“Cut ICE’s budget to restore federal health care funding” is an extremely popular message www.politico.com/f/?id=000001...
11.02.2026 13:48 — 👍 2712 🔁 826 💬 12 📌 36
Two things are true:
1. ICE cannot be reformed.
2. We don’t need armed ICE officers anyway.
So nuke the entire agency altogether.
If someone legitimately dangerous needs to be removed, that task can be delegated to another Fed agency or local cops.
What is Trump going to sell to the country in the State of the Union on Tuesday? Tariffs, ICE, and a slower economy?
Let's look at some data. First, the tariffs are wildly unpopular. 1/
Incredible opinion. It holds that the common ICE tactic of jumping out of an unidentified rental vehicle and seizing suspected noncitizens while masked violates the Fourth Amendment because the *manner* of the seizure is incompatible with a free society governed by the rule of law.
21.02.2026 00:51 — 👍 11805 🔁 3924 💬 107 📌 128
Just to keep it straight ...
It's Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security who's allegedly having a barely concealed affair with her married aide who tried to fire a Coast Guard pilot for not turning their luxury jet around mid-flight to go back and get her blankie ...
Sure, but who could have predicted this?
*reads contemporaneous reporting and policy analysis from mid-2025*
Oh, everyone. Everyone predicted this.
“When Musk & Hegseth argue that a racially diverse nation is inherently weak, they're not returning us to some long-established American tradition. They are, instead, parroting the exact same propaganda that Nazi Germany promoted against America during WWII.”
campaign-trails.ghost.io/diversity-is...
Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact
15.02.2026 16:23 — 👍 3812 🔁 1035 💬 48 📌 22
Americans' economic and political pains mainly stem from unprecedented concentration of our wealth, a few dozen mega-billionaires control 12%.
They buy a lot of politicians, media outlets, & influencers to distract from their power by blaming our pain on immigrants, DEI, women's careers...
Goldman: "Will the survivors and victims who are here please stand up one more time. By show of hands, how many of you or your loved ones actually have met with the DOJ? None ... How many of you were ignored by the DOJ? All of them." (Bondi responds by smearing Goldman.)
11.02.2026 19:41 — 👍 11790 🔁 3942 💬 1035 📌 358
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Trump accepts ownership of the current economy:
'I'm very proud of it'
More charts, facts from @steverattner.bsky.social
Trump accepts ownership of the current economy:
'I'm very proud of it'
Charts, facts from @steverattner.bsky.social
There are a lot of people who are going to complain about being unfairly vilified by that halftime show and it's because they know in their hearts they're on Team Hate.
09.02.2026 01:47 — 👍 8379 🔁 1468 💬 75 📌 24
Welfare fraud should always be taken seriously, but the right’s characterization of it as an immigrant problem is completely off-base — US citizens account for 95% of fraud losses.
cc: @cato.org
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley demanding DoJ investigate anti ICe activists in Minnesota
I guess if you’re Josh Hawley and you’re the kind of person who flees in terror from a riot you started the courage of ordinary people must seem befuddling
03.02.2026 20:23 — 👍 1918 🔁 400 💬 68 📌 30
1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
01.02.2026 21:12 — 👍 1802 🔁 751 💬 85 📌 99
Meanwhile, Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt has been calling these federal agents “American heroes.”
#moleg #mogov
Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday.
📷️: Aaron Lavinsky
Screenshot of TruthSocial post by President Trump complaining that Mayor Frey won't enforce federal immigration law, and calling it a "very serious violation of the Law."
In Printz v. United States, #SCOTUS held that the Constitution bars the federal government from forcing or otherwise compelling local or state governments to enforce federal law.
The liberal squish who wrote the majority opinion in that case? Justice Antonin Scalia:
tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...
Fascinating. Big, if true.
🧐🤔
Large brick wall with a tiny white signat the base of the wall that says "Slavery was real"
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This is such a cool illustration of how the Mercator map distorts the size of Greenland, which looks as big as the whole continent of Africa on that map but is actually the size of Mexico.
18.01.2026 19:43 — 👍 4620 🔁 1768 💬 59 📌 181
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina Adam Scharpf Christian Gläßel Abstract: Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.
Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers
“We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.”
(Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)
When democracies replace authoritarian regimes, they typically disband the secret police.
Portugal (1974): PIDE disbanded within days.
Greece (1974): ESA disbanded. Leaders imprisoned.
East Germany (1990): Stasi dissolved.
Chile (1990): CNI dissolved.
Brazil (1990): SNI dissolved.
January 9, 2026 THE HONORABLE TIM WALZ Governor of Minesota 130 State Capitol 75 Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bivd. St. Paul, MN 55155 THE HONORABLE JACOB FREY Mayor of the City of Minneapolis City Hail 350S. Fifth St., Room 330 Minneapolis, MN 55415 Dear Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, It is my responsibility as Secretary of Agriculture to ensure sound stewardship of taxpayer dollars by climinating fraud, waste and abuse in all programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The widespread and systemic fraud associated with federal benefit programs in the State of Minnesota and the City of Minneapolis demonstrate an inability to handle federal resources without additional oversight and accountability measures in place. During your tenures as Governor of Minnesota and Mayor of Minneapolis, numerous non-profits and businesses have defrauded the federal government in what a federal prosecutor in Minnesota called "a staggering, industrial-scale fraud".! Most notably, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit— Feeding Our Future defrauded U.S. taxpayers of nearly $250 million in federal funds given to them by the Minnesota Department of Education.? This fraud scheme involved USDA funding provided to the State of Minnesota to feed hungry children under the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). As of late November, 78 defendants had been charged in what the Department of Justice characterized as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country? Other recent examples of'alleged fraud in Minnesota include exploitation of the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program", a scheme to defraud the Housing Stabilization 1-Whut te know about Minnesoca' "industrial-scale fraad" scandal, as more charges are fled and Trump weighs in, "CES Nows (Dic. 19, 3025) available at ht:/www.cbsnews.com/news/atas-do-know-alonesota-frawf-candal were-changes-fled- tump-water. /Federal Jury Finds Feeding Our Future Masternind and Co-D…
Services Program", and alleged fraud in daycare centers*, Your Administrations have refused additional accountability and oversight, claiming that criticism of rampant fraud and abuse is "racist." While the full extent of fraud in Minnesota is not yet known, it is clear that, under your leadership- or lack thereof fraudsters can take advantage of federal funds and the American taxpayer with impunity. This necessitates federal action to protect taxpayer dollars until adequate safeguards can be established. Despite a staggering, wide-reaching fraud scandal, your Administrations refuse to provide basic information or take common sense mcasures to stop fraud. In fact, rather than conlin your SNAP rolls are accurate to prevent continuing fraud, you asked the courts to block USDA's directive to recertify the State's SNAP recipients. Recent news reports also emerged that the Minnesota Department of Human Services repeatedly reported incorrect information about SNAP to the federal government.? The Trump administration refuses to allow such fraud to continuc. Therefore, because of your failed Icadership and abysmal financial management oversight, 1 am notifying you that, effective immediately, I am suspending payments on all active awards and any future awards from USDA to the State of Minnesota and the City of Minneapolis, currently totaling over $129.18 million. Within 30 days, you shall provide USDA with payment justifications for all federal dollar expenditures from January 20, 2025, to the present. Going forward, all transactions on awards to the State of Minnesota or the City of Minneapolis will require such payment justification. If those payment justifications are not received, awards will remain suspended. While your Administrations have turned a blind eye to documented fraud, the Trump Administration has made clear that fraud, waste, and abuse are unacceptable. The American people deserve to know that their taxpayer dollars are helping those in need-not criminals. …
The US Department of Agriculture suspends all federal funding to Minnesota, effective immediately.
09.01.2026 23:45 — 👍 2511 🔁 1243 💬 294 📌 688This is why I'm not interested in getting bogged down in the who-stood-where particulars of one obviously and gratuitously unjustified shooting. Every couple hours we get fresh documentary evidence of ICE/USBP acting as unrestrained jackboots terrorizing and brutalizing peaceful people.
08.01.2026 16:06 — 👍 344 🔁 118 💬 0 📌 2
