Posted: August 1, 2026 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: just because | Tags: Blanche confirmation vote postponed, cat art, caturday, defense of Israel, domestic violence, Gov. Tim Walz, Iran cyberattacks on U.S. water systems, Iran War, January 6th slush fund, John Cornyn, Kuwait, Mad King Donald, Minnesota, Rep. Max Miller, Senator Bernie Moreno, Thom Tillis, Trump, Trump IRS tax amnesty, U.S. weapons shortage |
Good Afternoon!!
A young girl with cat, Berthe Marisot
Mad King Donald continues to struggle with how to end the idiotic war he started with Iran.
The mad king is focusing even more energy on rewarding the criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2001, and preventing him or his family members from ever having to pay back taxes. He cares more about those two goals than getting his Attorney general candidate approved by the Senate.
Meanwhile, Americans are stuck with a demented old man running our country into the ground.
Here are the latest updates in the Iran mess:
AP: White House signals Trump is weighing new strikes on Iran, and other developments in the Middle East.
CAIRO (AP) — The White House on Friday signaled that President Donald Trump is weighing carrying out new strikes on Iran as the U.S. presses for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and abide by terms set out in a truce agreement the two sides forged last month only to quickly collapse.
There were no U.S. strikes on Iran overnight, but Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had struck another two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and Kuwait said it intercepted drones.
Meanwhile, Hamas confirmed Friday that it will disarm in a potential breakthrough for ending the war in Gaza, but major obstacles remain….
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the U.S. administration’s frustration anew, charging that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”
“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur,” Leavitt said in a statement on Friday evening. “Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”
Leavitt issued the fresh warning after Trump earlier on Friday told reporters that “we just want to win” in Iran and signaled that he expected U.S. military action to continue for some time.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters during a meeting with members of his Cabinet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. “You know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’”
Euan Ward at The New York Times: Kuwait Says It Downed Iranian Drones as Mideast Braces for Possible Escalation.
Kuwait said that Iranian forces had launched a wave of drone attacks on its shores early Saturday, as the Middle East braced for a possible escalation in fighting after President Trump said he was preparing to hit Iran “very hard.”
The Kuwaiti military said that it had detected and destroyed multiple drones in its airspace since dawn, and that Iran had targeted critical infrastructure in the country’s north. A military spokesman said that falling shrapnel had damaged vehicles on the Kuwaiti island of Bubiyan, near the Iraqi border, but no casualties were reported.
Kuwait hosts one of Washington’s largest military deployments in the Middle East, and Bubiyan Island lies close to several critical U.S. military facilities. There was no immediate comment on the attacks from Iran or U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region.
While there were no U.S. strikes on Iran reported overnight, there was little indication that the two sides were moving back toward diplomacy. The conflict has lurched between military confrontation and negotiations in recent months, and renewed exchanges of fire this week have punctured a brief lull in fighting.
Cat and her two kittens, Julius Adam
Speaking on Friday from Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, Mr. Trump said the United States was weighing additional military action against Iran after days of escalating attacks across the region. “We’ll be hitting them very hard, and you know at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore,’” Mr. Trump said. “We just want to win,” he added.
The potential risk of escalation prompted security warnings from the State Department. On Saturday, the U.S. Embassies in Jordan, Iraq and Israel urged Americans to consider departing the region, or to be prepared to leave if the conflict intensified. The security environment in the Middle East remained “complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” the embassies said.
Analysis by Steven Erlanger at The New York Times: In Iran, the U.S. Appears Headed for a Strategic Defeat, Allies Fear.
To America’s allies, President Trump’s war in Iran, now in its sixth month, seems headed for a strategic defeat.
They worry that the inability of the United States to turn military superiority into a sustainably changed Iran has displayed a vulnerability that Russia and China will welcome. In addition, Mr. Trump’s goals remain unmet, and the U.S. military is running short on key armaments that it needs for global reach.
For the moment, Iran is seemingly resolute under a more radical government, its nuclear and ballistic missile programs are degraded but not destroyed, and the Strait of Hormuz is effectively under its control. The war has left both the United States and Israel in weaker positions — and blaming each other for the mess.
Iranian missiles and drones not only restrict traffic through the strait and damage the economic infrastructure of allied energy production, but they also continue to threaten American bases across the Middle East and have killed or injured American service members.
With Mr. Trump’s aims shifting, Washington is losing credibility both militarily and diplomatically, analysts said. Its conduct in the war underscores the impression that the United States is an unpredictable instrument of global disorder, they said.
The war may evolve, but so far the result has been “a strategic loss and an embarrassment,” said Robin Niblett, a former director of Chatham House, a think tank in London. “For U.S. allies and those who rely on the U.S. for security, this is confirmation that you can’t trust the United States.”
Even if the Islamic Republic collapses, he added, “people won’t forget that their security and their future were dragged into question by an unpredictable and wavering U.S. foreign policy.”
European allies remember Mr. Trump’s vow to seize Greenland from a NATO ally and his threats to leave the alliance unless other allies met his spending goals. Middle Eastern allies see their own security undermined by this war, even if they are too committed to Washington to abandon partnerships with the United States. But they are already hedging, looking for repaired ties with Iran and better relations with Europe, China and Russia, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director for the International Crisis Group.
Dan Lamothe at The Washington Post has a scoop on Pentagon’s weapons shortages: U.S. general warns Pentagon he lacks sufficient forces to protect Israel.
The top U.S. general in Europe privately warned the Pentagon this week that he lacks sufficient naval forces to continue protecting Israel from incoming ballistic missiles, officials said, illustrating how the ongoing Iran war has imposed constraints on the military.
Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the head of U.S. European Command, sent written notification to senior Pentagon officials saying that without another Navy destroyer he will be forced to choose defense of the United States “homeland” over that of Israel, said the officials, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the correspondence.
Marguerite with a black cat, Henri Matisse, 1910
The Pentagon declined to comment. U.S. European Command did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.
The general’s warning comes at a tenuous moment in the five-month conflict, as near-daily attacks have resumed following the collapse of peace talks between Washington and Tehran and the operation’s intensity has drained U.S. supplies of key defensive weapons.
The Navy has been particularly taxed, as the Trump administration has directed a blockade of Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The standoff has stymied the movement of Middle Eastern oil and other commodities through the narrow waterway, upending the global economy.
A bit more:
U.S. naval destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have been employed as a part of Israel’s defense for many years. The vessels, equipped with powerful radar and armed with an array of missiles, have downed missiles aimed at Israel not only by Iran, but by Houthi militants in Yemen that are equipped by Tehran.
European Command is central to this mission, as it coordinates military operations in the Mediterranean. At the same time, its forces must remain ready for any Russian incursion into territory protected by the NATO military alliance. Russia also poses a ballistic missile threat to the United States, with missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
The Navy has five destroyers that deploy from a U.S. port in Rota, Spain, with a sixth expected to arrive there later this year, Pentagon officials have said. But maintenance issues have piled up due to the Iran war’s tempo, complicating matters for Grynkewich, officials said. The Washington Post withheld specific details about the ships’ availability at the request of military officials, who cited security concerns.
As The Post reported in May, Pentagon assessments conducted earlier in the war showed that U.S. forces have shouldered the brunt of defending Israel from Iranian ballistic missiles. The assessments found that American weapons, including the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and naval interceptors launched from the eastern Mediterranean, were used far more frequently than Israeli air defense weapons.
That’s interesting. I wonder if Trump will choose the U.S. or his pal Netanyahu?
Iran is not only winning the war, they are also attacking U.S. infrastructure, but Mad King Donald won’t admit it’s happening.
Politico: Trump blames Minnesota water hacks on Walz, while evidence points to Iran.
President Donald Trump on Friday blamed a spate of recent hacks impacting water utilities in Minnesota on Gov. Tim Walz — contradicting preliminary findings from U.S. and industry officials who suspect Iran is behind an expanding campaign of digital disruption.
“I blame it on Minnesota because they are grossly incompetent,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, adding that Walz is “corrupt” and “Iran has bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.” Asked later if he could rule out Iranian responsibility, Trump said, “ I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.”
The cat and two sparrows, by Marc Chagall, 1925
Trump’s dig at the Democratic-led state came just hours after the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency said they are responding to an unspecified number of cyberattacks at water and wastewater utilities in at least seven states. On Thursday, the government’s civilian cyber defense agency, CISA, warned of a “significant increase” in digital attacks on technology used broadly by U.S. water utilities.
While no U.S. agency has formally accused Iran of orchestrating the attacks, many federal, state and water industry officials suspect Tehran-linked cyber groups are responsible for the hacking campaign. CISA issued a report last week detailing a similar set of attacks it has tracked since April, which it linked to Iran.
Minnesota’s state IT agency disclosed this Tuesday that at least 30 community water systems in the state had been breached in what it described as a “coordinated attack,” but it did not name Iran as the perpetrator.
In a statement on X responding to Trump’s comments earlier in the day, Walz suggested Iranian hackers were targeting Minnesota and other states in retaliation for U.S. military strikes in Iran — and that therefore Trump was to blame.
“This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran,” Walz wrote.
I guess the Trump thinks Walz is also responsible the hacks in other states?
Dustin Volz and Ernesto Londoño at The New York Times: Scope of Hacks on U.S. Water Supply Widens as Evidence Points to Iran.
The scope of cyberattacks on U.S. water systems has grown to include at least seven states and may be far wider, officials and experts warned, as the authorities raced to safeguard the nation’s water supply against an assault that increasingly appeared to be the work of Iran.
While there were no indications that any water supply had been altered or made unsafe to drink, state and local officials throughout the country were on high alert for potential problems in vulnerable computers that are commonly used to monitor and adjust water quality, including chemical-treatment levels and water pressure. Minnesota first publicly reported the attacks, and now Michigan says its systems have also been targeted.
The attack has little precedent, experts said, but has long been the stuff of nightmares and sensationalized Hollywood thrillers: an apparent cyberattack by a foreign power during a time of war that could, at least in theory, jeopardize the health and safety of Americans.
Officials cautioned that they had not definitively determined that Iran was responsible for the attack and that the investigation was still preliminary. But they said Iran had stepped up cyberattacks since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against the country five months ago, and had previously targeted similar water systems and other critical infrastructure in the U.S. There seemed no financial motive, making a criminal attack less likely.
On Trump’s accusations:
Despite growing concerns, President Trump sought to downplay the matter on Friday by blaming Minnesota — which was early to spot and report the recent surge in malicious hacking activity, helping to prompt other states to probe their own water systems — for suffering intrusions his own intelligence agencies believe were highly likely carried out by Iran, officials familiar with the assessment said.
Bouquet and a cat, by Suzanne Valadon
“I think Minnesota is behind it,” Mr. Trump said on Friday in response to a reporter’s question about Iran’s possible involvement, which The New York Times earlier reported. “I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.” [….]
After Mr. Trump’s remarks, federal officials privately said Iran remains the top suspect but that the assessment remained preliminary and had not yet established definitive forensic proof. That is not unusual in complex cyber-investigations, which can often take months to reach authoritative conclusions, if at all.
Nate George, the mayor of Braham, a small city north of Minneapolis that was among those affected by the cyberattack, said federal and local officials had little doubt about the likely culprit.
“We’re getting bits and pieces of information from the state of Minnesota and the F.B.I.,” he said in an interview on Friday afternoon. “They are pretty sure it’s Iranian actors” but are reluctant to say so publicly, he added. A memo sent by an industry group that shares cyberthreat information among water utilities that was obtained by Wired magazine said the attacks aligned with hacking activity being conducted by Iran-affiliated actors.
Trump is a complete moron and we’re stuck with him for now.
In U.S. news, Trump has signaled he would rather pay off his January 6th goons and keep his tax free deal with the IRS than get Senate approval for his Attorney General pick, Todd Blanche.
Politico: Trump puts his ‘anti-weaponization fund’ back on the table.
President Donald Trump said early Saturday he would push to get the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” codified into law if the Senate does not confirm his attorney general pick, Todd Blanche.
The fund has emerged as a key issue stalling Blanche’s confirmation, with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who are both departing the Senate after the midterms, withholding their support in the Senate Judiciary Committee unless the White House commits to shelving the proposal in writing.
Now, Trump says the fund is back on the table, and maybe he’ll even keep Blanche on in an acting capacity if he can’t get his way in Congress next week.
“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill, which takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the Crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma!) Administration (I get nothing, although I was treated horribly!), PASSED,” he wrote.
“Todd Blanche was a voice of reason!” Trump wrote. “It will immediately be back on the table, and I will get it done.”
The missive comes a day after Trump reluctantly declared the fund “dead” in a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, making Saturday’s post a notable reversal in tactics as he moves from a negotiating posture to digging his heels in.
Politico: Blanche vote is rescheduled, but there’s no deal.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
Orange cat sleeping, Pierre Bonnard
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact….
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
Kathleen Culliton at Raw Story has a slightly more colorful story on the Blanche controversy: Trump tantrum over ‘Jan 6th slush fund’ spurs uproar: ‘This is outrageous.
Trump’s Truth Social claim — that he no longer considers his controversial $1.8 billion fund to be “dead,” as he asserted at Camp David just the day before — swiftly drew criticism on Saturday morning.
” Trump doesn’t have the votes for this,” Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis. “Republican senators have already voted against the fund, and even more against paying rioters who beat police officers who Trump pardoned.”
The president did not address the problem of support in his early morning post, he simply asserted he would “push hard” to get the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” passed.
His assertion came after a vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was delayed by two Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, both of whom demanded written proof that the fund was dead.
“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche,” Trump wrote, “then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard to get the Anti-Weaponization Bill.” [….]
The group Republicans Against Trump slammed Trump’s message as being poorly timed considering mounting conservative fears the could soon lose the majority in the Senate.
“Great messaging ahead of the midterms,” the group quipped.
Personally, I think Trump’s real concern is for the IRS deal that is attached to the slush fund. It would prevent him and anyone in his extended family on into the future from every having their taxes audited.
One more outrageous story out of the Senate and House.
Matthew Chapman at Raw Story: MAGA senator can’t say if son-in-law accused of abusing wife should be tossed off ballot.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) was confronted about the brutal domestic violence allegations against his son-in-law, Rep. Max Miller — but couldn’t say whether they’re disqualifying.
His daughter, Emily Moreno, has accused Max Miller, her ex-husband, of abuse in court filings and police records, alleging he burned her with hot water, held a gun to her head, shoved her hard enough to cause injury, and broke their daughter’s collarbone. Her lawyers filed for a new restraining order against Miller this week, also alleging he harassed her attorneys and physically placed his hands on one of them.
Curiosity, by Horatio Henry Couldery, 1893
Miller is also facing a lawsuit alleging he broke the terms of his own hush deal, and this week, Emily Moreno filed a restraining order against him, revealing even more allegations.
Asked directly whether Republicans should yank Miller off the November ballot, Moreno gave a two-word non-answer, according to NOTUS.
“I don’t know,” Moreno said.
Miller, for his part, continues to deny all allegations and filed a lawsuit against Emily Moreno for defamation. He also made a counter-charge of domestic violence against her, but dropped that case this week amid growing backlash.
Republican leadership has largely remained silent on the matter, but faces growing pressure to try to remove Miller from the ballot, as the deadline to do so is rapidly approaching and his suburban Cleveland congressional district might be vulnerable with him continuing to run.
Morena is the Republican who swore at Dr. Antony Fauci in a Congressional hearing this week.
Politico: ‘Platner on steroids’: Max Miller abuse claims have Republicans silently sweating.
Public scrutiny of domestic abuse allegations against Rep. Max Miller is quickly mounting. His Republican colleagues have been slow to respond.
New reporting on government documents claiming that Miller poured hot water on his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, held a gun to her head and broke their young daughter’s collarbone has brought a wave of new attention to the Ohio lawmaker’s long-running public marital dispute. This week, Moreno’s lawyer filed for a restraining order against Miller, accusing him of harassing his ex-wife’s counsel.
The surge of attention presents a dilemma for Republicans: speak out against their colleague who is running in a competitive race or face accusations of hypocrisy after hammering multiple similarly scandal-plagued Democrats — including Graham Platner, who recently ended his Maine Senate campaign, and Eric Swalwell, who resigned his House seat in April.
Miller, like Platner and Swalwell, denies any wrongdoing. And so far, those fellow Republicans have been largely silent. A host of prominent GOP leaders nationally and in Ohio either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries from POLITICO.
Keeping quiet and hoping for the best could be a risky strategy. Nonpartisan handicappers at the Cook Political Report have already upped Democrats’ chances to take the Cleveland-area seat, and House Democratic campaign brass is bullish about Miller’s opponent, ironworker Brian Poindexter, who has for months raised the abuse claims against the incumbent.
“These are serious allegations and deserve the full attention of law enforcement,” Poindexter said in a statement this week. “If all the allegations against Congressman Miller prove to be true, Max Miller should be in jail, not worried about retaining a seat in Congress.
That’s it for me today. What’s on your mind?
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Posted: February 4, 2026 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: just because | Tags: Ashley Parker, Children in Minneapolis, Christopher Columbus statues, Donald Trump, Fulton County 2020 election, ICE, ICE and elections, Jay Inlee, Jeff Bezos, Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Washington Post, Tom Homan, Trump attempts to steal state elections, Trump's White House ballroom |
Good Afternoon!!
As usual, there is just too much news for anyone to deal with. I’m going to focus on the death of a great newspaper, the torture of an American city, the efforts of a vain and ignorant “president” to grab power and steal elections, and his obsession with building monstrosities. Here’s what’s happening.
The Death of The Washington Post
Benjamin Mullin, Katie Robertson and Erik Wemple at The New York Times: Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists.
The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage.
The company is laying off about 30 percent of all its employees, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. That includes people on the business side and more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom, the people said.
The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet. The paper expanded during the first several years of his ownership, but the company has sputtered more recently.
Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said on a call Wednesday morning with newsroom employees that the company had lost too much money for too long and had not been meeting readers’ needs. He said that all sections would be affected in some way, and that the result would be a publication focused even more on national news and politics, as well as business and health, and far less on other areas.
“If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape,” Mr. Murray said. “And after some years when, candidly, The Post has had struggles.”
Mr. Murray further explained the rationale in an email, saying The Post was “too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product” and that online search traffic, partly because of the rise of generative A.I., had fallen by nearly half in the last three years. He added that The Post’s “daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years.”
“Even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience,” he said.
The Post’s sports section will close, though some of its reporters will stay on and move to the features department to cover the culture of sports. The Post’s metro section will shrink, and the books section will close, as will the “Post Reports” daily news podcast.
Mr. Murray told the staff that while The Post’s international coverage also would be reduced, reporters would remain in nearly a dozen locations. Reporters and editors in the Middle East were laid off, as well as in India and Australia.
At The Atlantic, former Post reporter Ashley Parker writes (gift link): The Murder of The Washington Post. Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special. The Post has survived for nearly 150 years, evolving from a hometown family newspaper into an indispensable national institution, and a pillar of the democratic system. But if Bezos and Lewis continue down their present path, it may not survive much longer.
Over recent years, they’ve repeatedly cut the newsroom—killing its Sunday magazine, reducing the staff by several hundred, nearly halving the Metro desk—without acknowledging the poor business decisions that led to this moment or providing a clear vision for the future. This morning, executive editor Matt Murray and HR chief Wayne Connell told the newsroom staff in an early-morning virtual meeting that it was closing the Sports department and Books section, ending its signature podcast, and dramatically gutting the International and Metro departments, in addition to staggering cuts across all teams. Post leadership—which did not even have the courage to address their staff in person—then left everyone to wait for an email letting them know whether or not they had a job. (Lewis, who has already earned a reputation for showing up late to work when he showed up at all, did not join the Zoom.)
The Post may yet rise, but this will be their enduring legacy.
Ashley Parker
What’s happening to the Post is a public tragedy, but for me, it is also very personal. When my parents’ basement recently flooded, amid the waterlogged boxes of old photos and vinyl records, we found my younger sister’s baby book. There, on a page reserved for memories from the month she was born—news about visits from doting grandparents, perhaps, or descriptions of her mewling gurgles—my dad had filled the lines with news from our hometown paper, The Washington Post.
“Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).” “Irangate.” “The Bork nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.” “The NFL went on strike.” “Wall Street had the worst day since 1929!!!” “The U.S. was having a garbage crisis, i.e.; running out of disposal sites, esp. in the northeast.” (To be fair, he worked in waste management. But also … welcome to the world, Baby Girl!)
Which is to say: The Washington Post feels like a part of my family’s DNA, imprinted on our earliest memories, memorialized among clippings of our hair and other, more traditional, recollections (first diaper blowout, first word)….
The Post was also how I fell in love with journalism. Every newspaper lover has the section they read first—Sports, Comics, Metro—and mine was Style. The section, which debuted in 1969, was like nothing that had come before it, or what has come since: a newspaper that gave its writers the time and space and freedom and voice to produce narrative long-form journalism that was must-read, holding its own against the New Journalism magazine greats of the era. And for me, it was a chance to commune with giants—to read people such as Libby Copeland, Robin Givhan, Paul Hendrickson, Sally Quinn, David Von Drehle, Gene Weingarten, Marjorie Williams—and puzzle over how they’d done it.
Then, in 2017, I arrived at the Post as a reporter to cover the Trump White House, and I stayed for eight magical years. I had planned to stay forever. So what is happening at the Post right now—what has been happening there for a while—is personal. But it is also so much larger than me or any single person.
The least cynical explanation is that Bezos simply isn’t paying attention. Maybe—like so many of us initially—he was charmed by Lewis’s British accent and studied loucheness that mask an emperor whose bespoke threads are no clothes at all. Or maybe, as many of us who deeply love the Post fear, the decimation is the plan.
Bezos is killing the Post. I’m not sure if he just wants it to die or he wants it to become a propaganda arm of the Trump adminisration.
The Agony of Minneapolis
Corina Knoll at The New York Times (gift link): A Winter of Anguish for Minneapolis Children.
The morning her father called to say that he had been detained on a snowy Minneapolis road, Xochitl Soberanes was seized by an urgent and inescapable feeling. At 16 years old and the eldest of four, she would suddenly have to become the backbone of the family.
Their mother had died of pneumonia less than a year ago, so it was Xochitl who convinced her 4-year-old brother that their father was working late as they packed up belongings to go stay with a nearby aunt. That January night, a cousin found all four siblings curled up asleep in the same queen bed — cradled by Xochitl, who lay on the edge.
“We just wanted to be close together,” she said.
Xochitl cut her younger siblings’ breakfast into bite-size pieces.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
For weeks, the Minneapolis area has been a landscape of intense turmoil as federal immigration agents face off against furious citizens. But there is a quieter upheaval taking place behind closed doors as the city’s youngest residents attempt to grasp the altering of their neighborhoods, their schools, their sense of security.
Regardless of what they might understand about the politics embedded in their surroundings, some things are clear: The adults in their lives are weary and overwhelmed. Neighbors are scared to leave the house. Bomb threats have been called in to schools. Events have been canceled. Friends are missing from classrooms. And parents have been taken.
“I was just thinking, ‘What are we going to do without him?’” Xochitl said about the day her father, Victor, did not come home. She began to insist to her aunt that she could finish her final exams and be available to help with her siblings. Within a week, her friend, a U.S. citizen, was also detained and later released.“It’s like living in fear all the time,” Xochitl said.
It is a sentiment that many children in the area speak of — this fear that now feels innate and will continue to linger in ways they cannot yet comprehend. They live in a world where a barrage of honks and whistles signal that immigration agents are in their midst, and that something bad could happen soon.
It is not unusual for them to see agents dressed in riot gear and carrying rifles stationed on their streets. And those who have found themselves swept up unwillingly into altercations have been left to endure the aftereffects.
Use the gift link to read more.
The New York Times: Border Czar Says He Is Pulling 700 Immigration Agents Out of Minneapolis.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said on Wednesday that the federal government would immediately withdraw 700 law enforcement officers from Minneapolis, scaling down the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.
Tom Homan
The change comes after the Trump administration sent thousands of federal officers and agents to Minnesota, a deployment that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said was the agency’s “largest operation to date.” About 2,000 officers and agents would be left in the state, Mr. Homan said.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said on Wednesday that the federal government would immediately withdraw 700 law enforcement officers from Minneapolis, scaling down the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the area.
The change comes after the Trump administration sent thousands of federal officers and agents to Minnesota, a deployment that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said was the agency’s “largest operation to date.” About 2,000 officers and agents would be left in the state, Mr. Homan said.
“This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement,” he added.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, said in a statement that the reduction in officers was “a step in the right direction” but that 2,000 federal officers in the region was still “not de-escalation.”
“My message to the White House has been consistent — Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our businesses and residents. It needs to end immediately,” he said, referring to the name of the federal crackdown in the city.
Mr. Homan also emphasized that immigration officers would focus on more targeted enforcement operations that prioritize arresting criminals who pose public safety threats. Last week, Mr. Homan said that was “the way we’ve always done it,” but that “we got away from it a little bit.”
Still, he said that any immigrants residing in the country illegally would not be exempt from enforcement operations.
“If you are in the country illegally, you are not off the table,” Mr. Homan said.
Again, we’ll see. I’m not holding my breath.
Stealing Elections
Max Rego at The Hill: Trump doubles down on suggesting federal government ‘get involved’ in state elections.
President Trump reiterated his support for nationalizing elections Tuesday, despite backlash from both sides of the aisle on the proposal.
“I want to see elections be honest, and if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after signing legislation to end a partial government shutdown, with Republican lawmakers surrounding him.
“Because if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” the president continued. “I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do ’em anyway.”
He added, “But when you see some of these states, about how horribly they run their elections, what a disgrace it is, I think the federal government [should get involved].”
Trump initially called for transferring control of elections from certain states to the federal government during an interview Monday with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who departed the bureau last month and returned to hosting his podcast.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places,’” Trump said. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, the president referenced Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta — all Democratic-run cities — as places where “horrible corruption on elections” is occurring.
Read more at The Hill.
Nick Corasaniti at The New York Times: Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections Adds to State Officials’ Alarm.
President Trump’s declaration that he wants to “nationalize” voting in the United States arrives at a perilous moment for the relationship between the federal government and top election officials across the country.
While the executive branch has no explicit authority over elections, generations of secretaries of state have relied on the intelligence gathering and cybersecurity defenses, among other assistance, that only the federal government can provide.
But as Mr. Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state election officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms. Some see what was once a crucial partnership as frayed beyond repair.
They point to Mr. Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, his continued false claims that the contest was rigged, the presence of election deniers in influential government positions and his administration’s attempts to dig up evidence of widespread voter fraud that year, even though none have ever been found.
The worry, these election officials say, is that Mr. Trump and his allies might try to interfere in or cast doubt on this year’s midterm elections. The president is urgently trying to defend the Republican majorities in Congress, and the political environment has appeared to grow less friendly to his party.
Jay Inslee
Jay Inslee at Meidas+: Don’t Let ICE Freeze Voting.
Of all the threats we face, the threat that Donald Trump will use ICE and Border {atrol agents to suppress the vote calls for a response by the Senate in the pending budget bill. By word and deed, Trump has shown an intent to do all he can to subvert a free and fair election this November. He must be stopped.
Who would bet $5 that Donald Trump, the man who staged an attempted coup and urged a Governor to “find” 11,000 votes, is not going to interfere with the ability of Americans to cast their votes this November? Who thinks that his “moral code,” the only thing that he says restricts him, will prevent him from using his massive ICE private army from suppressing the vote in Democratic precincts? Who thinks Steve Bannon is kidding when he says Trump will use federal agents to screen voters?
Donald Trump represents the largest threat to free and fair voting in American history since Jim Crow. He has demonstrated time and again, his willingness to subvert our democratic norms. His recent extortion note to Minnesota and his seizure of Georgia ballots are clarion calls for action to stop him from using ICE to suppress the vote.
Think about the private voter suppression army he has entirely at his disposal, an organization purportedly in existence to deal with immigration, but which could be used for Trump’s best survival tool, the suppression of votes in Democratic precincts in competitive districts and states.
Unless something changes, what we have seen in Minneapolis is just the harbinger to the use of ICE and the Border Patrol as a massive and strategically planned voter suppression campaign, surrounding polling places with intimidating federal agents.
By separating the Homeland Security budget from the rest, the dedicated Senate Democrats now have a chance to put roadblocks in Trump’s path.
Read the rest at the link.
Nick Corasaniti and Richard Fausset at The New York Times: Fulton County in Georgia Challenges the F.B.I.’s Seizure of 2020 Ballots.
Fulton County in Georgia took legal action on Wednesday demanding that the federal government return ballots and other election materials from the 2020 presidential contest that the F.B.I. seized last week.
The motion was filed under seal in federal court in Georgia, according to Jessica Corbitt, a spokeswoman for Fulton County. The motion also seeks the unsealing of the affidavit that was filed in support of the search warrant that allowed F.B.I. agents to conduct an extraordinary search of the county’s election headquarters.
At a news conference on Wednesday morning, Robb Pitts, the chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, cast the legal action as a means of upholding the Constitution, as well as the rights of Fulton County voters.
“We will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections,” he said. “Our Constitution itself is at stake in this fight.”
The move follows a chaotic week in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta and is Georgia’s most populous county, after F.B.I. agents conducted an extraordinary search and took away pallets of ballots and other materials.
Local officials were particularly alarmed and confused by the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, whose agency’s involvement in elections traditionally pertains only to foreign influence. The day after the search, she met with some of the agents who had participated and called Mr. Trump on her cellphone, The New York Times reported on Monday. After initially not picking up, he called back and spoke to them on speakerphone, asking them questions and praising and thanking them, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting.
Destroying the Culture of Washington, DC
The Washington Post: Trump plans to install Christopher Columbus statue outside White House.
President Donald Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds, according to three people with knowledge of the pending move,in his latest effort to remake the presidential campus and celebrate the famed and controversial explorer.
In 2020, demonstrators targeted monuments deemed symbols of racism, colonialism, and oppression.
The statue is set to be located on the south side of the grounds, by E Street and north of the Ellipse, two of the people said, although they cautioned that plans could change. The three people spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak on private discussions. The piece is a reconstruction of a statue unveiled in Baltimore by then-President Ronald Reagan and dumped in the city’s harbor by protestersin 2020 as a racial reckoning swept the country.
A group of Italian American businessmen and politicians, working with local sculptors, obtained the destroyed pieces and rebuilt the statue with financial support from local charities and federal grant funding.
Bill Martin, an Italian American businessman who helped recover the remnants of the original sculpture and organize a campaign to rebuild it, said the statue is expected to be transferred from a warehouse on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to the Trump administration in coming weeks.
The White House declined to comment on its plans but praised the 15th-century explorer.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.
The Independent: Trump reveals latest rendering of what he calls: ‘the much anticipated White House Ballroom.’
President Donald Trump shared a new rendering showing his vision for a new White House ballroom replacing the now-demolished East Wing.
Trump celebrated his $400 million project on social media, posting that it will be the “Greatest of its kind ever built!!”
A rendering of President Donald Trump’s ‘New East Wing’ at the White House, including his nearly 90,000 square foot ballroom (The White House)
He wrote on Truth Social Tuesday that the new building “replaces the very small, dilapidated, and rebuilt many times, East Wing, with a magnificent New East Wing.” He also said that the new structure will be taller than the White House’s Executive Mansion.
“If you notice, the North Wall is a replica of the North Facade of the White House,” he wrote in the post.
The new rendering is generally similar to previous drawings of the upcoming ballroom shared by Trump.
The ballroom is projected to be approximately 90,000 square feet, and the attached “New East Wing” complex will include a new office for the First Lady, a new movie theater, and a commercial kitchen.
Trump’s decision to demolish the historic East Wing for a ritzy ballroom has been met with severe criticism, particularly from historic preservationists.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration in December in an effort to force the president to submit his plans for the ballroom to several review bodies, including Congress and the public. The lawsuit asked a court to pause his construction project until those demands are met.
Construction at the site has not been ordered to stop and Trump’s Department of Justice is moving to try to ensure that doesn’t change.
A DOJ filing on Monday asked a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit to stay any injunction into the construction over alleged “national security” concerns, ABC News reports.
That’s all I have for today. I hope you find something of interest here.
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Posted: January 28, 2026 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: just because | Tags: Alex Pretti, Border Patrol, Cory Lewandowski, Donald Trump, Fátima Lucas Henrique, Greg Bovino, ICE, Keyli Camila Espin Vaca, Kristi Noam, Maine, Mayra Vaca Latacunga, Minnesota, Renee Good, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan |
Good Afternoon!!
Alex Pretti
I’m going to focus on the immigration fight today. So much is happening in Minnesota and now in Maine. The murder of Alex Pretti has raised people’s consciousness in the public and even in Congress. The protests are working. I’m not kidding myself that Trump’s attempts to calm the federal government rhetoric are really sincere, but he seems to feel he needs to fake some semblance of compassion if only for a short time.
Here’s the latest on Minnesota:
It turns out that Alex Pretti was known to federal agents before they murdered him. He had had a confrontation with them a week before he was murdered. CNN: Alex Pretti broke rib in confrontation with federal agents a week before death, sources say.
Federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis, sources told CNN – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was shot to death on Saturday.
It is unclear how Pretti first came to the attention of federal authorities, but sources told CNN that about a week before his death, he suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals….
A memo sent earlier this month to agents temporarily assigned to the city asked them to “capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form,” according to correspondence reviewed by CNN.
Pretti’s previous encounter is another reflection of the aggressive approach federal agents are taking with observers and protesters – a philosophy underscored by the request for agents to collect information about protesters whose activities are broadly protected by the First Amendment.
DHS has repeatedly warned of threats against federal law enforcement officers during immigration enforcement operations—and criticized protesters who they argue are impeding those operations. On Tuesday, the department also publicized an online tip form to share information about people allegedly harassing ICE officers….
The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.
Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” said the source.
Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” Yet he went back out to observe ICE agents and help immigrants.
We still don’t know the names of the two agents who shot Pretti, but Josh Fiallo of The Daily Beast writes: Federal Agents Who Killed ICU Nurse Alex Pretti Placed on Paid Leave.
The two Border Patrol agents who subdued, punched, and fatally shot Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti have been placed on administrative leave, according to multiple reports.
The paid leave will only last three days, an anonymous official told MS NOW. An unnamed Homeland Security official claimed to The New York Times that the placement was “standard protocol.”
MS Now reported that those involved in the brutal killing will return to “desk duty” after three days, not field work. The report added that the two agents who opened fire at Pretti received “mental health support” after killing the 37-year-old in Minneapolis on Saturday morning.
Now Trump is pretending to “de-escalate.” I don’t buy it for one minute. It won’t last.
The New York Times (gift link): Nervous Allies and Fox News: How Trump Realized He Had a Big Problem in Minneapolis.
The crisis in Minneapolis was not dying down.
The government’s account of the killing on Saturday of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, was unraveling. Stephen Miller, the mastermind of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, had called Mr. Pretti a “terrorist” and told other administration officials, including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, to call him an “assassin.”
But videos clearly contradicted that story. Mr. Pretti was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. Protests and a palpable sense of outrage were growing across the country. Even the president’s allies were alarmed. Many of them wanted to see changes on the ground, and several made a recommendation directly in calls to the president: Send Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to Minneapolis.
Early Monday, Brian Kilmeade, the co-host of “Fox & Friends,” of which Mr. Trump is a loyal viewer, repeated the message three times in two hours.
Twenty minutes later, the president announced on social media that he was sending Mr. Homan to Minneapolis, a tacit acknowledgment that he was losing control of a situation that posed one of the most serious political threats of his second administration.
Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official who had been directing on-the-ground operations in Minneapolis, and who was known for aggressive tactics, was out. “Bovino is pretty good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of guy,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “Maybe it wasn’t good here.”
And while there is no sign that Mr. Trump is repudiating the tactics used by the federal agents in Minnesota or the core tenets of his immigration policies, the moment was a rare example of the president moving to mitigate the harsh optics associated with a crackdown his administration has otherwise celebrated.
A bit more:
Mr. Trump has honed a survival tactic over many years facing criticism in the public eye: He creates diversions to barrel from one news cycle into the next. But in other moments, when he has faced particularly intense — and politically damaging — public outcry, he has taken stock of news coverage and decided to take a different tack, often temporarily.
Mr. Pretti’s killing and its aftermath created one of those moments. And Mr. Trump seemed to realize in this case that his message, at least, had to change. Shortly after he made the announcement about Mr. Homan, Mr. Trump and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, softened their tone about the shooting and distanced themselves from the incendiary comments made by Mr. Miller, Mr. Bovino and Ms. Noem. Mr. Trump also said he spoke with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, whom he had castigated only days before.
And as the White House walks back some of its harshest statements, a blame game of sorts has erupted, with Mr. Miller suggesting immigration authorities in Minneapolis may not have been following protocol.
In a statement, Mr. Miller said the White House had advised Customs and Border Protection officials to create a “physical barrier” between “arrest teams” and “disrupters.”
“We are evaluating why the C.B.P. team may not have been following that protocol,” said Mr. Miller, who just days earlier had called Mr. Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
It remains to be seen if the rhetorical shift will tamp down the outcry or if there is any will inside the Trump administration to change tactics on the ground. Mr. Homan, a longtime ICE official, is seen among Mr. Trump’s allies as someone who could bring a measure of calm to the chaos in Minnesota, particularly because he has called for targeted arrests instead of sweeping raids. But he is fully on board with Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign; in 2018, he, along with two senior officials, recommended a policy that eventually led to families being separated at the southern border.
Homan was the architect of the family separation policy in Trump’s first term. He’s also on video accepting a $50,000 bribe. I’m not holding my breath expecting him to be a peacemaker.
Use the gift link to read the rest.
Greg Sargent at The New Republic: Donald Trump Is Frightened.
The media verdict is in: President Trump has “softened” his stance on his paramilitary war on Minneapolis. He struck a “cooperative tone” in a call with Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz. The administration hopes to “shift its strategy” on its ICE raids. Trump is executing a “pivot” and is attempting to “deescalate.”
You get the idea: Trump is chastened by the backlash to the ICE murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. So he’s now recalibrating the government’s approach in an effort to appear to dial down the violent social conflict that’s been unleashed.
Tom Homan and Kristy Noam
So let’s stipulate some threshold questions: Will any of this change how ICE is actually conducting its operations in American cities that fundamentally do not want ICE’s presence among their populations? Is Trump reversing the underlying reality of these operations—that they have become akin to military occupations of enemy territory within the American nation? Will there be serious governmental efforts to investigate those shootings, mete out accountability for them, and address what went wrong?
The answers to those questions sure look like “no,” “no,” and “no.” To wit, The Wall Street Journal reports that some Trump aides have realized that all this has become a “political liability,” so they’re in discussions over “how to continue deportations without clashing with protesters.” They’re also planning new steps to “improve ICE’s image.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Trump met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for two hours amid “concern” about the shootings. But Noem’s job is safe. Trump has replaced the public face of the Minneapolis occupation, removing Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who swaggers around these scenes of occupation like a conquering general, with border czar Tom Homan, who swaggers around on Fox News like a conquering general.
Note the problem here. Trump does apparently want to minimize clashes between government security services and protesters. But he doesn’t appear to want those heavily armed government militias to stop doing the things that are causing those clashes in the first place.
What’s really going on here is this: Trump is looking to defuse anger among congressional Democrats for purposes that don’t portend a meaningful shift. An administration official gave away the game to Punchbowl News, admitting that these “de-escalatory measures” are about placating Senate Democrats so they don’t seize this moment to demand restrictions on ICE as part of any government funding package.
I don’t think that is going to work. Democrats in the Senate at least seem to be getting the message that the majority of the public doesn’t like what’s happening.
Meanwhile, Kristy Noem and Stephen Miller are at each others’ throats. The Daily Beast via Yahoo News: ICE Barbie Throws Stephen Miller Under the Bus to Save Her Job.
ICE Barbie has passed the blame to Stephen Miller after she received calls to be fired in response to immigration officials killing another U.S. citizen, multiple sources told Axios.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told one source who relayed her comments to Axios.
In an earlier copy of the Axios report, others blamed Miller for divisive comments about slain anti-ICE protestor Alex Pretti wanting to “massacre law enforcement,” which were made by Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino.
Miller denied the blame placed upon him for the “massacre” statement, instead deflecting the fault to information provided by Customs and Border Protection, which is under Noem’s Department of Homeland Security.
“Any early comments made were based on information sent to the White House through CBP,” he told the outlet.
On the other hand, Tom Homan and Noem apparently despise each other, so Homan taking over in Minnesota is not good for her. Tom Lachem at The Daily Beast: Insiders Say Trump Move Is a Major ‘Disaster’ for ICE Barbie.
President Trump’s shakeup in Minnesota immigration operations in the wake of two fatal shootings is “a disaster” for Kristi Noem, sources have told the Daily Beast.
Kristy Noam and Cory Lewandowski
Trump, 79, announced Monday that border czar Tom Homan, 64, will now run the embattled Minnesota operation and report directly to him. He did so amid rising public anger over the brutal and deadly manner in which operations have been carried out on Noem’s watch under her Border Patrol “commander-at-large” Gregory Bovino, who has been shown the door by the president.
For months, senior officials have griped that Homeland Security Secretary Noem, 54, and her chief adviser and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52, built a parallel power structure around Bovino, 55. This, they say, marginalized ICE and cut Homan out of key calls as Noem and Homan both fought to lead Trump’s mass deportation drive.
With Homan now tapped to take the reins in Minnesota, administration insiders say it doesn’t bode well for Noem’s job prospects. “Homan taking control is a disaster for Noem,” one Department of Homeland Security source said, adding that Homan was likely to be everything that the publicity-obsessed Noem and Bovino were not.
Meanwhile, ICE is ramping up it’s operation in Maine.
The Boston Globe: Maine ICE operation leads to more than 200 arrests in five days, and some are ‘worst of worst,’ DHS says.
As a snowstorm blanketed the region, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday that federal agents have so far arrested more than 200 people in the
Trump administration’s ongoing immigration operation in Maine.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dubbed its operation “Catch of the Day,” the latest in the administration’s immigration crackdowns across the country.
But the operation here has drawn strong opposition, including crowds of hundreds of protestors at demonstrations from Portland to Lewiston over the past several days, as political leaders sharpened their attacks on Trump following the shooting death of a Minnesota protester, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, by federal agents Saturday.
On Monday, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project of Maine, the largest organization of its kind in the state, called for ICE to stop its operation, while also sending condolences to their counterparts in Minneapolis.
“There are not adequate words to describe how difficult the past week has been,” ILAP’s Executive Director Sue Roche said.“We are seeing mostly people in lawful immigration processes with no criminal records being arrested. Many have been racially profiled and abducted from their cars off the street, and some have been targeted at home. ICE is stalking grocery stores and schools. The lack of due process or humanity in this enforcement operation is appalling.”
The group added that it is leading a legal effort to file emergency habeas petitions and seek bond hearings “to try to secure the freedom of Maine residents swept up in the ICE operation.” As of Monday, ILAP said, it has received requests for emergency legal help from more than 60 people arrested in the operation, and federal judges have issued at least eight emergency orders blocking ICE from transferring individuals out of the area.
Two horror stories from Maine:
The Boston Globe: ‘I want my mom’: Kindergartner left without her mother for several days as ICE detains parents in Maine.
BIDDEFORD, Maine — Five-year-old Keyli Camila Espin Vaca expected her mother to come pick her up after school on Friday, just as she always did.
But her mother never came.
Mayra Vaca Latacunga, 25, had dropped Camila off at the Biddeford Primary School that morning, then went to get groceries. Soon after, ICE agents stopped her car and requested her documentation, her brother said. She didn’t have it. The agents handcuffed her and transferred her to Massachusetts.
Camila sat for a photo with her aunt and uncle, after Camila’s mother was detained by ICE in Biddeford, Maine.Finn Gomez for the Boston Globe
Vaca Latacunga, a single mother from Ecuador, was Camila’s sole caretaker. On Friday, school officials escorted the kindergartner to her Uncle Javier’s house. She stayed there for several days, pleading for her mom.
“Quiero mi mamá, tío,” Camila said in Spanish on Sunday. “Yo quiero estar con mi mamá.”
What do you think? What else is on your mind?
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Posted: January 24, 2026 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: just because | Tags: DHS, Donald Trump, Federal agents kill man in Minneapolis, ICE, ICE in Maine, ICE kidnapping children, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Renee Good |
Good Afternoon!!
Breaking news: There’s been another fatal shooting by Federal agents in Minneapolis.
AP: Man shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal immigration officers shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
The details surrounding the shooting weren’t immediately clear, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the person was shot amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A hospital record obtained by The Associated Press that a 51-year-old man who was shot by immigration officers had died.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the AP in a text messages that the person had a firearm with two magazines and that the situation was “evolving.” DHS also distributed a photo of a handgun they said was on the person who was shot.
The shooting happened amid widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was killed when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle. Saturday’s shooting unfolded just over a mile away from where Good was shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted, “ICE out now,” referring to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
The Guardian is posting live updates: Minneapolis shooting live: officials give update after man shot by federal officers has died.
Some bullshit from DHS:
Man shot dead was pronounced dead at the scene, DHS says
The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE and Border Patrol, has just said that the man shot dead by federal immigration enforcement earlier this morning was pronounced dead at the scene.
The federal agency said an agent fired “defensive shots”. It is now characterizing protesters as “rioters”, saying there are about 200 people on the scene in south Minneapolis trying to “obstruct and assault law enforcement”….
In a statement sent to the Guardian, assistant secretary of homeland security Tricia McLaughlin said that at 9.05am local time, “as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis” against a person they said was in the country illegally, who she said was “wanted for violent assault”, “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”
McLaughlin said that “the officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted” and that “more details on the armed struggle are forthcoming.”
“Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots” she said, adding: “Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject but was pronounced dead at the scene.”
She added that the man also had “2 magazines and no ID”.
Minneapolis officials plead for calm, tell federal enforcement to leave
The police chief of Minneapolis, Brian O’Hara, has kicked off a press conference by acknowledging that people are angry about the latest fatal shooting by federal law enforcement of a man in the city.
He called on federal personnel in the city to conduct themselves with discipline and humanity.
Then he said that members of the public gathered to protest at the scene of the shooting in south Minneapolis were taking part in an “unlawful assembly”.
“There is a lot of anger and questions around what has happened,” O’Hara said.
And he called for calm and begged the public not to damage the city.
A couple more updates:
Man shot dead was 37-year-old US citizen, Minneapolis police chief says
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara has said the city authorities know the identity of the man killed by federal officers this morning, but the name is not being released at this time.
He described the person shot dead as a white man, a resident of the city and a US citizen. O’Hara said the victim was 37 years old. Wire services had previously said the man was 51.
O’Hara said that the federal authorities have not provided any details about today’s incident to the police department and city authorities….
The Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said it was his understanding that multiple federal officers were involved in the incident this morning where a man was shot dead by the government personnel.
O’Hara said that the Minnesota authorities have put National Guard troops on stand by.
The scene where the shooting took place this morning in the south of the city appears to be calming down somewhat at this moment.
More new from Minnesota’s war zone:
The Washington Post: Thousands march in Minnesota and hundreds of businesses close to protest ICE.
MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people converged at a downtown park on Friday afternoon in the state’s biggest show of opposition yet to the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota, braving subzero temperatures and skipping work and school.
Hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities closed for the day of action, an effort organized by faith leaders and labor unions amid continuing tensions over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the state, including the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer earlier this month.
On Friday morning, about 100 clergy members were arrested at a peaceful sit-in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport protesting deportation flights. Labor leaders said more than 15,600 people had claimed tickets to the 2 p.m. march in Minneapolis — where the National Weather Service warned of minus-50 degree wind chill through Sunday morning.
Bundled in down coats, beanies and ski goggles, demonstrators chanted “What do we want? ICE out!” and held signs bearing slogans such as “No MN Nice for ICE” and “Leave Us Alone!” as they marched peacefully.
“This rally says it all. We’re fighting for truth and freedom,” said Mary Turner, a night-shift nurse in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and a union member who joined the march.
Residents opposed to ICE’s actions in Minnesota say federal agents have gone far beyond their mission of removing undocumented criminals since starting operations there two months ago, instead detaining U.S. citizens, pulling people from their cars, appearing to stop people on the basis of race, and using chemical irritants on people demonstrating against or monitoring their work.
More stories out of Minnesota: US immigration agents detain two-year-old Minnesota girl: ‘depravity beyond words.’
Federal immigration agents detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday and transported them to Texas, according to court records and the family’s lawyers.
The father, identified in court filings as Elvis Joel TE, and his daughter were stopped and detained by officers around 1pm when they were returning home from the store. By the evening, a federal judge had ordered the girl be released by 9.30pm. But federal officials instead put both of them on a plane heading to a Texas detention center.
Irina Vaynerman, one of the family’s lawyers, told the Guardian late Friday afternoon that immigration officials had since flown both of them back to Minnesota and released the two-year-old into the custody of her mother. The father remains detained in Minnesota, she said.
“The horror is truly unimaginable,” Vaynerman said. “The depravity of all of this is beyond words.”
Court records and the attorney’s accounts paint a harrowing picture of the toddler and father’s detention and the frantic efforts that followed to get her released from custody and reunited with her mother. The detention came two days after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota, in a case that has prompted international backlash and increased scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown in the region.
As the father and daughter were arriving home on Thursday, agents entered their backyard and driveway area, Kira Kelley, one of the family’s lawyers, wrote in a filing. The officers did not have a warrant, the attorney said. One agent then allegedly broke the glass window of the father’s car while the girl was inside.
The mother was by the door and stepped inside the house as the agents approached, Kelley wrote. The agents refused to allow the father to bring his daughter to the mother or other family members “waiting terrified inside the home”.
The two-year-old and her father were then placed in an immigration agent’s vehicle, which Kelley wrote did not have a car seat.
An update on the 5-year-old boy who was taken into custody with his father from MPR News: Witnesses say they begged ICE agents not to detain Minnesota 5-year-old after father’s arrest.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos to stay at his Columbia Heights home with family after being detained, observers said, despite people in the home, neighbors and school officials begging them to do so.
Those who saw the federal agents detain Liam Tuesday pushed back against claims this week by ICE and Vice President JD Vance that the child was abandoned by his family after the boy and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were detained on their way home from school.
Neighbors and Columbia Heights school officials say they pleaded with agents to let the child enter the home to join his mother or to stay with a neighbor or school leader after agents took the father into custody.
They also say that they did not see Conejo Arias flee the scene and leave his son in the cold as ICE officials maintain.
“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” said Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board who said she was at the scene and among those who offered to take Liam to his family or back to school.
“There was another adult who lived in the home that was there saying, ‘I will take the child. I will take the child.’ Somebody else was yelling … that I was there and said, ‘School is here. They can take the child. You don’t have to take them.’ And mom was there. She saw (through) the window, and dad was yelling, ‘Please do not open the door!’”
ICE officials say the father and son are together at an ICE residential family facility in Texas. Marc Prokosch, the lawyer representing Liam and his dad, said he had still not had direct contact with them.
ICE says the father is in the country illegally but Prokosch says that’s not the case.
The Ne
w York Times: Pepper-Sprayed While Pinned Down: A Searing Scene Provokes Outrage.
The deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minnesota to round up undocumented immigrants has yielded no shortage of indelible images in recent weeks.
There was the American citizen dragged out of his home in subzero weather in his underwear. And the detention of a 5-year-old boy wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a hat with floppy ears drew outrage from school officials.
But photos of a Border Patrol agent squirting pepper spray in the face of a man who was being pinned down by fellow officers on Wednesday searingly captured why the ongoing immigration operation has been met with furious resistance on the streets of Minneapolis.
Images of the episode drew millions of views online, made the front page of The Minnesota Star Tribune and elicited blistering condemnation from local officials.
“No one looking at this image can seriously claim this is about public safety,” said Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis. “It should alarm every American because if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.”
Gov. Tim Walz reposted the Star Tribune newspaper page on social media, along with a two-word comment: “Trump’s America.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to an email asking about the confrontation and whether the use of force depicted in photos and videos taken by bystanders that day had violated use of force policies.
The identity and whereabouts of the man who was sprayed was unclear on Friday.
I hope he wasn’t blinded.
The New York Times: F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns.
An F.B.I. agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis this month has resigned from the bureau, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The agent, Tracee Mergen, left her job as a supervisor in the F.B.I.’s Minneapolis field office after bureau leadership in Washington pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the immigration officer, Jonathan Ross, according to one of the people. Such inquiries are a common investigative step in similar shootings.
After the incident, several Trump administration officials described Ms. Good as a “domestic terrorist,” accusing her of trying to ram Mr. Ross with her vehicle. But a video analysis by The New York Times showed no indication that he had been run over.
Senior Justice Department officials have repeatedly said there are no plans to follow the path normally taken in such situations and pursue an investigation into whether Mr. Ross, who fired multiple shots at Ms. Good, had used excessive force.
Federal investigators have also refused to cooperate with state and local prosecutors in Minnesota, complicating any efforts they might take to open their own investigations into Mr. Ross.
Trump has now sent his private army into Maine and Mainers are fighting back.
The Boston Globe: Hundreds protest against ICE in Maine as fear grips immigrant communities: ‘It’s like a manufactured crisis.’
PORTLAND, Maine — Hundreds of protesters gathered here Friday in the largest demonstration since a federal immigration sweep began in Maine earlier this week, decrying the ongoing operation as cruel and illegal, while widespread fear continued to paralyze communities across the state, bringing some aspects of daily life to a halt.
On a frigid evening, a crowd nearing an estimated 1,000 people demonstrated at the rally in Portland’s Monument Square before marching through the streets. The energy from the crowd — bundled in hats, scarves, and gloves — was reverberating throughout the city.
“People are afraid,” Portland City Councilor Pious Ali told the Globe after leaving a mosque following a Friday prayer service in the city’s Bayside neighborhood. “There’s fear, there’s anxiety. There’s a feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next.”
Thirty-five miles north, the streets of Lewiston were quiet, with a few stragglers going in and out of businesses. Shop owners said they had never seen business this slow — and signs on their doors warned of ICE presence in the area. Several stores were completely shuttered due to the increase in ICE activity.
“We are temporarily closed until further notice. Sorry for the inconvenience,” a sign on one Somali-owned food market on Lisbon Street downtown read.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 100 in Maine this week as part of “Operation Catch of the Day,” the latest initiative that is part of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The operation started on Tuesday.
While other cities, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, have seen large-scale deployments of immigration agents swarming neighborhoods, the operations here seem to be quicker and more targeted: A few ICE vehicles will be spotted in a neighborhood. Immigrant advocates who are watching the agents will blow whistles and honk horns. But quickly, the agents move in to arrest one or two individuals. Within minutes, they are gone.
PBS: We’re being terrorized.’ What Mainers are seeing as ICE launches operation in the state.
Mainers are grappling with the increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their cities as the state becomes the latest target for President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
Details, though, about who is being targeted and in which communities are thin, state and local officials say.
“Why Maine? Why now?” Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday. “We’ve reached out, we’ve asked questions. We have no answers.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of its Maine operation, “Catch of the Day,” earlier this week, saying agents were focused on “the worst of the worst” in its arrests.
But Mills said in a news conference that the increased ICE presence in the state has been disruptive to schools and businesses, adding that it’s been difficult to know the operation’s full scope and justification because federal agencies aren’t providing those details.
I have no idea how long this post is, but I’m going to end there. We are truly in a crisis as a country. How long before Trump tries sending in military troops? Congress must act now! Democrats need to find their spines and stand up to Trump. This is really getting terrifying.
Take care everyone.
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Posted: January 17, 2026 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: just because | Tags: cat art, caturday, Delcy Rodrigues, Denmark, Donald Trump, Greenland, Maria Corina Machado, medieval cats, Minnesota, Nobel Peace Prize, Trump Tariffs, Venezuela, Walters Art Museum Baltimore |
Good Afternoon!!
I really struggled to get out of bed this morning. I’m usually an early riser although I don’t really get going until I’ve had some caffeine and psyched myself up a bit, but today my body resisted all my efforts to be dragged out of dreamland.
Like many Americans, I’m traumatized by what’s happening to our country and the cumulative effects of a decade of dealing with the monster from Mar-a-Lago. Everything is awful, and I’m not sure we can make it until the midterm elections.
So here’s a Caturday distraction from The Smithsonian Magazine. (The illustrations are from the article except for one from The Baltimore Sun.)
A cat left pawprints on this 500-year-old manuscript.
A Cat Left Paw Prints on the Pages of This Medieval Manuscript When the Ink Was Drying 500 Years Ago, by Christian Thorsberg
More than 500 years ago, after dedicating hours to the meticulous transcription of a crucial manuscript, a Flemish scribe set the parchment out to dry—only to later return and discover the page smeared, filled with inky paw prints.
Perhaps the world’s first known instance of a so-called “keyboard cat,” that manuscript is the inspiration for and centerpiece of an exhibition currently on display at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum. Running through late February, “Paws on Parchment” explores the roles of cats in the Middle Ages—and the myriad ways humans showed affection for their feline friends hundreds of years ago.
“Objects like [the manuscript] have a way of bridging across time, as it’s just so relatable for anyone who has ever had a cat,” Lynley Anne Herbert, the museum’s curator of rare books and manuscripts, tells Artnet’s Margaret Carrigan. “Many medieval people loved their cats just as much as we do.”
This affection is evidenced by the myriad illustrations of cats across cultures. After finding the Flemish manuscript, Herbert searched the museum archives and found no shortage of other feline mentions or depictions in Islamic, Asian and other European texts and images….
“Because they were so stealthy and they could see in the dark, they were seen as a little bit ethereal as creatures,” Herbert told WYPR’s Ashley Sterner in August. “This sort of translates to the idea that that’s kind of the way the devil works. If you’re sinful, he can stalk you, and eventually he’ll pounce on you.”
Paws on Parchment is the first of three animal-themed exhibitions planned at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore over the next two years. The Walters Museum
In the margins of manuscripts on display, seemingly silly illustrations of cats playing instruments detail this double-sidedness. “[They] reinforce the importance of an orderly society by showing the chaos possible if the natural order of things got turned on its head,” Herbert tells Artnet.
But at the same time, humans relied on their pets’ killer instincts much more than they do today. Rats, mice and other vermin in the Middle Ages were more likely to carry disease, and housecats were an important defense for families.
“Their ability to catch and kill mice and rats was actually critical to healthy living,” Herbert told WYPR. “Those critters would often get into food stores and contaminate them or eat them. They would also chew on valuable things like cloth and books. … Very early on, people realized that cats were excellent mousers. They were actually defined in encyclopedias of the era by their ability to catch mice.”
You can read more about medieval cats and the Walters Museum exhibit at the link.
In the news today:
Trump beclowned himself and embarrassed most Americans by accepting the Nobel Peace Prize medal that was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. I can’t imagine being so shameless that you would accept a medal won by someone else, but Trump apparently can’t feel shame. In fact, he kind of strong-armed Machado into giving it to him. She probably imagined he might then let her return to her country as president–after all, she did win the election. But Trump isn’t likely to do that. In fact later yesterday, he seemingly forgot her name.
Jack Rwvell at The Daily Beast: Trump, 79, Appears to Forget Name of Woman Who Just Gave Him Her Nobel Peace Prize.
President Donald Trump was handed the Nobel Peace Prize he has been whining about for so many months—only to seemingly forget the name of the woman who passed hers on to him just hours earlier.
In a media huddle outside the White House, the 79-year-old president was asked why he has yet to support María Corina Machado’s bid for Venezuelan leadership.
“I had a great meeting yesterday by a person who I have a lot of respect for and she has respect, obviously, for me and our country and she gave me her Nobel Prize,” Trump said, notably avoiding her name.
“I’ll tell you what, I got to know her, I never met her before, and I was very, very impressed. She’s a really—this is a fine woman.”
On social media, several commentators noted that it appeared as though Machado’s name had slipped the president’s mind.
Machado, leader of the opposition to Nicolás Maduro’s government, has been vying for power in the South American nation following the U.S. gunpoint abduction of Maduro at the start of the month.
However, despite claiming Maduro was operating a “cartel,” the Trump administration left his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, running the country, along with virtually all of his government….
While the coveted Nobel Prize was claimed by Trump, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has since reiterated its ruling that prizes cannot be exchanged and the transfer is ultimately meaningless.
I doubt if this will stop Trump’s incessant whining about how the Nobel committee cheated him out of his own Nobel Peace Prize.
Meanwhile, Trump is supporting Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodrigues as acting president.
AP: AP obtains documents showing Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez has been on DEA’s radar for years.
When President Donald Trump announced the audacious capture of Nicolás Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S., he portrayed the strongman’s vice president and longtime aide as America’s preferred partner to stabilize Venezuela amid a scourge of drugs, corruption and economic mayhem.
Left unspoken was the cloud of suspicion that long surrounded Delcy Rodríguez before she became acting president of the beleaguered nation earlier this month.
In fact, Rodríguez has been on the radar of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for years and in 2022 was even labeled a “priority target,” a designation DEA reserves for suspects believed to have a “significant impact” on the drug trade, according to records obtained by The Associated Press and more than a half dozen current and former U.S. law enforcement officials.
The DEA has amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, the records show, cataloging her known associates and allegations ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling. One confidential informant told the DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money,” the records show. As recently as last year she was linked to Maduro’s alleged bag man, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities arrested in 2020 on money laundering charges.
The U.S. government has never publicly accused Rodríguez of any criminal wrongdoing. Notably for Maduro’s inner circle, she’s not among the more than a dozen current Venezuelan officials charged with drug trafficking alongside the ousted president.
Three current and former DEA agents who reviewed the records at the request of AP said they indicate an intense interest in Rodríguez throughout much of her tenure as vice president, which began in 2018. They were not authorized to discuss DEA investigations and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Rodríguez’s name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations, several of which remain ongoing, involving agents in field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York, the AP learned. The AP could not determine the specific focus of each investigation.
Obviously, Trump couldn’t careless about drug trafficking.
Trump is also still obsessed with getting control of Greenland. Here’s the latest from the AP: Trump says he’ll charge 8 European countries a 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland.
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe.
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States, he said.
The Republican president appeared to indicate that he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that he regards as critical to U.S. national security.
“The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The tariff threat could mark a problematic rupture between Trump and America’s longtime NATO partners, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. Trump has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others, notably China.
Trump is scheduled to travel on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he likely will run into the European leaders he just threatened with tariffs that would start in little more than two weeks.
The Washington Post: In Denmark, U.S. lawmakers contradict Trump on need to own Greenland.
Making a symbolic visit to Copenhagen, a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers — including senior members of the House and Senate — tried to reassure leaders of Denmark and Greenland, and their increasingly anxious citizens, that most Americans do not support President Donald Trump’s plan to annex or buy Greenland, let alone the prospect of military action against a fellow NATO ally.
The Congressional visit comes as tensions are soaring over the Trump’s threats. Thousands gathered Saturday in Denmark for “Hands-off Greenland” protests, with gatherings also planned for later in Greenland’s capital, organizers said.
“It is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority — some 75 percent — will say we do not think that that is a good idea,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Friday at a news conference after the American group met counterparts in the Danish Parliament. “This senator from Alaska does not think it is a good idea.”
“Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset,” Murkowski added.
Asked how Trump might be stopped in his quest to obtain Greenland, Murkowski suggested Congress would assert its authority. “You are hearing from the executive branch,” she said. “The Congress also has a role.”
That’s if Republicans in Congress are willing to stand up to Trump. Meanwhile:
NPR: ‘Not for sale’: massive protest in Copenhagen against Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland.
COPENHAGEN – Thousands of people marched from Copenhagen City Hall to the U.S. embassy Saturday afternoon in protest of President Trump’s comments that he wants to acquire Greenland.
The crowd, waving Greenlandic flags, chanted “Greenland is not for sale.” Many demonstrators wore red hats in Trump’s own “Make America great again” fashion that read, “Make America go away.” [….]
A 15th-century prayer book featuring an illustrated gray cat The Walters Museum
Saturday’s protest came on the heels of a bipartisan Congressional delegation that travelled to Copenhagen. House and Senate lawmakers met with Danish and Greenlandic officials, as well as members of the Danish business community. The visit was meant to be a reassurance tour — affirming the longstanding relationship between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark in the face of Trump’s rhetoric.
Peder Dam, who lives in Denmark, attended the demonstration with a sign that featured an image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars that read: “Americans: I know there is good in you. Come back to sanity.”
“We know what is going on in the White House is not representative for all Americans,” he told NPR.
But he said he wonders why there isn’t more widespread outrage from the American public.
“I can’t understand. If my government said they would attack Sweden, then Denmark would step up and protest that,” he said. “I like protests in the U.S. But why aren’t there more normal, average Americans stepping up, trying to protest what is going on? It’s crazy.”
Another protester, Thomas, whom NPR is identifying only by his first name because of concerns about retaliation at work, said the march represents “an unseen level of resentment towards the U.S.
“I cannot express how deeply disappointed I am — that we have sent our troops to die with you in Iraq, we were with you in Afghanistan,” he said. “How dare you turn your back on us in this way?”
The Trump administration’s persecution of Minnesota is going from bad to worse.
Perry Stein at The Washington Post: Justice Dept. launches criminal investigation of Minnesota governor.
The Justice Department is planning to issue subpoenas for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as part of an investigation alleging that the two Democratic leaders are impeding federal law enforcement officers’ abilities to do their jobs in the state, two people familiar with the matter confirmed Friday.
In partnership with the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, four foster kittens visited the exhibition shortly after it opened. The Walters Museum
The subpoenas, which are without recent precedent, escalate an already bitter political battle between the Trump administration and state officials following the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an immigration officer last week. That shooting happened amid a surge of federal immigration officers in the state ordered by President Donald Trump.
One of the people familiar with the case confirmed that the plan was to serve the subpoenas Friday. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation. Neither Walz nor Frey had been served with a subpoena by early Friday evening, spokespeople for the officials said.
Walz and Frey have claimed they have been wrongly excluded from the investigation into the killing of Renée Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer through the window of her SUV as she and others were monitoring and protesting the crackdown. The governor and mayor have publicly said they fear that the Justice Department is not conducting a fair and robust probe. In turn, Trump administration officials have said that Minnesota’s Democratic leaders are corrupt and can’t be trusted to handle an investigation.
Minnesota’s attorney general this week sued the federal government over the surge, saying it amounted to an unconstitutional “federal invasion.”
The subpoenas suggest that the Justice Department is examining whether Walz’s and Frey’s public statements disparaging the surge of officers and federal actions have amounted to criminal interference in law enforcement work. The law under which they are investigating the two officials, a federal statute on conspiracy to impede a federal investigation, is similar to the charges filed against protesters who federal officials allege have attempted to block immigration officers as they do their work.
That sounds like a violation of the Walz and Frey’s first amendment rights.
In a statement Friday, Frey called the subpoenas “an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets.”
“I will not be intimidated,” he said. “My focus will remain where it’s always been: keeping our city safe.”
“Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic,” Walz said in a separate statement Friday evening. “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo: Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States.
We have late word this evening that the Department of Justice has launched a “criminal investigation” of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey over a purported “criminal conspiracy” to impeded ICE’s work in the state. Let’s start with the obvious and important fact that the bar that has to be cleared to launch such an investigation is essentially nil. All you need is a couple toadyish and corrupt DOJ appointees and they are currently in oversupply. Getting a criminal indictment let alone a conviction is in a different universe of possibility. The main point of this is simply to generate the headlines you’re seeing this evening (“criminal investigation!”) and perhaps load state and local government with subpoenas or perhaps raids.
Medieval cat art from the Walters Museum, source The Baltimore Sun
But none of that should distract from the fact that this is the main conflict being joined or at least pointed to in a very clear and public way. Right now Trump has created a kind of rickety authoritarian presidency with lots of prerogative powers on overdrive — military adventures, pardons, corruption of the DOJ, ICE wilding expeditions in Blue states — and a lot of corruption. But there’s not a lot more. It doesn’t have the kind of power in depth to really subvert the constitutional order in a robust or durable way. To do that you have to bring the states to heel. That’s where most policing power operates. It’s where elections operate. It’s where most of the actual governmental power in depth in the U.S. actually operates.
As recently as Monday I wrote this: “If you look at the trend of Trump rule in blue cities and blue states, the clear trajectory is that not being dominated is getting closer and closer to being a criminal offense, likely through conspiracy laws and such.” That’s precisely what’s being alleged here: that resisting these kinds of federal invasions or ICE wilding expeditions into Blue cities through entirely legal means and by the elected state authorities actually amounts to a criminal offense or, as predicted, a criminal conspiracy. In other words the states’ very existence as a separate albeit subordinate sovereign is a criminal offense against the federal government.
This is really scary, because we just don’t know what the Supreme Court will do with these arguments if they get their hands on the case. Fortunately, it will probably be hard to get a grand jury to indict on these ludicrous grounds.
More news from Minnesota:
AP: Judge rules feds in Minneapolis immigration operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters.
Federal officers in the Minneapolis area participating in its largest recent U.S. immigration enforcement operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing the agents, a judge in Minnesota ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez’s ruling addresses a case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists. The six are among the thousands who have been observing the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers enforcing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since last month….
The activists in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, which says government officers are violating the constitutional rights of Twin Cities residents….
Safely following agents “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the ruling said.
Menendez said the agents would not be allowed to arrest people without probable cause or reasonable suspicion the person has committed a crime or was obstructing or interfering with the activities of officers.
Menendez is also presiding over a lawsuit filed Monday by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seeking to suspend the enforcement crackdown, and some of the legal issues are similar. She declined at a hearing Wednesday to grant the state’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order in that case.
“What we need most of all right now is a pause. The temperature needs to be lowered,” state Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter told her.
Menendez said the issues raised by the state and cities in that case are “enormously important.” But she said it raises high-level constitutional and other legal issues, and for some of those issues there are few on-point precedents. So she ordered both sides to file more briefs next week.
Those are my recommended reads for today. What do you think? What else is on your mind?
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