Of course tRump gets to control the money himself and he claims he will control all of Gaza with the goal of creating a beachfront resort and hotel complex with no input from the Palestinian people nor any mention of where they will live. It is a total money making gambit with no humanitarian aid allowed for the Palestinians at all. No food, no healthcare, nothing. It is like they simply will not be there one way or the other. Hugs
What is the US treasury not secure enough? Who is getting the money? Who bought the oil. As the report says this is all to side step the legalities that would or could arise if the money was held under the US legal system in the US. Which leads to questions. Again who is getting the money and why? Is this going to tRump and family while the US taxpayer gets the bill for securing the ill gotten gains? Is it so creditors can’t collect their legally due money again so tRump and family get to keep it. See my issue with all this? The US is being led by a mob boss wannabe gangster. Hugs
I put this one here with because tRump needs to be a total authoritarian strong man dictator to be able to grift and steal as much money as possible both from the US treasury along with other sources. Hugs
The event was not an isolated episode. The Washington Post on Friday reported the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, while in ICE custody, citing a medical examiner who believes his death to be a homicide. A fellow detainee said he witnessed Luna Campos being choked by guards.
Such incidents have come to characterise what is now the most aggressive immigration enforcement surge the city – and perhaps the country – has seen in decades.
The day before Good was killed, Washington announced the deployment of roughly 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. In the days following her death, an additional 1,000 officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were deployed to the city, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hailing its “largest immigration operation ever.”
Caught in the chaos of a raid, Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne said the presence of heavily armed agents in combat gear felt “like an occupying force”.
Rather than de-escalate, Trump has threatened to go further. On Thursday, he raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in response to civil unrest.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media, promising to “quickly put an end to the travesty”.
A minor pretext for a massive show of force
The starting point of the escalation was relatively innocuous. The Trump administration initially alleged financial irregularities involving Somali-run daycare centres in Minnesota as justification for the first raids. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated at around 84,000, most of whom are US citizens.
The decision to target the Somali community echoed Trump’s own rhetoric. In December, he said Somalis should not be welcome in the United States, comparing them to “garbage”. DHS reinforced the message in a post on X announcing the end of a temporary protected status: “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves.”
What followed bore little resemblance to a targeted investigation. Residents reported agents sweeping through residential neighbourhoods and the parking lots of big-box stores, stopping people seemingly at random to demand their immigration status. “Masked men” broke into a north Minneapolis home without a judicial warrant, arresting a 38-year-old Liberian man as his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter were inside, local public radio outlet MPR News reported.
Operation “Metro Surge” has brought together a rarely seen patchwork of agencies far from the border: three-quarters are from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, AP reported, working alongside agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
This blending of uniforms, mandates and chains of command made it nearly impossible for civilians to know who was stopping them, under what authority, and what rights they retained.
A symbolically progressive city
The scale of coordination reflects a strategy first developed at the southern border. Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, Trump declared a national emergency at the border, triggering a significant mobilisation involving DHS, ICE, CBP, the National Guard and US Northern Command.
With the events in Minnesota, the same emergency logic and the same mix of civilian and quasi-military forces are now being applied hundreds of miles from the border.
Minneapolis is the most dramatic example so far, but not the only one. Federal immigration surges have already taken place or are planned in cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, New York and Los Angeles.
Trump has shown little interest in calming tensions, using florid and almost biblical language to describe the continuing operation.
“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA,” he wrote on Truth Social. “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Immigration attorney Scott Shuchart says Minnesota offered a perfect opportunity for the Trump administration, which was looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump has threatened to do.
“The administration has been trying to pick this fight, trying to find a place [resisting] enough to have an excuse to declare an insurrection and use more force,” Shuchart said. “Minneapolis was the next target. It’s ideal for them – it has a large Somali immigrant population, and there is [Minnesota Representative] Ilhan Omar, whom Trump hates. His people are very angry and, frankly, racist.”
Unlike law enforcement agents like police, who are trained in de-escalation tactics, ICE officers appear to relish doing the opposite.
“They are escalating rather than de-escalating,” Shuchart added. “They need this. They don’t want unity: disunity is good for them. Trump has never tried to be more popular or to appeal to the other side. By continuing to feel victimised, he empowers himself politically.”
Minneapolis represents both a symbolic and strategic target: it’s a Democratic stronghold, a “sanctuary city” where local authorities limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and a place still nationally associated with protests against police violence over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Minnesota is also governed by Tim Walz, the Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential nominee.
According to DHS, the surge is part of a nationwide push to fulfil Trump’s promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in American history. ICE has more than doubled its manpower in less than a year, from roughly 10,000 officers to more than 22,000, driven by an aggressive recruitment campaign.
To staff that expansion, barriers to entry have been lowered. Deportation officers must be US citizens, pass a background check and drug screening, and meet basic physical requirements. The job requires carrying a firearm and explicitly authorises the use of deadly force “when necessary”.
“New recruits often have minimal education and abbreviated preparation. The danger is that it attracts people who are more loyal to Trump than to professional law enforcement,” said Shuchart, citing far-right, pro-Trump militias such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
That broader lack of professionalism has fed into another flashpoint in the operation: the use of masks by immigration agents. Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said the practice is intended to prevent officers from being doxxed. But it actually “spurs dangerous impersonations, impedes accountability for officers who are engaged in misconduct, and undermines trust in law enforcement”, the Center for American Progress argued in a report released on August 2025, when hundreds of officers from nearly 20 federal agencies were deployed to the streets of Washington.
In a confidential bulletin circulated to law enforcement agencies last month, the FBI even warned that criminals across several states have been posing as ICE officers to commit robberies, kidnappings and sexual assaults.
A deliberate media blur
The confusion has been amplified online. High-profile right-wing influencers were granted privileged access to operations, blurring the line between the administration, law enforcement agents and partisan media.
Figures with large followings, including “Dr Phil” McGraw and Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, were repeatedly invited on ride-alongs and allowed to interview senior officials, producing content that framed enforcement actions as necessary and heroic. ICE’s own social media accounts actively promoted the operation, which the Washington Post has described as a broader “media machine” designed to project strength and deter resistance.
Pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson went even further, wearing a Border Patrol tactical vest to observe a raid at a Walmart in the Chicago area alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. In a video posted on X, he praised the operation as “amazing”, highlighting what he called “wild scenes”.
In the video below please notice the 8:17 mark how the little Nazi Bovino leads a large group of armed masked thugs into a crowd of people expecting and demanding they move aside for the gang thugs ICE rather than the ICE thugs respect the people. They are filming it and hoping that one person will refuse to move so they can attack them as a pack and use it to claim ICE needs more authority along with the military. This is pure little person bullied on the playground with his big brothers to back him up making all the other little kids move aside for him in fear. This is the country they want to create and so far they are getting it. Hugs
Sam and Emma talk to David Dayen about the fact that the left / progressive members of democrats in congress and how Chuck Schumer is trying to quiet that side of the party. Dayen is a political analyst. He claims that the leadership of the Democratic Party is refusing to use this moment to use ICE actions as reason to use the only leverage they have, the budget battle. Schumer caved the first time, he caved the second time, and has no stomach for even starting this time. He wants to just fill out his time as majority leader knowing he likely won’t be elected again and get as many high end donors as possible to set himself up as wealthy in private life. We need different leadership. But right now we need the public to push the party if possible. We need the democrats in office publicly going on TV and pounding the table over this. Hugs.
It’s the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s second administration this week. There’s not much to celebrate.
The oath Trump took on January 20, 2025: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” He added, “so help me God” at the end.
Tonight, about 1,500 active-duty soldiers, two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, are under prepare-to-deploy orders for possible action in Minnesota. This means Donald Trump is actively contemplating invoking the Insurrection Act. Absent that, deployment of active duty members of the military is prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act. It bears repeating that the American military isn’t meant to be used for domestic law enforcement against American citizens, barring extraordinary circumstances that simply aren’t present here.
The 11th Airborne, nicknamed the “Arctic Angels,” specializes in operating in arctic conditions. That’s convenient for Minnesota, or perhaps for Maine, where there are persistent rumors Trump plans to surge ICE this week, with an eye to the state’s Somali immigrant community. Governor Janet Mills has said Maine officials have been unable to confirm whether the rumors are true, but she’s said she’s working with the cities of Portland and Lewiston, which have sizable immigrant communities, along with local law enforcement, to be ready. “Maine will not be intimidated,” the Governor said.
Trump seems to be on course to become the first President to direct the use of U.S. military forces against American citizens during peacetime. And he’s doing it in a situation where the “unrest” is mostly peaceful protests resulting from Trump’s efforts to inflame the city. The situation is hardly the kind of insurrection, domestic violence, or conspiracy the Act contemplates, but this is a presidency where the facts don’t matter. This week could become an extraordinary moment in American history.
What exactly does the 11th Airborne Division do? When they were activated in 2022, the General running the show told the troops, “I expect every soldier of this Division to be masters of their craft, of Arctic Warfare.” Arctic warfare—headed for the streets of Minneapolis.
According to their website, “The 11th Airborne Division executes expeditionary operations worldwide, conducts Multi-Domain Operations in the Indo-Pacific theater and the Arctic, and on order decisively defeats any adversary in extreme cold weather, mountainous and high-latitude environments through large scale combat operations.” They are ready to “deploy, fight and win decisively against any adversary.” Presumably, that includes the protestor in a giraffe costume ICE agents forced to the ground last week or the one dressed like a pickle. If the stakes weren’t so high, the whole thing would be ridiculous.
And to triple down on what it’s doing in Minnesota, the administration announced it’s investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and plans to subpoena them. No word on specifics of potential charges or whether the subpoenas will be for documents or testimony. It’s hard to imagine what possible federal crimes the two have committed. Former Attorney General Eric Holder put it best—Holder quips, maybe “felony disagreement?”
DOJ is also investigating the partner of the Minneapolis woman an ICE agent shot and killed, apparently looking into whether Becca Good interfered with the agent. Videotape suggests he wasn’t impeded in any way by her comment that he should go out to lunch, moving without any obstruction to take three shots.
But DOJ is not investigating whether the ICE agent who killed her should be charged in connection with the shooting death of Renee Good. On Fox News Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “No, we are not investigating.” Blanche characterized what happened as the agent “defending himself” and said, “we investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate,” claiming that wasn’t the case here. “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell.
Officer-involved shootings are virtually always investigated, most of them by state agencies, which is where the majority of these incidents occur. But this case isn’t just a “shooting”; it’s a death, and possibly a homicide—a possibility that can’t be ruled out without investigation. There is also video evidence that a doctor who tried to treat Good, who was still alive when paramedics arrived 15 or more minutes later, was refused, which could lead to additional charges. This is the kind of case that demands a thorough, objective investigation.
Beyond that, Blanche’s claim that there are too many shootings every year to investigate—he says over 1,000—is as ludicrous as it is wrong. His argument is essentially that cops are shooting too many people to be bothered to investigate. If anything, high numbers would make investigation even more essential. While exact numbers aren’t available, a 2023 assessment by NBC suggested that between 2018 and 2022, 223 people were shot by officers working for or with the four primary federal law enforcement agencies, and that 151, or an average of 30 per year, were killed. Surely, Blanche can muster the resources to investigate 30 deaths in federal officer involved shootings a year—even if it means pulling a few FBI agents off of their work arresting school children and field workers who are in the country without legal immigration status, but hurting no one. In a moment where it would have shown good faith to conduct an investigation, the administration acted like it had something to hide, instead.
It should come as no surprise that recent polls show Trump slumping as he comes to the end of his first year. 58% of Americans call his first term a failure. A mere 37% say that Trump puts the good of the country above his personal gain. Only 32% believe he’s in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives. Perhaps most damning, “Fewer than half say that Trump has the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively, and just 35% call him someone they’re proud to have as president.”
Keep talking with the people around you! The truth still has a way of breaking through when we share it.
Other developments to expect this week:
On Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ response is due in the temporary protected status case we discussed in this post back on January 10. In Svitlana Doe v. Noem, Judge Talwani restricted the government’s efforts to end parole status for Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Guatemalans, Haitians, Hondurans, and Salvadorans with family reunification status. Once briefing is complete, she will decide whether to permanently enjoin the government from ending parole status for these individuals before the time set for it to expire.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case of Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who Trump tried to remove. The Court has seemed less willing to let Trump run roughshod over federal appointees when it comes to the Fed than other agencies. It permitted Cook to remain in place during the litigation, in sharp contrast to how it has treated others, including FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who Trump also ousted. Previously, Trump threatened to prosecute Cook for mortgage fraud, using the same flawed arguments that permeated the case brought in Virginia against New York AG Tish James and the investigations involving Senator Adam Schiff and Congressman Eric Swalwell. More recently, he has threatened Fed chair Jerome Powell with a meritless perjury prosecution. Whether the Court will weigh in on that pattern remains to be seen.
On Thursday, Jack Smith will testify on Capitol Hill, publicly this time, at 10 am. He will remain under restriction from a Florida Judge’s order that prevents him from discussing the details of his report on the Mar-a-Lago indictment.
Also this week, we’ll be on the lookout for developments in the arson at Beth Israel Jewish Synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, that destroyed a significant portion of the temple, including its Torahs. Stephen Spencer Pittman has been charged by both state and federal prosecutors with hate crimes.
The local DA noted the historic nature of the temple:
“Beth Israel Congregation has endured violence in its history, including a 1967 Ku Klux Klan bombing during the civil-rights era, and this case arises amid a documented increase in attacks on houses of worship across the United States, including arson, vandalism, and other acts of target violence,” he said. “Such crimes are intended to intimidate entire religious communities. Violence directed at any place of worship, regardless of faith, will not be tolerated in Jackson, Mississippi.”
Pittman confessed to the attack after his arrest. He referred to the temple as “the synagogue of Satan,” language white nationalists frequently use to denigrate Jews. Jews make up just 2% of the population in the U.S. but are the targets of 69% of the hate crimes in this country, according to FBI statistics. It’s not clear whether the confession means he’ll be pleading guilty.
Finally, this week, just like last week, and the one before it, and the one before that, Trump’s Justice Department is still refusing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
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