Since Ruby Ridge and Waco in the 1990s, a faction of right-wing populists had excoriated federal law enforcement. Now those agents are being deployed by their allies
Rational self-interest motivates autocratic regimes to employ idiots. Read more
A greatcoat worn by the senior US border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations across the country, has raised eyebrows in German media with some commentators saying it resembled a fascist aesthetic. Bovino has been an increasingly recognisable figure during the raids in Minneapolis for the brass-buttoned, calf-length olive green coat, which is unlike the fatigues and body armor worn by many of the federal agents. Along with his close-shorn haircut, the media organization Der Spiegel suggested in a video feature that Bovino's look recalled that of a Nazi officer. Read more
The video speaks for itself. I will leave it at that.
FBI Special Agent Tracee Mergen resigned after bureau leadership in Washington pressured her to discontinue a civil rights investigation into ICE agent Jonathan Ross who shot and killed Renee Good in cold blood.
China is no longer the top security priority for the US, according to the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy. The document, published once every four years, instead says that the security of the US homeland and Western Hemisphere is the department's chief concern, adding that Washington has long neglected the "concrete interests" of Americans. The Pentagon also says it will offer "more limited" support to US allies. Read more
The Who's live sound in the late 1960s may have sounded metallic, but their studio work was definitely more comparable to that of emerging prog-rock artists.
In 1969, many professionals and music fans began to compare The Who to Robert Fripp's formative band, King Crimson.
Like The Who, King Crimson valued complex composition and evocative themes and also had a huge influence on the heavy metal wave, especially with the enduring classic '21st Century Schizoid Man'. Read more
According to the President the Civil Rights Movement - that modest attempt to stop lynching, segregation, and legally enforced white supremacy - was actually very hard on white people. Apparently the real victims of Jim Crow were the people doing Jim Crow. Read more
"The files on ztrk, some of which previously were not available to the public, indicate further that the government relied solely on the inferences made from an op-ed she wrote for the student newspaper to carry out the revocation of her visa, her arrest, and her detention," the Globe reported. ... Among the newly unsealed documents is a DHS summary of findings on ztrk, with ex-DHS official Andre Watson writing that the student's actions may have constituted "violations of President Trump's executive orders on anti-Semitism," and that her continued presence in the United States could "have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences." Read more
A St. Paul woman who is a U.S. citizen was illegally detained last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, she said Wednesday at a news conference at the Minnesota Capitol. Nasra Ahmed, 23, said she had stepped out of her St. Paul apartment on Jan. 14 when several ICE officers surrounded her and demanded her identification. State Rep. Samakab Hussein, a St. Paul Democrat who was also at Wednesday's news conference, said similar calls about such ICE activity are flowing in from the community. Read more
But Newsom has a problem: He has been a California politician for decades, and has held the state's governorship since 2019. During his tenure, the state has been a laboratory for some of the Democratic Party's most politically fraught policies and instincts, which has left it less affordable and more culturally radical than it used to be. His record not only raises pressing questions about how effectively he could govern as president; it also provides opponents an endless buffet of vulnerabilities across social and economic issues. Read more
Democrats have claimed that Ramos was "kidnapped" as his father was being detained in Minneapolis. Columbia Heights school district superintendent Zena Stenvik said Ramos was "used as bait." Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as well as other Democrats, shared an image of a 5-year-old boy online and claimed he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while coming home from pre-school, DHS officials said officers were approaching Conejo Arias when he ran and left his son. Read more
For much of the last year, staffers who were initially part of the Department of Government Efficiency effort improperly accessed and shared sensitive personal data on millions of Americans. The Trump administration hasn't been able to answer how much data is at risk, what it was used for or why its unprecedented efforts to consolidate data are needed.
A former school superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa, entered a guilty plea at a court hearing on Thursday, months after he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for staying in the country illegally. Ian Roberts pleaded guilty to falsely claiming U.S. citizenship for employment and being an illegal immigrant in possession of firearms.
57 HOUSE REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMOCRATS TO KEEP FEDERAL AUTHORITY TO SHUT OFF YOUR CAR Lawmakers failed to remove a mandate requiring automakers to install remote "kill switches" in new vehicles, giving the government the ability to disable cars at will.
During an appearance on Fox Business, Trump commented, "We've never needed them. They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan. ... and they did. They stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines." But some of Trump's European critics are pointing out that when he was young during the 1960s and 1970s, he avoided military service. Scotland-based journalist/author Stephen Stewart, himself a veteran, argued, "Trump's comments are as offensive as they are inaccurate. It's hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam War should make such a disgraceful statement. He has desecrated the memory of hundreds of British soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, people who we called friends and comrades. If he was a man of honor, he would get down on bended knees to ask forgiveness from the families of the fallen."
