JG Conley

Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.) If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

Massie on Howard Lutnick: "He should just resign. Three people in Great Britain resigned for less than what we've seen Howard Lutnick lie about. He clearly went to the island, if we believe what's in these files. He was in business with Jeffrey Epstein."

Trump Using A ‘Softer Touch’ With ICE In Minnesota? Residents Say Don’t Be Fooled. Two weeks after Alex Pretti’s killing, federal agents have shown no signs of backing down. The resistance definitely hasn't.

NEW: The Trump admin certainly put on a show last week about changing tactics in Minnesota after ICE agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse.

Trump even suggested it's time for "a softer touch."

Except residents say nothing has changed. At all. www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-mi...

Files Detail Epstein’s Dealings With Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

NYT: Howard Lutnick, Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, interacted with Jeffrey Epstein regularly over at least 13 years while they lived next door to one another on Manhattan's Upper East Side, records released by the Justice Department show.

If Vance isn’t able to attend an Olympic event without an entourage of armored vehicles that looks like he just landed at Normandy in 1944, maybe he shouldn’t go.

Home Office @ukhomeoffice Follow Illegal migrants living in hotels have been banned from using taxpayer-funded taxis for medical appointments. Under new rules, taxi use for medical journeys will be restricted to individuals with physical disabilities and serious or chronic illnesses. ... TP + ILLEGAL MIGRANTS BANNED FROM USING TAXIS FOR MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS

Home Offi... @ukhomeoffi... • Feb 6 The largest number of illegal migrants and foreign criminals have been removed or deported off British soil in a decade. - NEARLY - 60000 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS CRIMINALS REMOVED OR DEPORTED

Any time I look to see what the Labour government is up to in the UK it turns out to be things like making posters that Alfonso Cuarón put in the background of the long tracking shot that opens “Children of Men”.

I've written about the overarching post story, causes, underlying pattern. But the failure of Lewis or Bezos to even show up, literally or figuratively, on a day of devastating cuts epitomizes the profound lack of character and accountability that is so common place today within the American elite.

Trump Rages at Bad Bunny—and Accidentally Exposes a Big MAGA Weakness MAGA’s hatred of the Super Bowl halftime performer reflects a hubris about what parts of the culture are “theirs.” But those assumptions are proving more wrong every day.

Trump is badly losing the war over ICE, not just on the streets, but also in the culture. As Bad Bunny shows, this has become a culture war unto itself. Trump-MAGA's initial hubris has been utterly deflated.

I've got fresh data illustrating the point. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2062...

Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...

Concentration camps:

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

Not only did they bring a small private army, but among the waste of taxpayer money was BRINGING A FULL PLANE OF FOOD.

To *Italy*.

Look at this photo. This isn't a concentration camp? If you look at this and say "well guys we can't just stop this, there's too many levers that need to be pulled" you might lack a soul

Are we sure the Crockett primary campaign isn't a The Producers-style campaign to make money off prediction markets/

I bet if the FBI wasn't run by morons Savannah Guthrie wouldn't be forced to go on TV and tell some two bit kidnappers she'll pay millions of dollars in bitcoin for her mother's safe return

Also:

It’s time to accept that the US supreme court is illegitimate and must be replaced | Ryan Doerfler and Samuel Moyn We need to remake the US high court so Americans don’t suffer future decades of oligarchy-facilitating rule

People are mad at @samuelmoyn.bsky.social but this is a good piece from him and @ryandoerfler.bsky.social on need to accept that SCOTUS has become functionally illegitimate. Key point is legitimacy does require the public to think the court operates in good faith:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

House Republicans’ voter suppression bill now bans student IDs from counting as voter ID.

Many Republican states have done this to target students with their voter ID laws

Lets be specific here: Republicans have dutifully changed their opinions.

Like so many other issues in this era, what we can see in a chart like this is Dems & Indies living mostly in reality and Republicans off on their own in an alt reality wholly controlled by the diktats of their cult leader.

We are warfighters, not woke, now get your asses in those theater seats and learn how to pick dresses for formal balls.

208. The Fifth Circuit Jumps the Immigration Detention Shark Late Friday, two of the nation's most right-wing circuit judges adopted an odious legal claim that district court judges from across the country (and ideological spectrum) have overwhelmingly rejected

“Late Friday night, the Fifth Circuit adopted the extreme minority view—that the government can indefinitely detain without bond millions of non-citizens who have been here for generations; who have never committed a crime; and who pose neither a risk of flight nor any threat to public safety.”

There is *a lot* already going on and Trump's stated desire to disrupt free and fair elections is beyond clear. It is very silly to dismiss the idea this won't result in at least some serious problems. It obviously did in 2020. They have more power now, started earlier, and are trying even more.

Military commanders reportedly force troops to see Melania movie: 'People are scared' The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has warned that thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been coerced into attending screenings of the Melania documentary.The $75 million Amazon ...

"People are scared. They were pressured to see the movie. Your military superior, that's not your shift manager at Taco Bell or Starbucks. They have complete and total control over you."

These federal buildings have cells designed to hold a few people for a brief period; like a holding cell at a police station. Supposed to be 12 hours max, usually less.

People are being held in them for 7-10 days, jammed in like sardines. It’s a nightmare.

These elite Republicans think you are the dumbest people on the planet who will buy their whining. They truly think you won’t realize they’re on track to be the MAGA guy in the video who after attacking the teens and/or tweens, gets his shit wrecked and frowns.

MAGA-aligned military commanders are pressuring enlisted service members to go to the Melania movie and bring their families. Troops at 8 different bases have complained. www.businessinsider.com/us-military-...

Imagine being Poland on the border of Russia’s war and hearing the U.S. ambassador threaten to pull troops, then having to ask if he’s freelancing. This is what Trump’s “America First” really looks like to our allies.

This story should be retitled. The US is actually funding pro-Putin think tanks, ones that want to end European democracy.

Lets be honest about this.

Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop.

Good morning team.

Resignation after resignation in the US attorney's office.

Gift link.

it's kind of depressing that no one on the Democratic side of Congress has written to the state department to ask about the meeting with AB seperatists

If this is true--it cements the US-Russian alliance. The USA becomes formally the enemy of freedom. Own up to this Republicans.

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