I haven’t shared this guy’s work in some time, either.
I am a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, and I also sit on its board of directors. Today, our president, Marc Murphy, wrote a statement for the organization in defense of journalist Don Lemon, who was arrested by the Trump regime for doing his job.
My favorite part of Raiders of the Lost Ark is when they remove the lid, and Greg Bovino’s face melts off. Of course, that would be impossible. He’s not tall enough to reach the top of the ark. By the way, I love this woman.
You know Donald Trump only cares about the optics because he has been perfectly happy with Greg Bovino’s job performance. Trump doesn’t have a problem with American citizens protesting ICE being murdered in the streets. It’s just too bad the optics aren’t good about that, as even Republicans are starting to cringe. Notice that Trump didn’t have any empathy for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar being attacked? And it’s probably his fault.
In the video below we learn that ICE is now disappearing people. Simply taking them and not documenting where they are taken or what happened to them. Families missing loved ones simply can’t find them in the ICE system anywhere. Hugs
I am reading / hearing clips of a lot of pushback, especially in sports media that ICE is not going after the worst of the worst and instead is going after only hardcore murderers, rapists, predators, or other violent criminals. These people reject any mention or idea that ICE is targeting people who came here legally or have asylum, or even that they are detaining children. They simply watch only their right wing media bubble which lies to them or they are paid / make their clicks supporting the right wing talking points. So I post this with the question what crime did this child do against others? Because we can see the crime being committed against him. There is a video at the link below. Hugs
Ramos’ mother addressed his deteriorating health earlier this week: “Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality,” she told MPR News on Monday. “He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.”
Liam Conejo Ramos, the pre-school student who ICE agents in Minneapolis nabbed last week and shipped off to a Texas detention facility with his dad, is in poor health now, according to his school’s superintendent.
Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Ramos’ Columbia Heights public school district, told HuffPost that she spoke to the 5-year-old’s mother on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not doing great right now,” said Stenvik. “He’s been ill. I’ve been told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.”
His mother is also “incredibly distraught,” she said.
Ramos’ mother addressed his deteriorating health earlier this week: “Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality,” she told MPR News on Monday. “He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.”
Marc Prokosch, the family’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This is despite Arias entering the country legally and having no criminal record, according to Prokosch. Late Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal immigration officials from deporting Ramos and Arias, for now.
The conditions at the Texas facility where Ramos is being held are “absolutely abysmal,” according to attorney Eric Lee, who represents other families being held there.
“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” Lee told Minnesota Public Radio on Monday. “One of my clients had appendicitis, collapsed in the hallway, was vomiting from pain, and the officials told him, ‘Take a Tylenol and come back in three days.’”
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained Jan. 20, 2026 in a suburb of Minneapolis.
Columbia Heights Public Schools
Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) visited the Texas ICE facility on Wednesday to meet with children and families being held there, including Ramos and his dad.
He posted a photo on social media after meeting with them. It shows Ramos either sleeping or lying weakly in his father’s arms, as Castro stands with them:
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) visits Liam Conejo Ramos and his father in a Texas detention center, a week after ICE agents detained them outside their home in Minneapolis.
Congressman Joaquin Castro
“Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center,” Castro wrote. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.”
In a separate video, the Texas Democrat said he spent 30 minutes with Ramos and his dad. He said the 5-year-old “wasn’t in any kind of emergency or anything, physically,” but that he shared the photo of them together so people could see the state he’s in.
“His dad said he hasn’t been himself and he’s been sleeping a lot, because he’s been depressed and sad,” said Castro. “Liam actually was not awake during our visit.”
Well I had hoped to hear from Schumer but at least he is demanding the reforms be in writing. He is getting a lot of pressure to do something this time. But he wanted to end the last shut down with a loss because he was afraid the republicans would destroy the filibuster. He settled for a vote that meant nothing and was totally performative. Will he do the same here? Hugs
Well at least he can articulate the points that need to be made in a strong manner. I liked him better clean shaven. My view on a beard is either grow one big, bushy, and long or don’t grow it. Scruffy is a sad look I think and reminds me of teenagers getting their first facial hairs. I wonder what political job he will run for next. I think Senate, or governor. Hugs
House Majority Leader Chris Croft suspended rules to force an emergency vote immediately after the Jan. 28, 2026, House debate on a bathroom bill forcing people to use facilities aligned with their biological sex at birth. The move pushed the bill through immediately instead of waiting one day as is usually required. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — The GOP-led Kansas House and Senate on Wednesday approved a “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people after House Democrats delayed passage by six hours, proposing multiple amendments to set the stage for a possible legal challenge.
House Majority Leader Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican, called for emergency action to take the vote immediately after debating the bill instead of waiting a day as rules require. House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 passed on an 87-36 vote along party lines, with one Republican opposed.
The Senate concurred with the bill Wednesday evening, voting 30 to 9, also along party lines. The bill will go to Gov. Laura Kelly, who is expected to veto the legislation. It passed both chambers with the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
Democrats fought the bill’s passage in the House, basing their arguments on two primary concepts — that the bill was rushed through the legislative process, giving little time for public input, and that it is an inhumane attack on transgender people.
“This bill spits on basic human decency, and I’m embarrassed we had to spend the entire day trying to defeat this thing,” said Rep. Susan Ruiz, D-Shawnee.
Ruiz also said she believed the bill was targeted at a specific legislator, referring to Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat who is a transgender woman. Boatman was selected to fill a vacant seat in early January.
“I have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society,” Boatman said at the close of debate. “From the bottom of my heart, I hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.”
The legislation would require people to use the bathroom in government buildings that matches their biological sex at birth, rather than their gender, and requires governments to enforce the rule. Both the governmental body and individuals could face steep fines for violating the law.
The bill also requires that the sex listed on a driver’s license and birth certificate match the person’s biological sex at birth.
House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, said in an interview after the House adjourned that the amendments and testimony presented by Democrats throughout the day “gave a lot of fodder” to Kansas courts to make a decision when the case is revived.
During debate, Democrats repeatedly referenced Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach failed attempt in court to ban gender marker changes on driver’s licenses. Woodard said he didn’t think this bill would hold up in court, either.
“As long as Kris Kobach’s our attorney general, I think he’s going to continue to lose in court,” he said.
Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, talks about her experience with sexual assault during a Jan. 28, 2026, House debate on a bill to regulate who can use a bathroom in a government building. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Emotional testimony
It was a long debate full of emotion, sometimes anger, often frustration. Several times legislators were accused of impugning another legislator, and loud exclamations resonated from both sides of the chamber, including emphatic shouts of “oh, baloney.”
Rep. Alexis Simmons, D-Topeka, said she hadn’t planned to talk about a personal trauma but felt compelled to speak up when she heard others testify about how difficult it would be for women who have been raped to share a bathroom with a man.
She referred to testimony by Rep. Charlotte Esau, R-Olathe, who said the bill protected the “silent” women who are unwilling to speak up about being assaulted and who need women-only spaces to feel safe.
“I’m a victim of a sexual assault and never once did I think it was somebody else’s responsibility to manage my trauma,” Simmons said. “I feel enormous sympathy for victims of trauma, that goes without saying, but I do not appreciate my trauma being used to justify legislation that we know will cause harm to people.”
Simmons said she felt more threatened by men than she had ever felt by a transgender person.
“Here in this building, as an intern, as a committee assistant, as staff and as a legislator, I have been sexually harassed more than you would believe,” she said. “If we’re going to talk about women’s safety, we should address the real trauma, which is how women are treated, not putting the spotlight on one new member of our Legislature.”
Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, rejected claims made by Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, and Rep. Bob Lewis, R-Garden City, who argued the bill would protect women.
The bill instead will force transgender men, who live as and look like men, to use a woman’s restroom, Carmichael said.
“He is going to sit down at the stall next to your granddaughter,” Carmichael said. “Is that what you really want? Not only that, there are other facilities which have locker rooms or the like. That hairy-faced man will be standing naked, showering next to your daughter. That’s what this bill requires.”
Other legislators spoke about concerns that the bill would embolden people to attack transgender individuals.
Rabbi Moti Rieber, with Kansas Interfaith Action, watched all six hours of debate, his face often grim.
“This bill is a combination of a culture war-obsessed supermajority and a broken legislative process, using every process trick in the book to get unnecessary and harmful legislation into law with no public input,” he said.
Rep. Dan Osman, D-Overland Park, opposes a bathroom bill during a six-hour House debate on Jan. 28, 2026. The bill forces people to use the bathroom that matches their sex at birth. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Process problems
Throughout the day, Democrats pointed to process problems surrounding the bill. The Judiciary Committee revealed a hearing on House Bill 2426 with less than 24-hour notice. At a later hearing, the bathroom portion of the bill was added with no advance notice and no chance for public input.
Then, in a procedure referred to as “gut and go,” the committee dumped the contents of HB 2426 into Senate Bill 244, which allowed the Senate to simply concur without ever holding a hearing on the overwritten bill.
“Procedurally, it is the absolute worst bill I have ever heard in the Kansas Legislature,” said Rep. Dan Osman, D-Overland Park, who also serves on the Judiciary Committee. “It was done with one purpose and one purpose only — to ensure that the absolute least number of people were available as opponents to this bill and that they were unaware that there would even be a hearing.”
Additionally, there is no fiscal note — a formal notice provided by budget analysts and researchers about how much a bill will cost — for the bathroom provision. That means it is unclear how much local governments could have to pay to ensure they are complying with the law.
Rep. Kirk Haskins, D-Topeka, said he was upset about the rushed schedule and the lack of a fiscal note.
“It upsets me when we rush things through that deal with my constituents, and my constituents, they don’t get a say. That’s what happened here,” he said. “This is a trend. I don’t know what’s going on. Yesterday, we had committee meetings without information. We heard a bill, we didn’t have a proponent, just because we have the power to do it.”
Some legislators focused on details, such as how enforcement would be handled and what would happen if someone violated the bathroom restrictions. Humphries, the Wichita Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said complaints would be made to the governing body if someone suspected a person was using a bathroom that didn’t match their sex at birth.
The bill outlines fines for individuals and also that governing bodies could be held accountable — to fines as high as $25,000 — if they don’t require people to use bathrooms as outlined.
In an interview after the House adjourned, Haskins said he would be comfortable seeing Boatman, as a transgender woman, in the men’s restroom at the Statehouse.
“I’m comfortable with anybody in the restroom,” he said. “I think the bill is based upon fearmongering on issues that are not critical to Kansas, and wherever she wants to go, Rep. Boatman, I’ve got her back.”
As I keep saying ICE is full of white supremacist gang thugs with no decency or morals. They abused a minor and stole his phone then sold that phone. Think of it they steal like the crooks / criminals they are. These ICE people don’t see any nonwhite person as a human deserving rights. Hugs
In late October, a Houston-area 10th grader, 16-year-old U.S. citizen Arnoldo Bazan, watched his father tackled, choked and arrested in public by immigration officials who the teenager said refused to identify themselves and wore no official uniforms or insignia. Arnoldo Bazan was treated much the same: Put into a banned chokehold by whoever these purported law enforcement figures were supposed to be, he was beaten and choked, and had his phone confiscated, despite his pleas that he was underage and a citizen. His treatment at the hands of agents was later justified by professional murder-rationalizer and DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who claimed that he had “assaulted” officers during the arrest by hitting one with an elbow, capping her statement with the following, incredibly smug flourish: “The federal law enforcement officer graciously chose not to press charges.”
The immigration agents in this account are effectively operating as something like federally sanctioned highwaymen–they might as well be privateers in tactical vests and masks, flying the U.S. flag as a defense for why they’re able to do literally anything they want, right up to stealing from citizens for personal profit, confident that nothing will happen to them.
Where is a person supposed to turn, if a man in a vest and mask, who may or may not be ICE, decides to leverage their power against them? Say they take your phone: What do you do? File a police report? Good luck with that–the family of Arnoldo Bazan tried to report their incident to the Houston Police Department, where officers made plain their lack of interest in getting involved in anything related to ICE or DHS. The Bazan family still hasn’t been interviewed by police about the incident, and a department spokesperson told ProPublica that there was no investigation. The message is clear: Federal agents can act with impunity, and local police will only intervene on their behalf.
In late October, a Houston-area 10th grader, 16-year-old U.S. citizen Arnoldo Bazan, watched his father tackled, choked and arrested in public by immigration officials who the teenager said refused to identify themselves and wore no official uniforms or insignia. Arnoldo Bazan was treated much the same: Put into a banned chokehold by whoever these purported law enforcement figures were supposed to be, he was beaten and choked, and had his phone confiscated, despite his pleas that he was underage and a citizen. His treatment at the hands of agents was later justified by professional murder-rationalizer and DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who claimed that he had “assaulted” officers during the arrest by hitting one with an elbow, capping her statement with the following, incredibly smug flourish: “The federal law enforcement officer graciously chose not to press charges.”
This story is of course heinous in and of itself, but also typical to the experience of countless Americans who have had their families torn apart by the “immigration enforcement” campaign of DHS and ICE. If you asked Arnoldo Bazan, then surely he would cite the loss of his father Arnulfo Bazan Carrillo that day in October (he was eventually deported to Mexico) as the most important and gutting detail of the encounter. But when the 16-year-old’s case resurfaced this week in the context of a ProPublica deep dive into the widespread use of banned chokeholds by immigration agents, there was another detail that stood out as particularly galling in its sheer disregard for the idea that agents might face any kinds of consequences: The fact that the ICE agents in question allegedly sold Arnoldo Bazan’s confiscated phone for cash, potentially on the very same day that they took it from him.
In the midst of ProPublica’s investigation and interviews with Arnoldo, the teen explained that he had filmed much of the incident between the ICE agents and his father, who had been driving him to high school when they stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast. There, federal agents swarmed the Bazans’ vehicle, causing them to flee. The two fled on foot into a restaurant supply store, where agents tackled them and began to choke both. This portion of the incident was partially captured on video by bystanders, and Arnoldo Bazan can be heard pleading and crying as officers constrict his throat, hoarsely saying “I’m underage” and “I was going to school!” He later described the scenario as feeling “like I was going to pass out and die.” It’s little wonder he gave not much thought to his phone at the time, but after being returned to his home hours later, he used the Find My tool to locate where it had ended up–at “a vending machine for used electronics miles away, close to an ICE detention center,” according to ProPublica. Seemingly, he was able to somehow visit this location and retrieve the phone–the publication said it had later seen the footage, which “backed the family’s account of the chase.”
This is 10th-grader Arnoldo Bazan. A citizen.Immigration agents grabbed him and put him in a chokehold. "We're from the United States bro!' he screamed.Agents took and sold his phoneAnd when he finally got home hours later, his shirt was ripped, he neck had angry, red welts, and he sobbed.
Just consider, for a moment, the thought process of the immigration agents making this kind of decision. You detain a man under the suspicion of being an illegal immigrant, and brutalize both him and his teenage son who is on his way to high school. You take the phone that the kid is using to record the experience–prior to when you start choking him, that is. One would expect there to be some kind of lip service here about how the phone was being taken for “evidence” or “investigation,” or in greater likelihood the thought that perhaps it can be wiped of any incriminating evidence. Nevertheless, if a federal agent takes your phone from you, do you not expect for them to hang onto it in some kind of official capacity? Maybe to even return your property to you afterward, if you’re really lucky? One thing I’m pretty certain isn’t in the operations manual: Bringing your phone to a kiosk, to sell for cash, and then pocketing the modest payday.
As if it needs to be said, this isn’t law enforcement–this is the kind of behavior that law enforcement is intended to dissuade and prevent. The immigration agents in this account are effectively operating as something like federally sanctioned highwaymen–they might as well be privateers in tactical vests and masks, flying the U.S. flag as a defense for why they’re able to do literally anything they want, right up to stealing from citizens for personal profit, confident that nothing will happen to them. If this was the Old West, this is the type of scenario where the citizens would be expected to find a U.S. Marshal and round up a posse in order to exact justice. Only today, it’s the federal “lawmen” who are doing the robbery, backed by millions of dollars in federal PR and spin to convince half of the U.S. population that you clearly deserved anything that was done to you. Oh, an ICE agent stole your phone and sold it? Well, turns out that as of this moment, that’s the new retroactive penalty for being “disrespectful” or “obstructive.”
What’s also beyond clear is that nothing can be believed from the statements of spokespeople for these federal apparatus, because they’re so often shown to be shameless lies. An unnamed “ICE spokesperson” was quoted by the Houston Chronicle in the immediate wake of the incident with Arnoldo Bazan, claiming the reports that the agents “beat up” the teenager (he ended up in a hospital trauma unit, receiving X-rays and CT scans) were “outright lies,” going on to claim that “it wasn’t even an ICE officer who was engaged in the physical altercation with him at the store or in the video,” while simultaneously refusing to explain who these men were supposed to be if not ICE. In the midst of ProPublica’s piece written several months later, meanwhile, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has given up on pretending that the men were not ICE–something she’s demonstrably lied about in the past as well–and had instead pivoted to the claim that Arnoldo Bazan had assaulted the officers in order to justify their use of banned chokeholds on him. She gave no statement at all about Bazan’s phone turning up at a sell-your-electronics kiosk.
Where is a person supposed to turn, if a man in a vest and mask, who may or may not be ICE, decides to leverage their power against them? Say they take your phone: What do you do? File a police report? Good luck with that–the family of Arnoldo Bazan tried to report their incident to the Houston Police Department, where officers made plain their lack of interest in getting involved in anything related to ICE or DHS. The Bazan family still hasn’t been interviewed by police about the incident, and a department spokesperson told ProPublica that there was no investigation. The message is clear: Federal agents can act with impunity, and local police will only intervene on their behalf.
To be clear: Topics like the use of violent, potentially deadly chokeholds are of far more pressing importance than the threat of say, a lost phone. But I can’t stop thinking about that phone, all the same. The immigration agents in question could have done anything with the device after taking it from Arnoldo Bazan. They could have stuck it in an evidence locker. They could have dropped it in the trash. But they seemingly went out of their way to specifically sell it–the private property of a U.S. citizen–as a way of monetizing the cruel business of enforcing the “immigration” policy of Donald Trump. Just a perk of the job, you know! It’s just one more indication that despite all the talk of the rights of citizens vs. illegal immigrants, “citizenship” truly (and predictably) doesn’t mean anything in the eyes of the men who have chosen to become part of this Trump zealot army of ICE goons. They carry out their actions as if they’ve already come to the conclusion that the Supreme Court will retroactively strip the children of immigrants born in the U.S. of citizenship, and have thus decided to simply act accordingly–visualizing the racist world in which they dream of living.
Scottie's Playtime 