Wednesday, January 28, 2026

The Heritage Foundation has more hate to spread

Chump and his hate mongers never tire of preaching and spreading hate.  Greg Owens (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

The Heritage Foundation, the right-wing, religious-based organization responsible for Project 2025, has issued a new report focused on the family, with devastating guidance targeting LGBTQ+ families out of existence.

“The family is the foundation of every healthy society, and, tragically, the American family is on the brink,” the new report’s authors claim. “We are dangerously close to being unable to reverse the decline. Our country will not survive if families continue to crumble at this rate.” 

“There are very few people who are going to fall into what this report considers to be a good family,” Jessica Waters, senior scholar in residence in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at the American University’s School of Public Affairs, told the American Independent about the new report. 

Project 2025 has guided much of the second Trump administration’s policy agenda, including erasing transgender identity from the federal government, rebranding federal law to exclude protections for trans and nonbinary people, prosecuting pro-trans educators and librarians as sex offenders, and ending Medicare coverage for gender-affirming care. Many of Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+ goals have already been accomplished.

But another aim in the original Project 2025 document is the focus of the new report, titled “Saving America by Saving the Family“: prioritizing heterosexual families and children in government policy.

Similar to their attacks on transgender identity in Project 2025, the group’s goal with the new report is the erasure of LGBTQ+ families. A 29-post thread on the new report details its goals.

“The LGBTQ agenda… through the Supreme Court of the United States, redefined marriage and severed it in law from its natural biological function and purpose of reproduction,” the report states.

But “Marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces,” the authors assert. “Mothers are female parents and fathers are male parents.”

By that logic, same-sex parents are excluded from the Heritage Foundation’s definition of family, and the Supreme Court’s decision granting marriage equality in 2015 has contributed to the “crisis” the real American family needs “saving” from.

It’s a theme — in addition to the subservience of women — that informs all of the report’s policy goals.


These freaks preach hate.  They're pathetic lives are built around denying other people basic rights.  They can't live their own lives because their own lives are pathetic and boring.  So instead, they attack LGBTQ+ people and pretend like that brings meaning to their lives.  These hate filled people are nothing but destroyers who don't believe in democracy or freedom.


"The Snapshot"  (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, January 28, 2026.  The murder of Alex Pretti continues to impact the national conversation.


On MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning, Ben explains the blame game various Republicans are playing:  Kristi Noem blames Stephen Miller blames Border Patrol and Greg Bovino while MAGA Republican state officials are attacking Stephen Miller's ugly wife Katie who is attacking Florida state senator Ileana Garcia who then attacks Stephen Miller and tells Katie how she's happy to come on Katie's podcast to discuss Stephen's racism and . . .



They're all trying to evade responsibility for the murder of Alex Pretti.



 





That's people talking about how wonderful Alex was.  How he helped them.  


It's a far cry from the lies this administration -- the killers -- have tried to smear him with.


J.D. Wolf (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) reports:


White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was hit with community notes on two high-profile posts after repeatedly labeling Alex Pretti an “assassin,” claims that are false and not supported by available evidence. In both tweets, Miller asserted that Pretti had attempted to murder federal agents and framed Democratic criticism of ICE as siding with “terrorists.”
[. . .]
However, the community notes, added by X users, point to video footage and reporting that contradict those assertions. The notes state there is no evidence of an assassination attempt and that videos of the encounter show Pretti’s gun remained holstered until agents removed it, with shots fired only after he was disarmed and subdued.

Facts have never mattered to Stephen Miller.  Nor to anyone else in Chump's administration including Chump himself   Madeleine Ngo, Alexandra Berzon and Hamed Aleaziz (NEW YORK TIMES) report:


A preliminary review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s internal watchdog office found that Alex Pretti was shot by two federal officers after resisting arrest, but did not indicate that he brandished a weapon during the encounter, according to an email sent to Congress and reviewed by The New York Times.

The review makes no mention of the Department of Homeland Security’s earlier claims that Mr. Pretti, a U.S. citizen, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Shortly after the shooting, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed that Mr. Pretti had been “brandishing” a gun.

Officials had provided no evidence to back up the claim, which was contradicted by witness videos.

The initial review by C.B.P., which deployed more than 1,000 officers and agents to support the enforcement operation in Minnesota, represents the first official written assessment of Saturday’s shooting since administration officials rushed to blame Mr. Pretti.





All of the administration's lies begin to fall apart.  The brutality of BP and ICE's actions, the murder of an American citizen has led to a new climate.  Carl Hulse (NYT) notes:

Demands for independent investigations. Scheduled oversight hearings. Overtures for proposed concessions to avert a government shutdown.

In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis, Republicans in Congress have starkly shifted their tone on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, offering some of the strongest and most pointed criticism of the administration since the start of President Trump’s second term and conceding that something must change.

Mr. Pretti’s killing over the weekend had drawn notable pushback from a small but significant group of G.O.P. lawmakers even before Mr. Trump switched rhetorical gears, distancing himself from his administration’s smears of Mr. Pretti and installing a new commander to oversee his deportation push in Minnesota.

But for a much broader group of Republicans who have been reluctant to challenge Mr. Trump or even gently criticize him, the president’s messaging pivot appeared to have provided license to air grave concerns about what happened in Minneapolis and the backlash it had generated among much of the American public.

The outrage has multiplied and even some Republicans have had enough. While the bulk of Republicans in Congress try to figure out where they stand, Democratic leaders are already staking out their ground.   Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:


House Democrats gave President Donald Trump an ultimatum to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for the "killing spree" she has overseen.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and his top deputies issued a warning Tuesday to the 79-year-old president to hold Noem accountable for the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis and other abuses in the administration's immigration enforcement surge, reported Axios.

"Taxpayer dollars are being weaponized by the Trump administration to kill American citizens, brutalize communities and violently target immigrant families," the letter to Trump read.

The Democrats told Trump that dramatic changes were necessary at DHS and threatened to impeach Noem if she was not fired.


 


 


Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's office issued the following yesterday:


Providence, RI – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today released the following statement opposing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill and calling on Senate Republicans to separate the DHS funding bill from the full appropriations package:

“The Trump administration has empowered masked goons who terrorize American citizens, undermine local law enforcement, and lie to the American people about constitutional violations.  Everyone knows the DHS funding bill needs work, and I will not vote for it as it’s currently written.  Senate Republicans should separate the DHS bill, like the House did, so we can pass all other appropriations and fund the government.”

Press Contact

Meaghan McCabe, (202) 224-2921

And this is from Senator Maria Cantwell's office:

EDMONDS, WA – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released this statement regarding today’s fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis by federal agents.

“President Trump has crossed the line. Americans will not stand for masked, armed troops roaming their neighborhoods. ICE is not trained in this capacity and should not be on streets. This incident should be investigated immediately and not politicized by the President.”



But as Aaron Parnas reports, it's even Republicans calling for the departure of Kristi Noem.

 

Among the elected Republicans publicly questioning the false narratives from Kristi and other administration liars?  Stef W. Kight (AXIOS) notes:


"I am deeply troubled by the shootings in Minneapolis involving federal agents," Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) posted on Monday.

  • "Our Constitution provides citizens protection from the government. We have a right to free speech, to peaceably assemble and to bear arms," Moran continued.
  • "I would encourage the administration to be more measured, to recognize the tragedy, and to say, we don't want anyone's lives to be lost," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters.
  • "I support a full and transparent investigation into the tragic event in Minneapolis," Sen. Todd. Young (R-Ind.) said in a statement. "Congress has requested testimony from ICE, CBP, and USCIS leaders in an open hearing, and they should testify soon."
  • This builds on other GOP statements from over the weekend — such as from Sens. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Reps. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), Max Miller (R-Ohio) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas).


While politicians may be rethinking some of ICE's tactics, ICE itself continues to terrorize the American people.  Zach Buchanan (PHOENIX NEW TIMES) reports on ICE in Arizona this week:


Monday afternoon, federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations raided several Zipps Sports Grill locations across the Valley. Though it’s unknown what prompted the investigation — the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said only that agents were executing several warrants — the raids drew protests at several Zipps locations from residents fed up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Arizona. HSI is a division of ICE.

The raid at the Zipps at Park Central in midtown Phoenix drew roughly 200 protesters and observers, including Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari. And the raid at the Zipps at 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard attracted roughly 50 protesters. Video provided to Phoenix New Times by one of those observers — who asked not to be identified — showed the final minutes of the raid before federal agents left the restaurant. 

As agents left in a series of cars and trucks heading south down 32nd Street, the video shows, an agent doused the protesters in pepper-spray through the passenger window of a departing vehicle. Several protesters were hit by the spray, and at least one protester fell to the ground in pain as others rushed to find her water and a towel.

It’s not clear what justification, if any, the agent had for deploying a chemical irritant against the protesters. Video shows the protesters had confined themselves to the sidewalk and were not impeding the agents from departing in their vehicles, which were parked on 32nd Street. Though one protester appeared to toss an empty water bottle at one of the cars as they drove off, it harmlessly bounced off the vehicle in front one carrying the agent who maced the protesters.


And Hannah Broughton (THE MIRROR) reports:

New footage of ICE agents appearing to threaten journalists in Minneapolis has surfaced on social media, just as the reporters in question are driving down a street in their car.

In the footage the journalists seemingly subjected to the verbal attack are from the Italian news agency Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), Italy’s national public broadcasting company owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

In the video, one of them says, “ICE is approaching our vehicle. No, I’m not rolling my window down. I’m not doing anything wrong, I’m just driving around my community.” “Press, we are press,” says the other journalist.

The ICE agents can be heard telling both women, “We’re going to break out your window and extract you from the vehicle,” before saying again, “This is the only warning, if you keep following us, we will break your window, and we will pull you out of the vehicle.” It comes as Kri


Also attacking female journalists is, once again, Donald Chump.  Lee Moran (HUFFINTON POST) reports: 

Donald Trump on Tuesday turned to his tried and trusted tactic of attacking a female reporter who’d just asked him an uncomfortable question.

ABC News’ Rachel Scott, during Trump’s visit to the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, tried to ask the president if he agreed with the “domestic terrorist” description that White House officials had disparagingly given to Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse who was killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis over the weekend.

But Trump cut her off.

“By the way, this is ABC fake news, this one,” said Trump, drawing laughs and whoops from those inside the eatery.

“She hasn’t asked me a good question in years. I think a nice woman, but I don’t really like her too much,” the president continued.

Scott tried to repeat the question but Trump ignored her, waved her away and turned to take a different query from another journalist.

He then quipped: “I’d say ABC is about as bad as they get.”

As they say, the fish rots from the head.


The following sites updated:





Posted by at

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

The only way to save the country

First off, thank you to Isaiah and Ann:

  • The World Today Just Nuts
    Alex Pretti's murder is a time to pull together and demand change and mourn
    17 hours ago
  •  

  • Ann's Mega Dub
    What Betty said
    17 hours ago 

    • They co-signed on my "To my Black brothers and sisters."  Tonight, I just want to highlight Christy Perez's article for LGBTQ NATION:

    As the second Trump administration passes the one-year mark, LGBTQ+ people across the United States are living through a profound and destabilizing shift. What has unfolded over the past year is a deliberate reorientation of federal power away from civil rights and toward state-sanctioned exclusion.

    According to advocates at the Human Rights Campaign, this moment is best understood not as a collection of disconnected policy fights, but as a coordinated effort to roll back decades of progress.

    “This administration has shown a glaring lack of care for human life,” Bentley Hudson, Georgia State Director for the Human Rights Campaign, told LGBTQ Nation. “Anything that affirms the dignity of another human being is being undermined because human dignity and connection are the antithesis of authoritarianism.”

    From the first week of the administration, that posture was made clear. President Trump immediately signed a barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ executive actions, including a reversal of federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people and the dismantling of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives across the federal government.

    According to prior estimates from the Williams Institute, nearly 14,000 transgender federal employees and more than 100,000 LGBTQ+ employees of federal contractors had previously benefited from these protections. Their removal created immediate uncertainty in workplaces where discrimination was already widely underreported.

    Miriam, a 42-year-old lesbian federal contractor in Washington, D.C., says the shift has been immediate and chilling. “Before, there was at least a sense that HR had your back,” she said. “Now, I don’t know if reporting something would protect me, or paint a target on me.” 


    Convicted Feon Donald Chump is a murderer.  He is also a menace.  We've got three more years of his cruelty and crimes unless we get the numbers to impeach.  You have got to vote in the mid-terms and you have got to vote Democrat.  It's the only way to save the country.


    "The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

    Tuesday, January 27, 2026.  Even Chump's realizing he's not getting away with the murder of Alex Pretti. 


    Jon Stewart takes on the lies and the stupidity of Kristi Noem and her Homeland Security team as they lie to avoid consequences for their murder of Alex Pretti.


    "That's the facts."  Remember, she dropped out of college and only finished because an institution was willing to give her class credit for serving in the US Congress.  "That's the facts" is grammatically incorrect but maybe she spent K through 12 and on through college slutting around instead of learning.  That's the facts is "That is the facts."  Facts are plural.  "Those are the facts" or "That is the fact" could be used as any fourth grader could tell you.  But "That's the facts" is a statement made by a very stupid and uneducated person.


    Ignorance is not an excuse but should she plead that when she finally faces a court, no one would disagree that she is a very ignorant person and deeply, deeply stupid.


    THE NEW YORK TIMES blog notes that Killer Chump is in a panic:


    President Trump said his border czar, Tom Homan, will direct ICE operations in Minnesota. Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, is set to depart amid growing anger over a second fatal shooting by federal agents.


    If Killer Chump was serious about reform, he wouldn't be meeting with Kristi Noem and her alleged paramour.  

    President Trump met Monday evening in the Oval Office with Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Corey Lewandowski, her top aide, for nearly two hours, as his administration tries to shift its strategy after federal agents killed a second Minneapolis resident over the weekend, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

    In fact, if he were really serious, he would've told her that she can't work as Corey's superior due to the years and years of rumors that the two are involved in an ongoing affair.

    And if Killer Donald Chump was truly serious, NYT wouldn't be noting this:

    The Trump administration appeared to acknowledge on Monday that its investigation into the killing of a Veterans Affairs nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents this weekend was limited to a “use of force” review meant to establish whether government employees had violated training standards.

    Such a move, disclosed in court filings, would represent a much narrower inquiry focused on tactics and conduct than one that would examine whether federal agents should face criminal charges.


    The killer's on the run, trying to rewrite facts, trying to look concerned.  He's trying to hide his kills now.  Not crowing about it like he did with Renee.  Now he's trying to pretend like no one anticipated Alex's murder, like no one could have seen it coming, like he's not openly killing American citizens out in the open.


     



    He's a murderer.  His historical image was always going to be poor but now it's even worse.  The Convicted Felon who murdered American citizens.  That's his slug line.


     




    WSWS notes the reactions of those who knew Alex:


    Co-workers of Alex Pretti along with patients at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis expressed sorrow and anger over the cold-blooded murder of the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was known for his compassion and care.

    Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site spoke to healthcare workers outside of the VA center Monday afternoon, while co-workers inside the facility held a vigil for the well-loved nurse.

    “I worked with him four years ago as a student,” said one worker. “He wasn’t my direct preceptor. I had another nurse who was my first doctor, but Alex was a delight on the unit, always cracking a joke, always had a smile. I didn’t know him as closely as his other ICU colleagues, but this was an absolute tragedy.

    “Lots of my other co-workers were communicating that day and they were just truly very broken.” Responding to the Trump officials’ lying claims that Pretti was “brandishing a gun,” she said, “Frustration was everyone’s immediate reaction at this point. Yeah, he doesn’t deserve that.”

    In a widely shared Facebook post, Jessica Hauser, who described herself as Pretti’s “last nursing student,” described working “shoulder to shoulder” with him over the last four months treating the “sickest of the sick.”

    In her tribute, she wrote in part:

    Alex carried patience, compassion and calm as a steady light within him. Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure shining through during those unbearable final moments captured on camera.

    It does not surprise me that his final words were, “Are you okay?” Caring for people was at the core of who he was. He was incapable of causing harm. He lived a life of healing, and he lived it well.

    He spoke out for justice and peace whenever he could, not only out of obligation, but out of a belief that we are more connected than divided, and that communication would bring us together.

    I want his family to know his legacy lives on. I am a better nurse because of the wisdom and skills he instilled in me. I carry his light with me into every room, letting it guide and steady my hands as I heal and care for those in need.

    A medical student at the VA told WSWS reporters, “It’s pretty messed up what they did, and it was a violation of his basic civil rights, as outlined in the Bill of Rights. So clearly, they don’t care about that stuff anymore. And trying to flip the narrative as if he was doing something wrong, it’s blatant propaganda. It was obvious, if you look at the video.

    “He worked here at the VA and was someone who cared about America’s veterans and was working every day to help the people who have dedicated their lives for this country. So, the fact that a bunch of thugs can just do that is a pretty big injustice.”

    Asked what he thought about the working class preparing a general strike to demand the removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from Minneapolis and other cities, he said, “It’s clear if the federal government doesn’t want to protect the people, they have to take matters into their own hands… Resistance like striking is a great way to go about doing that.”

    Commenting on the strikes of nurses in New York City and nurses and healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente in California and Hawaii, he said, “I haven’t heard about that but that’s great to hear that people care about this. The American healthcare system is far from ideal. For profit, healthcare isn’t how it should be arranged. I’ve heard the Vienna VA is dealing with staffing problems and it makes it harder for veterans to access care.”

    Another VA medical student said, “There’s a vigil today trying to support the community. Our reaction was like any person’s reaction. It was completely jaw-dropping that something happened to that degree and that violent. I just hope we can keep supporting our community and hold strong together.

    “I don’t think the government should try to blame someone for peaceful protesting. It was obvious what happened. It’s harmful to say that’s someone’s fault when they are just enacting their First Amendment rights. It’s even worse when someone who is trying to give back to the community ended up being murdered.”

    The student expressed support for the strikes of nurses and healthcare workers in New York City, California and Hawaii. “I support that as a nursing student. It’s inspirational to see that the community fighting for what’s right, especially with staffing ratios. It’s for patient safety and the nurses’ safety.”

    Two veterans also spoke out forcefully about the murder of Pretti.

    A veteran of the US war in Afghanistan said, “It’s complete unacceptable what happened to Alex Pretti. If there wasn’t already a line in the sand, there certainly is now, and the fact that this is what America has become is completely ridiculous. I’m a veteran myself. I spent 12 months in Afghanistan. Just got back here at the VA from the Whipple [ICE detention] building, where I ran into several other veterans from various areas of war, and all of us have the same opinion that this is completely unacceptable. 

    “It’s capitalism. These wars are all about money, and just whatever they can do to get more money and power.”

    Asked about the conclusions that many of his generation were coming to, he said, “It’s almost like we’re all becoming socialists, which wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

    He concluded by expressing support for a general strike throughout the US: “For it. I’m 100 percent for it.”

    A Vietnam War veteran said, “I didn’t know Alex Pretti personally, but I’ve been going to the VA since 1974 and he served us vets. He was attacked for protecting a woman. He was disarmed. He was held down by five or six cops, and then they took out a gun and shot him in the back four or five times. If that is not deliberate murder, you explain to me what it is.

    “Why ICE should be able to get away with murdering somebody in public for everybody to see is beyond my comprehension. I have been at the protests. I’ve been out there all day long in the cold, in my wheelchair. Everybody in this country is an immigrant. We all came from other countries to come here to be prosperous and, you know, be free. We all have rights.

    “Even the immigrants that come here ‘illegally’ have rights. Okay, we’re all the same. Maybe they came here illegally, but they still have rights. You can’t kill people. You can’t handcuff people and throw them on a plane.

    “When Trump says he hates Somalis and they need to all go back, let me tell you something. There’s a lot of good Somalis here that didn’t rip off a government, that don’t do wrong. This is coming from a president that is a felon, that is a crook.


    We don't yet know the name of the shooter or shooters who plugged the bullets into Alex.  But we do know that earlier this month, the shooter was Jonathan Ross.  He killed Renee Nicole Gold.  There's a development there.  Alex Nguyen (MOTHER JONES) reports:


    A Republican attorney in Minneapolis who gave legal counsel to the ICE agent who shot and killed Renée Good dropped out of the Minnesota governor’s race on Monday, saying he couldn’t win given the Trump administration’s violent campaign in the state.

    Chris Madel stated in a Monday announcement video that, “national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota.” Despite dropping out, Madel claimed to still support Trump’s “originally stated goals” of going after the “worst of the worst,” meaning people convicted of serious crimes.”

    Madel criticized the Trump administration’s justification for the cruelty. “Operation Metro Surge has expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats,” he said. “United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying their papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.”

    He continued: “I cannot support the national Republican stated ‘retribution’ on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”


    It is an election year, other GOPers should be paying attention.  Josh Marshall (TPM) observes:

    Everywhere we’re seeing signs that ICE, the White House and its virtual army of influencers, agitators and generalized degenerates are losing control of the public narrative surrounding the murder of VA ICU nurse and activist Alex Pretti. These things don’t come in one coherent motion. You see it more in a kind of fragmentation, a general loss of a coherent and aggressive message. Individual players and factions start groping for their own climb down and then often at one sudden point run rapidly for the hills. The White House and ICE have over the last 48 hours simultaneously been claiming that Pretti was there for a mass shooting of ICE agents, so thank god they killed him, and, also, that Pretti’s death is a terrible tragedy and it’s all Governor Tim Walz’s fault because Minneapolis is a sanctuary city. Those two messages don’t really hold together.

    [. . .]

    The president himself seems to be moving to declaim any ownership of Pretti’s murder by sending Tom Homan to Minneapolis as his man who “has not been involved in that area” (i.e., isn’t the one who is doing all the killing) to get the situation under control and “report directly to me.” These moments of breakdown in the White House’s feral and, to date, overwhelmingly united propaganda campaign were matched by dozens of other MAGA influencers and other members of the GOP who could not quite manage to keep yelling that Pretti’s killing was anything other than murder.

    [. . .]

    But something else has been happening too. Over the last 24 hours a number of police chiefs have come forward not so much to attack the ICE occupation as to say what we’re seeing in this video and in ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis is not what we recognize as law enforcement. Obviously there are many horrible videos and incidents we’ve seen over recent years that are very much law enforcement. And there’s a real aspect of this which is simply a matter of getting out ahead of the backlash. But this is of a piece with a shift we’ve seen over the last couple weeks in which a lot of the population is not seeing ICE as another flavor of a metropolitan police department but something categorically different, which of course it is.

    Another response caught my eye. This afternoon, General Tony Thomas, former head of the Special Operations Command, repeatedly responded to top administration officials (Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi, et al.) with an image that appears to show Pretti being shot in the back of the head by a masked ICE agents. Thomas was the head of Special Operations Command from 2016 to 2019. It’s a powerful rejoinder to the weekend warriors and Palantir board members who imagine they’ve turned Minneapolis into some version of Anbar Province and that this is somehow a good thing.

    The campaign of lies and distortion coming out of ICE, DHS and the White House more generally is often labeled propaganda. And it certainly is that. But it’s important to know who it is aimed at. If you looked at television and online news and commentary, you’d get the sense that there was a big debate between the left and the right over whether the shooting of Renée Good was justified. Polling and other data suggested this wasn’t really the case at all, that very few members of the public thought ICE agents acted appropriately or with justification. Often these fusillades of obfuscations and simple misstatements of fact aren’t meant to convince anyone but to give allies and reliable influencers something to say. As we’ve discussed in other contexts, often in a modern political argument it’s not really necessary to have a response that makes any sense. You just need to have a response. The one fatal thing is to leave your allies with no set of marching orders, with no clear party line, because you can’t leave people trying to think up a response on their own.


     

      
     

     


    This morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Ben covers a lot.

     

     
    We hear many of the lies the administration has been telling.  Since those include lies about firearms, let's again note  David McAfee (RAW STORY):
     

    But it wasn't just Dem voices chiming in. Instead, the MN Gun Owners Caucus also added, "This is completely incorrect on Minnesota law."

    "There is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota," the group wrote.

    When a reader noted that Pretti reportedly wasn't carrying an ID, which he is required to do under the state's concealed-carry law, MN Gun Owners Caucus hit back with a simple reply:

    "It’s a $25 ticket," the group answered Sunday.

    The group was also asked about the state's magazine restrictions, to which it replied, "There are none."


    As Trina noted last week in "Beans and Greens Soup in the Kitchen," she's a big Lucinda Williams fan.  Lucinda's just released album WORLD GONE WRONG came out Friday.


     

    Winding down, Senator Alex Padilla's office issued the following:


    WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Congress set to consider legislation to further increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding and detention beds this week, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act to end the use of private, for-profit detention facilities, prohibit the practice of detaining families, and ensure due process for detained individuals. It would also end mandatory detention and increase federal oversight, accountability, and transparency of the immigration detention system.

    The bill announcement comes after Padilla and Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) conducted an oversight visit last week to the largest detention center in California, located in California City, to learn firsthand of the concerns surrounding the inhumane conditions detained individuals are facing at the private, for-profit facility. The Senators investigated reports of unsanitary and unsafe facility conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, insufficient access to legal counsel, a severe lack of accommodations for people with disabilities, and the unnecessary use of solitary confinement.

    During the visit, the Senators met with dozens of Californians and other detained individuals, many with no criminal record, whom ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have swept up indiscriminately amid the Trump Administration’s mass detention and deportation campaign. Over 70,000 immigrants are currently detained by ICE, reaching historically high numbers. After 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the deadliest year since 2005, at least six individuals have already died in their custody this year.

    “Last week, I saw firsthand in California City the appalling, inhumane conditions that detained individuals are facing at for-profit facilities as detentions reach record levels. I met with countless people who were injured while being detained or whose basic medical needs are not being met — including a mother who was denied access to her medication to manage her diabetes and received no treatment after ICE grabbed her by the neck,” said Senator Padilla. “As Republicans funnel tens of billions to ICE and CBP, we need to bring back oversight and accountability to the federal detention system, while restoring the right to legal counsel and due process, ending family detention, and raising detention standards. Our bill would finally stop private, for-profit detention centers from lining their pockets by advancing Donald Trump’s cruel mass deportation campaign at the expense of our communities and economy.”

    “Delaney Hall, and every detention center like it, are a moral stain on our country. The conditions are an abdication of the federal government’s responsibility to care for those in its custody. GEO Group was awarded a 15-year, one billion dollar contract by the Department of Homeland Security to warehouse our immigrant neighbors. As taxpayers, we’re footing the bill for a system that is brutalizing those detained within it. Enough is enough,” said Senator Booker. “With the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, we can move away from this system of neglect and cruelty. We can strike a blow against the corrupt for-profit prison model of incarceration. We can guarantee due process for our immigrant neighbors and ban mandatory detentions. Doing this will safeguard our communities and it will bring us steps closer to achieving an immigration system built on dignity and justice that we know is possible.”

    The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is proudly endorsed by a nationwide coalition of over 125 organizations. In addition to Senator Padilla, current cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in late 2025 by Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.-09).

    “Under the Trump Administration, we have seen a shocking surge in the detention of people who have committed no crimes, being locked up in increasingly horrifying conditions, and a dramatic increase in deaths in custody,” said Representative Jayapal. “People, including children, are being held in squalor, largely in private, for-profit detention facilities, all to pad the bottom lines of prison corporations that donate to Donald Trump and Republicans. As Trump has struck down legal pathways and made it nearly impossible to come to or stay in this country, even for those who have been here for decades, this will only continue to get worse. The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is a commonsense solution to protect the civil rights of every person in this country.”

    “We are witnessing appalling conditions for immigration detention and a clear disregard for basic human rights,” said Representative Smith. “No one should be subjected to overcrowded cells, denied medical care, or held in facilities that profit off of human suffering. This legislation establishes the oversight and guardrails needed to end these abuses and ensure that people are treated with dignity.”

    The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would bring much-needed justice and oversight to the immigration detention system. Specifically, the legislation would:

    • Prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention;
    • Phase out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period;
    • Repeal mandatory detention and replace it with a system that requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to present evidence that the people in its detention centers are a threat to public safety or national security;
    • Require DHS to establish civil detention standards that provide, at minimum, the level of protection in the American Bar Association’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards;
    • Mandate the Inspector General of DHS to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards; and
    • End the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.

    Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump’s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda and denial of basic services for detained individuals. Last year, Padilla introduced the Access to Counsel Act to ensure that U.S. citizens, green card holders, and other individuals with legal status can consult with an attorney, relative, or other interested parties to seek assistance if they are detained by CBP for more than an hour at ports of entry, including airports. Padilla and Schiff also introduced the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows detained noncitizens to contact legal counsel and their families. Last July, Padilla joined a Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee hearing to set the record straight on President Trump and Stephen Miller’s cruel mass deportation campaign, blasting the Administration for intentionally stoking fear and scapegoating immigrants.

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