Minneapolis and its residents have been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, amid ongoing tensions in Minnesota over the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Connecticut could see legislation proposed and passed this year that would limit law enforcement's use of cameras that can automatically log and track license plates of passing cars. The possible regulation comes as lawmakers are questioning whether the sharing of data collected by cameras with federal authorities is in violation of state law.
Iran has demanded that this week's talks with the US be held in Oman rather than Turkey, with the agenda narrowed to nuclear issues only, a regional source said on Tuesday. The move adds new complications to an already delicate diplomatic effort amid heightened military tensions in the region.
It's been a couple of weeks, or so, since I last posted these polling results....
The US branch of the social video app TikTok faced accusations of suppressing posts relating to ICE protests in Minneapolis and the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. TikTok blamed the issue on a data center outage. read more
Planet P Project - Why Me? (Extended Version) (1983)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
Sitting up here watching all the lights blink down below
The earth is turning, why does it go so slow?
Thinking about the girl I left behind
Houston can you hear me, or have I lost my mind?
Why me? Why me?
I was waiting on the pad, all systems were go
The man up in the tower was enjoying the show
Then I got this feeling that I never had before
Hey let me out of here, what am I here for?
Why me?
There must be a thousand other guys
Must be some other way to look good in your eyes
Why am I up here? What do they see in me?
Must be one thousand other places to be
Why me? Why Me?
The last man to be here was never heard from again
He won't be back this way till 2010
Now I'm riding on a fountain of fire
With my back to the earth, I go higher and higher
Why me? Why me?
...
@#9 ... HANG BY THE NECK UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, ...
Is that not similar to what Pres trump told the J6 rioters to do to VP Pence?
Trump expressed support for hanging Pence during Capitol riot, Jan. 6 panel told (2022)
www.politico.com
... The Jan. 6 select committee has heard testimony indicating that then-President Donald Trump " after rioters who swarmed the Capitol began chanting "hang Mike Pence" " expressed support for hanging his vice president, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The White House chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows, was in the dining room off the Oval Office with Trump at one point during last year's Capitol attack, the committee has been told. Meadows then left the dining room and informed other people nearby that Trump had signaled a positive view of the prospect of hanging the vice president, the panel heard.
Meadows' account as it was described to the committee came after some members of the mob converging on the Capitol had broken into chants of "Hang Mike Pence!" Those chants were a reaction to Pence's decision to accept electoral votes that indicated Joe Biden had won the presidency.
POLITICO could not independently verify the veracity of the claim regarding Meadows' comments. ...
... DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that body cameras would go to ICE agents in Minneapolis and to operatives nationwide when funding is available. ..
A good, but inadequate, first step.
Next, remove the masks.
Then, and this is an important then, make ICE obey the laws that law enforcement have to obey.
Axios Explains: Inside ICE's superpowers (2025)
www.axios.com
... The images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans " and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal?
It is " at least for now.
Why it matters: Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police.
ICE's rules were designed largely to give the agency broad leeway in helping the FBI identify and arrest domestic terror suspects.
Now the Trump administration is using that power to go after unauthorized immigrants " potentially millions of them " with a frequency and aggressiveness that has sent ripples through communities nationwide.
Zoom in: Under Trump, critics say, ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force.
- - - ICE agents aren't required to wear body cameras, can cover their faces, don't have to provide badge numbers or identify themselves, can arrive in unmarked cars and don't need a warrant from a judge to detain someone.
- - - Like those with other federal enforcement agencies, they can ignore rules that govern local police departments, particularly those local agencies with histories of abuse or that operate under court-imposed restrictions on racial profiling.
- - - In some cases, ICE agents can even arrest U.S. citizens " but they aren't supposed to place them in immigration detention units. Even so, a few U.S. citizens have been detained in recent ICE raids because of agents' mistakes or negligence. ...
@#1 ... Hmmmm deescalation or did they get so much pushback from the military that they had to back down? ...
Yeah, that's the first question that I had when I read this.
A secondary question for me is...
Was this also due to the huge public outcry of the killing of American citizens by Pres Trump's militia?
imo, the above aside, this is not a retreat by Pres Trump. It looks more like a regrouping for more attacks.
Yeah, and if that sounds like a war strategy, maybe it may be apropos to think about Pres Trump declaring war on America citizens whose political opinions he disagrees with.
The enemy from within': Trump calls Democrats more dangerous than U.S. foreign adversaries (2024)
www.nbcnews.com
... Former President Donald Trump called Democrats and others who have opposed or investigated him "the enemy from within" in an interview that aired Sunday, describing them as more dangerous than major foreign adversaries of the United States, including Russia and China. ...
@#4 ... He only pays his lawyers. ...
Trump owes lawyers seven-figure sum as ex-president shovels donors' funds into hefty legal bills (May 2024)
www.independent.co.uk
... Hefty fees to hush money lawyer Todd Blanche made up a a large proportion of the debt ...
Donald Trump started the month owing his lawyers a seven-figure sum as the ex-president burns through thousands of dollars per day to cover his burgeoning legal fees.
Founded and controlled by Mr Trump, Save America leadership political action committee (PAC) has been his primary fundraising and political spending wing since he left the White House.
The PAC, composed of wealthy pro-Trump donors, has absorbed most of the cost from his legal troubles, as he faces 91 felony counts including 34 from his hush money trial alone. Mr Trump denies all charges held against him.
Last year, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spent $55 million on legal bills, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), according to a filing in February. In February alone, Save America spent $230,000 on lawyer fees, as per the filing.
Save America entered 2024 with liquid cash of just $5 million after Mr Trump burned through his donors' funds paying off his astronomical legal bills.
According to Save America's most recent filings with the FEC, the former president owes approximately $1.1 million to five law firms. One law firm accounts for Save America's greatest debt: Blanche Law, founded by Todd Blanche. ...
Another view ...
Despite new curbs, Elon Musk's Grok at times produces sexualized images - even when told subjects didn't consent
www.reuters.com
...
- - - Nine Reuters reporters uploaded photos to xAI's Grok chatbot over two periods in January
- - - They asked Grok to alter the images to depict them in sexually provocative or humiliating poses
- - - In the majority of cases, Grok returned sexualized images, even when told the subjects did not consent
...
@#3 ... Inflation and the Economy. ...
Yeah. Those seem to be the important issues of late.
Trump Said He Would End Inflation on Day 1 of His Presidency (2025)
www.nasdaq.com
How'd he do on that promise?
Former North Carolina Miss USA contestant renews call for ethnics probe into Trump sexual misconduct claims (2017)
abc11.com
... Samantha Holvey, Miss North Carolina USA 2006, is back in the spotlight renewing calls for President Donald Trump to be investigated for sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior.
In 2006, Holvey and the other Miss USA contestants were invited to the Trump Tower to meet with then-pageant owner Donald Trump.
Holvey said Trump gazed at her 20-year-old body with little eye contact.
"I just felt like such a piece of meat," she said.
As of Tuesday, Holvey is one of 19 women accusing Trump of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.
A claim she first exposed just before the 2016 presidential election.
"I felt very dirty, very creepy," Holvey said in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon in 2016. "It's kind of like when you're in a bar and a creepy guy is checking you out."
On the final night of the 2006 pageant, Holvey said she saw Trump walk into the dressing room where contestants were naked.
The White House has denied all sexual misconduct allegations against the president.
In an April 2005 interview with radio host Howard Stern, Trump said this:
"I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready. I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it. You know they are standing there with no clothes. 'Is everybody ok?' And you see these incredible looking women, so I sort of get away with things like that. "
The White House said voters settled the discussion when they picked Trump as president. ...
@#9 ... So the previous administration knew all of this. ...
Did they know of it? Maybe they did, maybe they did not.
Or did the Biden administration respect the independence of the DoJ, and not want to use "this" to (I'll be kind) taint a political rival?
But taking a different approach to that very comment...
... So the previous administration knew all of this. ...
OK, let's look forward to 2029, and if the Democrats now control the Oval Office and Congress.
And if those Democrats then try to prosecute those responsible in the Epstein affairs,
Will your current alias then make that same comment?