Alex] Pretti’s shooting has not been made public. The department has not responded to repeated questions about whether any of the ICE officers on the scene of the killing of ... Renee Good earlier in January were wearing the cameras.”
Jacob Knutson of Democracy Docket: "A federal judge again blocked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s efforts to hamstring congressional oversight of federal immigration detention facilities. Monday’s ruling marks the second time in as many months that U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb temporarily halted Noem’s attempt to require that members of Congress provide notice seven days before they conduct in-person oversight visits.... Cobb ... previously ruled in December that Noem couldn’t enforce the Department of Homeland Security’s advanced notice policy because it violated federal appropriations law. DHS and its sub-agencies are barred from using funds to deny members of Congress access to 'any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens' when they are conducting oversight. However, Noem responded to the court order with a nearly identical policy, though she ordered agents to carry out the new rule only with funding from ... Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which she claimed was not subject to traditional appropriations requirements.”
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “A federal judge late on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending a humanitarian protection for more than 350,000 Haitians, who have been able to live and work in the United States under what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S. Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington denied the administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s termination of T.P.S., set for Feb. 3. The plaintiffs’ request for the status to remain in place was granted until the case is fully litigated. In a scathing, 83-page ruling, Judge Reyes said that the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, did not have the authority to end the status and that her arguments that maintaining T.P.S. for Haitians was not in the national interest were flawed. Her reasoning, the judge wrote, 'focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here illegally, ignoring that Haitian T.P.S. holders already live here, and legally so.' That analysis must also include economic considerations, according to the law. But Ms. Noem, Judge Reyes wrote, 'ignores altogether the billions Haitian T.P.S. holders contribute to the economy.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: One of the problems with firing or retiring hundreds of career attorneys is that you end up hiring lawyers who don't know the law and don't know how to research it to familiarize themselves with applicable statutes.
One Way, or Another, They're Gonna Get Ya. John Cox of the Washington Post: “In October, a retiree emailed a DHS attorney to urge mercy for an asylum seeker. Then DHS subpoenaed his Google account and sent investigators to his home.... Homeland Security had come after him with what’s known as an administrative subpoena, a powerful legal tool that, unlike the ones people are most familiar with, federal agencies can issue without an order from a judge or grand jury.... Under ... Donald Trump, Homeland Security has weaponized the tool to strangle free speech.... 'There’s no oversight ahead of time, and there’s no ramifications for having abused it after the fact,' said Jennifer Granick, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.”
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.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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. (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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.
Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Federal agents in Minnesota appear to have mishandled the firearm they grabbed from Alex Pretti’s waistband during last month’s fatal struggle, a judge declared Monday. But U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud found that the apparent error — as well as inflammatory statements by the White House and Trump administration officials — was not enough to justify his continued supervision of the handling of evidence from the scene of Pretti’s death.... In an 18-page ruling, Tostrud said Monday that he would lift a restraining order he granted last week after state and local officials raised alarm that Department of Homeland Security personnel may have failed to safeguard crucial evidence from the crime scene.... While the judge agreed to allow federal officials to continue their investigation without restriction from the court, he coupled that conclusion with sharp criticism of White House Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over their public comments painting Pretti as someone with the intention of killing federal law enforcement agents. 'These statements are troubling,' Tostrud wrote. 'They reflect, not a genuine interest in learning the truth, but snap judgments informed by speculation and motivated by political partisanship.'”
Sam Levin of the Guardian: “Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon [on 8 January], the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were 'vicious' gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had 'attempted to run over' officers with their vehicle. In the weeks since, key parts of the federal government’s narrative have fallen apart.... According to a DHS press release and social media posts issued the following day, border patrol agents were conducting a 'targeted' stop of a vehicle in Portland occupied by two members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang. Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, a woman in the passenger seat, had been 'involved' in a Portland shooting last year, the agency wrote. During the border patrol stop, the driver, Luis Niño-Moncada, 'weaponized their vehicle against' officers, DHS said, prompting an agent 'to defend himself and others' by shooting the occupants. Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest, Niño-Moncada was hit in the arm and both were hospitalized, then taken into federal custody, DHS noted. The agents were uninjured.
“But court records ... reveal a Department of Justice prosecutor later directly contradicted DHS’ Tren de Aragua statements in court, telling a judge, 'We’re not suggesting … [Niño-Moncada] is a gang member.' An FBI affidavit issued following the incident also suggests that in the previous shooting cited by DHS, Zambrano-Contreras was not a suspect, but rather a reported victim of a sexual assault and robbery. Neither Niño-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras have prior criminal convictions, their lawyers have said. Immigration and criminal justice experts who reviewed the case records characterized the federal government’s communications as a 'smear campaign' against the two Venezuelan immigrants....”
Riley Beggin & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: “The U.S. House will aim to pass a funding package Tuesday that would end the partial government shutdown while buying 10 more days for bipartisan negotiations over new accountability measures for immigration enforcement. House Democrats have said they won’t help House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) kick off the process of considering the legislation, though some may vote for the final bill later this afternoon. House Republicans believe they will be able to carry the measure on their own, despite complaints from some of the party’s hard-line conservatives. Nearly every GOP member will be necessary to advance it past a procedural hurdle if Democrats hold firm. Republicans have only a one-vote margin in the narrowly divided chamber.” ~~~
~~~ Michael Gold & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and Republican leaders pressured conservative Republicans to drop their objections to allowing quick action to enact [the spending bill] and end the partial government shutdown.... 'I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY,' [Trump] wrote on social media. 'There can be NO CHANGES at this time.'”
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to testify in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, capitulating to the demands of its Republican chairman days before the House was expected to vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress. For months, the Clintons had been adamant that they would not comply with subpoenas from Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the panel’s Republican chairman, that they have described as invalid and legally unenforceable. They accused Mr. Comer of being part of a plot to target them as ... [Donald] Trump’s political adversaries and promised to fight him on the issue for as long as it took. But after some Democrats on the panel joined Republicans in a vote to recommend charging them with criminal contempt, an extraordinary first step in referring them to the Justice Department for prosecution, the Clintons ultimately ... agreed to fully comply with Mr. Comer’s demands.” A Politico story is here.
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Jane Timm of NBC News: "The Maryland House approved legislation Monday to redraw the state’s congressional map, sending it to the state Senate, where its future is uncertain. The proposed map, which could allow Democrats to pick up an additional seat in this year's midterm elections, has been pushed by Gov. Wes Moore and national Democrats. But Maryland's Democratic Senate president, Bill Ferguson, has remained staunchly opposed to the effort.” The New York Times story is here.
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France. Leo Sands of the Washington Post: “French investigators raided X’s Paris headquarters on Tuesday as part of an expanded criminal probe involving seven alleged offenses including spreading Holocaust denial content and involvement in distributing child pornography. The investigation comes amid a broader effort by European governments to curb the spread of unlawful content — including child abuse imagery — on the social media platform.... French authorities initiated the investigation more than a year ago, focused initially on X’s algorithm and handling of data. In the months since, authorities said, they expanded the scope of the probe following reports that Grok, X’s AI tool, was disseminating sexually explicit deepfakes and Holocaust denial content.”
Alors! He Has a Bomb Up His Ass! Taryn Pedler, et al., of the Daily Mail: "A man sparked an evacuation at a French hospital after doctors discovered an eight-inch-long live World War I artillery shell in his rectum. The unnamed 24-year-old rushed to the Rangueil Accident and Emergency unit in Toulouse, in the south-west of the country, late on Saturday night. ‘He was in a state of extreme discomfort, having inserted a large object up his rectum,’ said an investigating source. ‘Emergency surgery was carried out, and the object was found to be an artillery shell dating back to the First World War. ‘Worse still, it had not exploded, and so bomb disposal experts had to be called to diffuse the shell, with the fire brigade standing by.’"
Ukraine/Russia/ et al. David Stern & Serhii Korolchuk of the Washington Post: “Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy grid with missiles and drones Tuesday, causing power outages in Kyiv and other major cities as temperatures dropped below freezing just a day after ... Donald Trump restated that the Kremlin had agreed to pause power sector attacks. Energy operators have described it as the worst attack on the power sector so far this year. Trump said Thursday that he had persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin to refrain from targeting Kyiv and other cities for one week, during a period of 'extraordinary cold.' A day later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the pause would be over by Sunday. On Monday, though, Trump repeated that Putin had promised he would refrain from hitting Kyiv and other cities, suggesting that the president thought the ceasefire was still in effect. “I asked him if he wouldn’t shoot for a period of one week. No missiles going into Kyiv or any other towns, and he’s agreed to do it. So it’s something,” he said in the Oval Office. Hours later, the missiles began falling on Kyiv.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Why, it's almost as if Putin is making a fool of the old man. Or letting Trump make a fool of himself.
20 comments:
Adam Serwer, in The Atlantic, describes The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks
"When violating the Constitution on a daily basis a mask helps, because people who are assured that they won’t face consequences for abusing power almost inevitably do so. One wonders if this is actually the government’s purpose in masking them. When you are asking men to essentially make war on their fellow citizens—to force lightly dressed people out into the frigid Minneapolis winter, detain elementary schoolers, follow good Samaritans as they deliver food to hiding families, and drag, tackle, beat, tase, or even shoot American citizens—you may find telling them that they can keep their identity hidden useful. The masks may work less to protect federal agents from danger than to to make it easier for them to do unspeakable things."
As if there wasn't enough to worry about, Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic, reports that its The End of the Nuclear-Arms-Control Era
"In two days, New START, the last significant survivor of the age of nuclear-arms-control agreements that began in the 1960s, will come to an end. Donald Trump—a president who claims to be very concerned about “nuclear,” his odd, one-word appellation for all things relating to nuclear weapons—has decided to let the treaty lapse. In July, Trump said that New START was “not an agreement you want expiring,” but last month he backtracked: “If it expires, it expires.”"
A problem with impulsivity? Did the Pretender screw up--again?
Is he not tearing down the Kennedy Center (tho everyone knows' he's already ruined it) because it already, has his name on it?
Not all of the Law is an ass:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/03/books/judge-ruling-liam-conejo-ramos-analysis.html
Message from Liam and his Dad
"
Florida Holocaust Survivors Offer To Hide Haitian StaffAbout 500 seniors live at Sinai Residences in Boca Raton, Florida, including many Holocaust survivors. Recently, some of them asked if they could hide the building’s Haitian staff in their apartments. “That reminds me of Anne Frank,” Rachel Blumberg, president and CEO of the center, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “There’s a kindred bond between our residents being Jewish and seeing the place that the Haitians have gone through.”"
I'm so glad that in November and the future I don't have to go vote at the neighborhood ex-Methodist church, or fill in those difficult ballots, drive downtown, park in the designated area and walk into a guarded area in the government building, and hand my ballot to the person behind the counter, and be told by both police officers running the X-ray and the lady taking the ballots to "have a nice day!" What a relief. It was all so difficult and debillitating...(rolls eyes--)
Perhaps not what the Supreme racists had in mind:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/us/colleges-see-major-racial-shifts-in-student-enrollment.html
Also noted that Republican support for their leader's immigration policies is holding pretty steady even after all the recent news. Speaking of racism and racists, I don't wonder why.
"Minneapolis Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize After Anti-ICE Protests"
This is for a real one. Not a fake prize or a hand me down.
Ken Klippenstein
"Feds Identify “Leader of Antifa”
The list they're creating says so, anyway
Twenty-nine year old Chandler Patey has been regularly protesting outside his local ICE facility in South Portland for months, offering up his apartment to fellow protesters to use the bathroom or wash off pepper spray, according to local news.
To the Department of Homeland Security, “he is the leader of Antifa in Portland, OR.”
Documents leaked to me show Patey and countless other American protesters have been branded as domestic terrorists. As a result, their private information is now being collected and stored in a DHS intelligence system shown below."
MAGA Harassers
"Over the last few days hackers and trolls have targeted a slew of ICE spotting apps and their users in an apparent attempt to intimidate and stop them from reporting sightings of ICE.
These hackers sent threatening text messages to users of StopICE, claiming their personal data has been sent to the authorities; attempted to wipe uploads on Eyes Up, which aims to document ICE abuses; and even sent push notifications to DEICER app users claiming their data has also been sent to various government agencies.
There is little evidence that hackers have actually provided data to the government."
Amanda Marcotte
"Women hate ICE
We know creeps when we see them
But a lot of what’s fueling women’s revolt here is their anger at being lied to. The whole pitch to women on ICE has been a variation on all the moldy myths of chivalry: You have to give men unchecked power because they’re going to “protect” you. You know, from even scarier men.
In reality, when men have too much power, women end up abused, not protected. And we’re seeing the same with ICE. They’re not protecting women and children. They’re attacking them, imprisoning them, terrorizing them and, as in Renee Good’s case, killing them. Women in Minneapolis aren’t safe because of ICE. Women are standing up against thugs with guns and masks,"
Marie wrote:
"One of the problems with firing or retiring hundreds of career attorneys is that you end up hiring lawyers who don't know the law and don't know how to research it to familiarize themselves with applicable statutes."
I'll say two things about this comment which goes to the heart of the absolute batshit crazed monkey house that is this "administration".
First, Fatty's insistence on ripping apart the mechanisms of government that were carefully constructed over decades and in some cases generations. The problem here is that when all of a sudden you need something to work, it won't. Open the hood of your car and start ripping out wires, cutting cables, pulling out the oil pan plug and flushing out the antifreeze, and what you're left with is a two ton paper weight. It ain't goin' nowhere. It won't even start. This was the initial problem with the DOGE disaster. Shortly after the South African Chainsaw Lunatic and his Hitler Youth started firing people right and left, it became quickly apparent that little things like, oh, I dunno, employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining the US nuclear weapons stockpile, might be needed after all.
Fat Hitler is like the mean kid on the beach who loves to kick over wonderfully structured sand castles it took hours to build but has no clue how to build them himself. Instead, he revels in his beautiful wickedness and goes on knocking things down and stomping around.
Second, the lawyers. Yeah...but Marie is slightly in error. After firing any and every attorney who is any good, Fatty hires idiots who don't know the law. True. But this is exactly what he wants. He doesn't want experienced legal minds who know the law and apply it correctly, he wants imbeciles who will do what they're told. His requirements are twofold: T&A and unquestioned loyalty to the baby god-king. Just think of all the past Trump lawyers who have been disbarred, disciplined, or smacked down by judges. Pretty much EVERY ONE of them. And third place runner up in a beauty contest or past experience as a parking garage attorney are not the best skill sets to be a federal prosecutor. But of course, that's only if you want someone who knows the difference between a subpoena and a sub sandwich.
So part of this is good for America, the fact that he hires stunningly unqualified morons and sends them out to accomplish illegal and unconstitutional bullshit. Sooner or later, they run into a judge who says "What in the holy hell are you doing, you fucking idiot? Get the hell out of my courtroom."
But the first part, the ripping out of wires and cables of government's inner workings? Not so good. And it could take decades to restore even part of that mechanism, if it ever happens at all.
Elections matter. So do educated voters.
Jesu Christo! Replacing a respected and revered arts center with a blood and sand, Roman gladiator face punching and head kicking spectacle?
It bears recalling that the first Hitler was more of an aesthete than the current one. That other guy spent time as a painter and actually did go to the opera (okay, Wagner...but still).
Also remember that John McCain, no namby-pamby whiny bonespurs coward, referred to Fatty's favorite sport, UFC, as "human cockfighting".
I have not doubt this ignorant dolt, this fat philistine will tear the Kennedy Center down to the studs and it will never be rebuilt. Like the East Wing, it will be a pile of rubble. Maybe some future president (a real one) can reboot it and restore the arts to a place of prominence in the nation's capitol.
OM effing G! How awesome would it be for Minneapolis to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Fatty would bust a gasket. Wall, meet ketchup!
He may be big and fat, but Trump is no Horton (Dr. Seuss's elephant), who said "I meant what I said and I said what I meant..." He's more pre-transformation Grinch, fucking people over just because he can, and it gives him great pleasure to see others suffer at his hand, then lying about it.
He ain't no Horton.
Somehow, a huge swath of the media hasn't caught on yet that Fat Hitler is a congenital liar. Anyone who trusts him or believes anything he says, deserves whatever they get.
Here's "...a recent Associated Press article headlined, 'Trump says feds won’t intervene during protests in Democratic-led cities unless asked to do so.'"
Right, and the Easter Bunny is a real thing.
"Somehow, the idea that Trump is ordering ICE to soften up — whether at protests or in yanking people out of their homes or by rearranging the hierarchy — is hard to believe, and in fact, should not be believed.
'Will any of this change how ICE is actually conducting its operations…? Will there be serious governmental efforts to investigate those shootings, mete out accountability and address what went wrong?'
The answer is no, if Trump’s past behavior is any indication, and it is. He doesn’t believe in reform or learning anything. He believes in distraction and denial and moving on to the next atrocity."
In fact, just consider all the other bullshit coming out of the lying orange pie hole about how he's gonna save Iranians, take over Greenland, run Venezuela, end this war and that, build a gigantic new battleship, create the concept of a framework for something or other, or the regular pronouncements that any day now, he'll have a great new, best in the world healthcare plan...All reported breathlessly by the media.
"But the news media doesn’t seem to know how to bring anything other than wide-eyed credulity to his utterances, even after all the lies and deceit of the past decade.
As always, headlines and news alerts are important. All the nuance in the world in the 12th paragraph doesn’t help much if the headline creates a completely different impression."
The media still hasn't learned that he lies. All the time. And it's helping no one except him to report his lies as anything more than that.
Very touching testimonial by Renee Good's brothers on Cap Hill. Sad and futile, as the people who did this and are still doing this neither listen nor care. I am not optimistic that there will be necessary change to policies and agency work. These are not people, they are monsters, and only elimination of them will bring. about change. We know specifically who the monsters are. I don't know how we train the 30% to 50% of undereducated cheerleaders in the country to abandon this evil. I don't know much about cults but I imagine this would be hard to impossible to eradicate. After all, all the greatest thinkers have told us that this sort of carnage has been worked-on for many more years than Dump has been at the helm. It will take more than a pair of elections, especially if those elections are deemed voided by the government jackals. I think this family was and is so lucky to have had Renee.
Nonsequiturs are apparently my specialty, that and misspellings that don't get corrected. My last line in the above paragraph was supposed to be on its own line two spaces down. This did not happen. I'm sorry--
@Jeanne: I'll post the reason your misspellings don't get corrected tomorrow.,
Hopefully.
Ass Saver Cams, Inc.
Hey, so I've been reading that the puppy killing Gnome promises! PINKY SWEARS! that her ICE goons will start wearing body cameras.
Unfortunately, DHS has purchased those body cams from Ass Saver Cam Corp.Inc. Their cameras work great when nothing's going on, sitting in the SUV eating donuts, shooting beers, trading war stories about how many immigrants you beat up, etc. but as soon as any action occurs, they shut off. Bang! Like right away! It's great!
Plenty of police departments around the country swear by Ass Saver Cams. Those are the ones where you see the car pull out to chase someone, and the video goes black, coming on only after it's all over. DHS is even paying for the extra AI mode which shows ICE agents acting polite and professional and immigrants brandishing AKs and screaming "DEATH TO AMERICA". It's a little more expensive, but worth it.
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