Mike German

Trump Administration Moves to Allow Intelligence Agencies Easier Access to Law Enforcement Files “None of this has been thought through very carefully,” one official said of the plans, which upend long-standing restrictions meant to protect Americans’ privacy.

Since the CIA’s Watergate-era spying on civil rights and anti-war activists inside the United States, intelligence agencies have, with some exceptions, been prohibited from gathering information on the domestic activities of U.S. citizens.

Related point, if you are in misinformation research and have been launching study after study to see what Uncle Fred thinks after seeing misinformation PLEASE listen to what @katestarbird.bsky.social and I have been saying for years: effects on elite and official action is what matters most.

New #SpyTalk 🕵🏼‍♀️ podcast with hosts @spytalker.bsky.social & @misikoff.bsky.social #KarenGreenberg #MSWMedia

Guests: @scanlon.house.gov & @rethinkintel.bsky.social

Listen: redcircle.com/shows/d7fabf...

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.

The ‘Antifa Scare’ Goes on Trial in North Texas As nine of the "Prairieland 19" face their days in court, the broader constitutional rights of left-wing activists may hang in the balance.

My latest in @texasobserver.org

The ‘Antifa Scare’ Goes on Trial in North Texas: As nine of the "Prairieland 19" face their days in court, the broader constitutional rights of left-wing activists may hang in the balance.

www.texasobserver.org/antifa-scare...

What’s Behind the Centrists’ Resistance to the “Resistance Liberals”? They’re acknowledging now that the people who called Trump a “fascist” were right. But somehow we’re still not to be trusted.

What’s Behind the Centrists’ Resistance to the “Resistance Liberals”? newrepublic.com/article/2060... via @newrepublic.com

February 16, 2026 NR26026kt Los Angeles Police Department Encourages School Attendance Amid Recent Downtown Activity Los Angeles: In light of recent activity in the downtown area, the Los Angeles Police Department would like to take this opportunity to remind parents and students of the importance of staying in school. School attendance is mandatory in the City of Los Angeles and there may be legal consequences for parents and students for: • Day time Curfew violations - It is unlawful for any minors under 18 to be in public places, streets, or amusement spots during school hours (typically 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. The only exception includes being with a parent, authorized school activities, or emergencies. • California Education Code violations: • Mandates that all children between the ages of six and eighteen, unless exempted, must attend a full-time public day school for the full designated school day. • Middle and high school students are legally permitted one excused absence per calendar year to participate in a "civic or political event," provided advance school notification (emphasis added). • Additionally, Los Angeles Unified School District policy states that three or more unexcused absences or tardies of 30 minutes or more, can trigger a School Attendance Review Board (SARB) intervention for disciplinary action. Parents and students are also reminded that presence at school promotes intellectual growth. It becomes more difficult to fill knowledge gaps with student absences. Attendance builds good habits and healthy routines; and provides structure and stability. Lastly, school attendance also increases student safety, which includes safety resources provided by the Los Angeles Unified School District. (Page 1 of 2) X Follow @LAPDHQ

Any adult that collects or picks up a child and transports them to participate in any illegal activities may be responsible for Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor and is subject to arrest and prosecution. This law applies to actions like providing drugs/alcohol to minors, promoting truancy, and for parents failing to exercise reasonable supervision. Community members, parents, and students may contact their local Community Police Station of the Los Angeles Police Department for additional guidance specific to their community.

The LAPD is citing truancy laws in an attempt to squash the ongoing school walkouts against ICE. The LAPD is also threatening to arrest any parents or adults who support the kids in their acts of civil disobedience.

Hopes that the FBI would share information gathered in the investigation into Alex Pretti’s killing with state investigators in Minnesota have shattered. https://cnn.it/4tGug4X

There are non US citizens influencing our elections, they’re called corporations.

The establishment wants us to not focus on this.

It seems pretty pretty bad that after all the times people have explained Section 230 to @amyklobuchar.com she still doesn't understand how it works, what it does, or what damage her "reforms" would do to speech online, especially speech from marginalized people.

We've noticed.

Americans have been convinced that billionaires paying more in taxes is more catastrophic and immoral than poor people dying because they lack health insurance.

We’ve been taught to fear taxing billionaires more than we fear people dying without health insurance.

Keep the pressure on - and check out campaigns against flock surveillance that are racking up wins in their communities. deflockoly.noblogs.org

FBI Assessments: A First Amendment and Surveillance Nightmare Now would be an excellent time for Congress to initiate a Church Committee-style review of every single existing surveillance program being employed by executive branch elements.

Over four years ago, Cato asked @raskin.house.gov & Rep. Nancy Mace to have GAO look at an insidious FBI investigative authority called an "Assessment." GAO completed the report in January but withheld it from the public as "Restricted." Racket News leaked it, & here's my take.

It should be illuminating that prosecuting sex trafficking, the thing that prosecutors and police across the country have been using as a cash cow to fund surveillance and weaponry, is actually not something government prosecutors care about at all.
The system does not hold people accountable.

if you remember the FBI + ICE + local raid on a horse race track in Wilder, Idaho that detained hundreds of families (including many kids & U.S. citizens) the @acluidaho.bsky.social just announced a lawsuit.

The complaint is just as disturbing as previous reporting www.aclu.org/press-releas...

The annual change in GDP topped 15% in only five years since 1929 -- four times under FDR and once under Truman.

Conservatives at the time, and since, denounced those presidents for practicing "socialism," which Trump claims is the top problem constricting the economy today.

US federal contractor hired white supremacist leader for wildfire relief Ian Michael Elliott of neofascist Patriot Front worked ‘crisis relief missions’ funded by Department of Agriculture

“How a prominent white supremacist leader came to work for a federal security contractor is unclear.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

warner is not as quick to alarm

Ron Wyden Only Talks Like This When The Spies Do Something *Real* Bad No, I don't know what they did. But I have a lot of experience with the senator

@wyden.senate.gov's record of warning that there is deep and constitutionally-serious dirt being done by the intelligence agencies in secret is unblemished. The vaguer he is, the filthier the dirt is. This is the vaguest I've ever seen him

Accountability for ICE and CBP However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.

As the House prepares to fight over how much of DHS to shut down, I encourage you to pick your favorite factoid from this @vermontgmg.bsky.social report on CBP/ICE criminality and send it to your MoC.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...

WOW! 👏Philly DA Larry Krasner:
“This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis in a country of 350 million. We outnumber them. If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will. We will find you. We will achieve justice.”

#ICEoffOurStreets

"The children’s mother called the school early Thursday to tell them she’d been detained and asked school leaders to bring the kids to her at the Whipple Federal Building ... because there were no family members ... to care for them.

“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” Kuhlman said.

Law enforcement officers have always been unmasked in this country until ICE started wearing them last year.

*That* is the departure from norms. *That* is the step too far.

Georgia elections raid comes week after FBI replaced top agent: AP source The FBI raided an elections office in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, but last week it replaced the top agent in the field office. According to the report, "agents were seen entering the Fulton Count...

www.alternet.org/fbi-georgia-...

ALERT: FBI confirms it is on-site this afternoon at the headquarters of the Fulton County, Georgia Department of Elections

The national rate of pediatric firearm deaths increased by 54% from 2004 to 2023, with most U.S. kids now living in states where firearm injury is the leading cause of death.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Congress can and should revoke the funding it gave ICE in last year's so-called Big Beautiful Bill. That was billions they can use even if Congress does not fund DHS this week.

A funding lapse is not a win. Congress must claw back prior money and restrict all of DHS's harmful operations.