Ken Budd

one of those things you need to watch if for no other reason than the trump administration doesn't want you to:

“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end...

ProPublica received eight handwritten letters from children who have been held at the detention center that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was recently released from.

We'll let their words speak for themselves.

ProPublica Event: Inside the Destruction of the U.S. Agency for International Development Join ProPublica journalists for a conversation about the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid worldwide.

In Kenya, American funds had helped feed hundreds of thousands of refugees. When it was cut, children starved.

In South Sudan, U.S. aid had been helping to stave off a cholera epidemic. Then the disease came roaring back.

Tomorrow at 4 pm ET, join us for a discussion about the gutting of USAID:

After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death “Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.

“There was zero plan, except causing pain,” said one U.N. official about the Trump administration’s decision to stop funding the group with no notice or communication. “And that is not forgivable.”

(Published Dec. 2025)

Jeff Bezos Must Sell the Washington Post Mass layoffs undermine his promises to protect a great American institution.

Bezos wasn't like this during Trump's first term. Trump, at least not to this extent, wasn't either. The Post needs someone who can stand up to Trump in his second term.

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.

Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."

How to help the resistance to ICE in Minnesota — and beyond What Minnesota’s immigrant communities need from you now.

In Minneapolis and many other communities across the country, we're seeing people come together to peacefully protest and support their neighbors. If you're looking to get involved, here are some ways to help:

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara: "People have had enough. This is the third shooting in less than 3 weeks. The MPD went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn't shoot anyone ... this is not sustainable."

Alex Pretti was an American hero. He saved lives. He protected people. He cared deeply about his community, unlike the murderous thugs who killed him.

The very last thing he did was try to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed and violently shoved to the ground by ICE. 1/

Past the breaking point The violent occupation of an American city is more than a warning

New, from me: Defenders of police abuses will sometimes talk about “bad apples” spoiling the barrel.

This is the wrong metaphor for ICE and CBP. The barrel itself is rotten. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...

no matter how hard Greg Bovino tries to exude rugged masculinity he always comes off like Don Knotts in a Portlandia sketch

Opinion | I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different.

"The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything."

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/o...

The Sacrifice of the Danes After September 11, Denmark fought alongside its ally. The families of fallen soldiers have a message for Trump.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Denmark lost more soldiers per capita than the United States did in Afghanistan. @isaacstanleybecker.bsky.social introduces us to the mother of the first Danish woman ever to die in combat, and explains why Danes feel such a sense of betrayal. @theatlantic.com

Serving Skills for Trouble Youth | The Saturday Evening Post Teresa Goines’s jazz-fueled supper club provides teens with jobs, love, and an escape from gangs.

Founded by corrections-officer-turned- restaurateur Teresa Goines, the Old Skool supper club steers youths away from a cycle of gangs and jail by teaching them job skills (and life skills), nurturing their talents, and building their self-esteem.

There are so many obvious constitutional violations in this story. It is enraging.
There is no war, there is no foreign invasion, there is nothing that justify it. This is a choice to create a military presence that will brutalize residents of cities that do not support the President.

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

Shubha Sunder Wins New American Voices Award - Fall for the Book Festival Shubha Sunder's Optional Practical Training wins 8th New American Voices Award, a post publication book prize celebrating immigrant writers.

Congratulations to @shubhasunder.bsky.social for winning the 8th Annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award for Optional Practical Training: A Novel, from @graywolfpress.bsky.social! Read more:

fallforthebook.org/shubhasunder...

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

If you like yelling about misuse of the passive voice, THIS IS IT.

Add me to the list. Cancelled Disney+ on Friday.

Exciting news: Ariel Lawhon will be headlining Fall for the Book on Wednesday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.! Free tickets go live soon. Thank you to the Friends of the Reston Regional Library & Friends of the City of Fairfax Library for your support!
www.eventbrite.com/e/frozen-riv...

How Trump's latest crypto launch enriches his family The president and his sons made $5 billion on paper as their cryptocurrency started trading — highlighting the extraordinary degree to which they are personally profiting from Trump's return to the Oval Office.

The president and his sons made $5 billion on paper as their cryptocurrency started trading — highlighting the extraordinary degree to which they are personally profiting from Trump's return to the Oval Office.

Grand Designs: the loss of American freedom Exactly seven months into Trump's second term, we have reached 1000 authoritarian actions. Here I lay out the enormity of what has happened.

yup. I wrote something similar last week
christinapagel.substack.com/p/grand-desi...

"the very word “America” conjures up the celebrated ideal of “America the free”. But “America the free” are just words and they are rapidly losing all meaning."

The authoritarian checklist It is time to admit that America is no longer a functioning democracy

New, from me:
America is no longer a functioning democracy. It is a competitive authoritarian system, hurtling rapidly toward authoritarianism.
This was a hard piece to write but we can't move forward if we don’t acknowledge where we are.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...

an image of a handwritten checklist that says control government bureaucracy, the military, internal security, the legal system, civil society, higher education, the media, elections

Authoritarians who unwind democracy are similar in one respect.
They seek to take control of centers of power and dissent in society. Call it the authoritarian checklist. Trump’s second term is best understood by his systemic checking off of this checklist.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...

Trump Is Strangling the Life Out of D.C.’s Restaurants “We’re back to a very pandemic-feeling city.”

@adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social: "Trump’s deployment of 2,300 National Guard troops and 500 federal law enforcement agents has hurt foot traffic, chilled business, and made people cancel trips and nights out. It is slowly choking the life out of Washington, D.C."
www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-s...

It’s always so easy to laugh at this, but it’s not funny. For 3hrs today, grown men & women all took turns getting down on their knees, fellating their dear leader. In front of the cameras. It’s sad. It’s gross. It’s North Korea. It shouldn’t happen here.

Don’t let them tell you he’s joking.

He’s putting armed troops in the streets.

Not a joke. Not a drill.

@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social: It's not backsliding, it's a march to dictatorship.

Only @thebulwark.com