Celia Ross

He really did it folks

This is brilliant

US: Prioritize Rights During Saudi Leader’s Visit The United States government, including Congress, should address Saudi human rights abuses during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s expected visit to Washington on November 18, 2025.

Next week, the White House will welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman—his first visit to Washington, D.C., since the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi. We urge U.S. representatives to condemn the Saudi government’s repression of writers. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

What will Mike Johnson's new excuse be for not swearing in Grijalva?

This kid is all right. “I like to be chic,” he said. “I go to school like this.”

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago.

“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

DHS Agreement Reveals Risks of Using Social Security Data for Voter Citizenship Checks A recently released agreement gives the Department of Homeland Security access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ Social Security data. It contains alarmingly few provisions to ensure accuracy and ...

#ICYMI: A sweeping data-sharing agreement authorizing DHS to merge Social Security data into the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system could threaten Americans’ privacy and lead to errors that disenfranchise legitimate voters, experts say.

By @jenafifield.bsky.social

What I Need You To Understand, Notes from Chicago in Late October | dansinker.com

"What I need you to know is we are organized.

What I need you to know is that you need to get organized.

What I need you to know is they are coming.

What I need you to know is you can stop them."
- @dansinker.com on ICE's rapidfire terrorism in Chicago, & the power of community response:

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

In his decades-long pantheon of bone-chilling statements, this one’s hard to top.

Easily several hundred people have packed into this plaza in Chicago's North Center tonight in response to ICE abducting a daycare worker early this morning.

This is a neighborhood that has largely been spared until now from the "Midway Blitz" terror campaign. But everyone knows someone affected.

I see that CBS chose not to air this part. It probably explains much of what they did decide to air.

Hey, remind me what happened after the Roaring 20s?

I mentioned this stat from Alisa Wood of KKR in a talk I did a few weeks ago, but did you know: There are more private equity firms in the United States than there are McDonald's? (~19,000 vs. 14,000) In 1980, there were 24 PE firms *total* in the U.S. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The USDA has funding set aside to keep food assistance programs running during emergencies.

Trump just won’t release it.

440,000 Minnesotans - and millions more Americans - will pay the price.

Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_ BREAKING: Per four senior DHS & Trump admin sources, a mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers. I'm told the move is spearheaded by Corey Lewandowski, and a handful of the ICE Chiefs will likely be replaced by Border Patrol & CBP officials, some of whom will be hand-picked by aggressive & controversial Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino. I'm told some of the ICE leadership removed from their positions include the ICE Field Office Directors in: - Los Angeles - Phoenix - Philadelphia - Denver - El Paso - San Diego - Seattle/Portland - New Orleans Border Patrol officials taking over ICE leadership positions would be extremely significant, as Border Patrol and ICE do different things, and I've done numerous ride-alongs/embeds with both.

Generally speaking, ICE typically conducts very targeted operations, largely going after criminal illegal aliens or those with deportation orders, but almost always knowing who they are targeting for arrest, often conducting surveillance to learn their schedules before and waiting hours before arresting them if needed. Border Patrol, under Trump 2.0, while sometimes doing their own targeted operations, has been extremely aggressive and has been at the forefront of some of the most controversial immigration enforcement operations we've seen so far, carrying out roving patrols in Los Angeles, Chicago, etc, often at Home Depot, car washes, flea markets etc, leading to a handful of federal judges around the country issuing injunctions against them. A majority of the viral videos you see online are Border Patrol agents, including the use of a Trojan horse style Penske moving truck at a Los Angeles Home Depot, an operation organized by Bovino. ICE often gets blamed for what Border Patrol does, as the media and activists often cannot tell the difference between federal agents, and everyone is called "ICE". I'm told there are growing concerns about the political and PR fallout associated with some of the roving patrols Border Patrol is conducting as lawsuits continue to stack up and mid-terms approach next year.

I'm told there is significant friction within different wings of DHS and the administration, with Border Czar Tom Homan & ICE Director Todd Lyons preferring to prioritize targeting criminal aliens & the "worst of the worst" or those with deportation orders, while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, and BP Commander Bovino prefer to use aggressive tactics to arrest anyone in the US illegally, including but not limited to criminals, to ramp up deportation numbers and achieve President Trump's promises of mass deportations. I am hearing from both sides of this friction. One senior DHS official tells me: "ICE started with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol started in LA in June, we've (DHS) lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization. It's getting numbers, but at what cost?". Border Patrol agents I've talked to defend their tactics, with one telling me: "What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself, anyone in the US illegally is on the table."

It's quite a situation, as both sides of this are on the same team, with the same end goals, but different perspectives on how to get there. Another DHS official confirmed the personnel changes to me on deep background, adding that the moves are based on performance and doing what is needed to achieve the best results. Official statement to @FoxNews via @TriciaOhio : "While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump Administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country." 7:57 PM · Oct 27, 2025 · 29.6K Views

🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.

Trump Administration Live Updates: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire East Wing

Trump Lied and Will Now Demolish Entire East Wing www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

There is no difference between Trump destroying the East Wing and using a wrecking ball on the Washington Monument or Smithsonian. Just because he (temporarily) lives there doesn't give him the right to demolish the White House without Congressional approval.

Chris Murphy: "There's a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing & it was just destroyed without any conversation in the public, without any consent of Congress. It's absolutely illegal. That visual is powerful b/c you're watching destruction of the rule of law as those walls come down"

ICE’s spending on weaponry has soared more than 700 percent this year The $71.5 million spent so far has paid for guns and armor, chemical munitions, “guided missile warheads," and "explosive components.”

This is nuts. And we would like to know more about these "guided missile warheads."

Good reporting via @juddlegum.bsky.social / @popular.info

Let's see how that government ban on White House demolition photos is going.

www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

The White House is asking people not to share pictures of the East Wing because it’s even worse today.

Pardoned Capitol rioter charged with threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries at NYC event this week A pardoned Capitol rioter was arrested last weekend for allegedly threatening to kill the top House Democrat.

This is the asymmetry in our politics and media. If this was the other way around, Biden had pardoned someone then charged with trying to kill Trump, it would be the biggest story in America and every Republican commentator, congressman, news outlet, would be screaming about it in unison.

MAYBE THE NATIONAL GUARD SHOULD BE STOPPING TRUMP FROM LITERALLY TEARING DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE?!?

Tax Day Is Met With Tea Parties (Published 2009)

Here's a gift link to the New York Times' coverage of the initial Tea Party rallies in April 2009 which inspired the media to treat it like a massive movement.

Check out how tiny the crowds were:

Philly: 200
DC: "several hundred"
Boston: 500
Austin: 1,000
Houston: 2,000

White words on a black background read: 50+ Immigration agents have the authority to detain whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino. ~130 Agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers. ~20 Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.

Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.

I did it because the government isn’t.

This is what I found.

Shoutout to whoever was like the news sucks, let’s spice it up by doing a jewel heist at the Louvre

With alt text.

Executive summary: the US killed at least 3 Colombian fishermen who’d put up a distress flag. In Colombian waters

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

"She should be doing the job I'm literally preventing her from doing."