A Must-Read And Share:

A Woman in Rural Maine Provides an Essential Reframing of Americans’ Political Views–Please Read and Share

Snippet:

🌿This note has struck a chord and gotten some attention, so I just wanted to say that anyone who wants to share from this note, please feel free, in any way you like :)🌿

Last week, I wrote to my Senator, Angus King, asking him to please focus on three priorities in the new year: 1) Stop foreign invasions 2) Release the Epstein files 3) Restore ACA subsidies.

Senator King wrote me back, because he’s actually really good about answering constituent correspondence. And one of the things he said is that he is increasingly concerned with the “growing gulf between the left and right and the shrinking middle.”

I see this argument a lot, actually, from all these avowed “centrists.” And I will tell you, it pisses me off. It’s an entire mischaracterization of this moment in history.

This is what I wrote:

Senator King,

Thank for your recent response. One of the concerns that you expressed was regarding the “growing gulf between the left and right and the shrinking middle.”

I want to re-frame this, because it’s a mischaracterization.

When we talk about political ideology, the center of the spectrum in the United States is meant to be the Constitution and the rule of law. That is the standard, the baseline, the bare minimum of agreement against which the full right-to-left spectrum of policy negotiations and compromises must ultimately be tested. (emphasis mine)

The gulf that has developed today is not about polarization. The left and right are not migrating further apart. The right has launched off the edge of the chart into violent authoritarianism. There is no corresponding leftward lurch towards social revolution.

The overwhelming and growing public reaction, these thousands and millions of protestors flooding the phones and taking to the streets to demand that the law and the Constitution be followed – we ARE the center!

I tried to explain this to Congressman Jared Golden, too. He really, really wants me to be a far-left activist extremist. But I’m just a wife and a mom living in a cabin in the Maine woods. We chop firewood for heat, we harvest maple syrup tree by tree, our kids work on local shellfish farms. We are deeply ordinary.

But our most basic and fundamental civil rights and liberties are increasingly under assault. If an ICE agent doesn’t like the way I follow their instructions, they will shoot me in the face, call me a f****** b****, and the President will say that according to his own morality in his own mind, that was legal and I deserved it.

As I asked Jared months ago, just how far right do you have to travel to start believing that asking elected officials to follow the Constitution and the rule of law is Progressive Activism?

We are not far left extremists becoming increasingly polarized. We are masses of Americans asking for adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law. We are asking for the bare minimum.

The center is not supposed to be negotiated ever rightward into fascist dictatorship. The center is supposed to be uncompromisingly anchored in the Constitution and the rule of law. This is supposed to be the line of absolute principle.

That is why I am disappointed every single time you vote with the regime. It’s not because I’m polarized. It’s because you’re negotiating with people who don’t believe in the center at all. You are negotiating with terrorists.

What you are witnessing today is not a shrinking middle. The center is actually growing in a rising tide. Millions of Americans are suddenly deadly aware that every Constitutional right that they thought was firmly enshrined is threatened by one single group of far-right, power-hungry, violent rogue extremists.

So if the center is really what you stand for, I have good news for you. Now is your time! The center is the largest it has ever been! Millions of dead-center Americans are as awake, as alert, as active as they have been in a generation. We are demanding the absolute center of political ideologies, and the bare minimum of governance – the restoration of Constitutional democracy. So join us! But understand this about the center. It is not the place for compromise.

Snip-please go read the rest at Annie’s (I didn’t leave a lot out here, so that won’t take long;) and then quickly but thoughtfully join people who are working hard to retain our democracy, and fix the holes. Not doing anything is really simply asking for these very bad things to continue, and history has shown how that ends. Thank you!

Immigration agents deploy tear gas, pepper spray in Minneapolis as confrontations with protesters grow

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigration-agents-deploy-tear-gas-pepper-spray-minneapolis-confrontat-rcna253782

Many of the clashes between agents and protesters are taking place just blocks from where an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good last week.

Jan. 13, 2026, 5:43 PM EST

By Shaquille Brewster, Natasha Korecki and Nicole Acevedo

MINNEAPOLIS — From high school students to elected officials, residents in Minnesota are pushing back against the growing deployment of federal immigration officers in their neighborhoods, leading to days of confrontations and protests.

Resident Neph Sudduth stopped to choke back tears as she witnessed immigration officers roaming around her neighborhood, just a few blocks from the site where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good last week, and clashing with protesters.

“They will hurt you for real! They will hurt you for real!” she shouted at anti-ICE demonstrators, urging them to move away from the officers’ vehicles. Just then, an immigration officer rolled down his window, extended his arm and sprayed a protester point-blank in the face with a chemical agent.

“How dare they come back to this neighborhood,” Sudduth told NBC News. “How forgone you have to be morally to come back here and stand up and do that with your faces covered?”

ICE agents detain a woman after pulling her from a car Tuesday in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that she planned to send more agents to Minnesota this week to quell protesters and continue to enforce immigration policies. President Donald Trump defended the Minnesota operation Tuesday, saying, “We have taken out killers, rapists and drug dealers, people from mental institutions that came in illegally.” ICE has posted on social media about the arrests of people accused of sex crimes and who they allege are in the country illegally.

Cary Wang, a medic who is part of 50/51, a nonpartisan grassroots group, provided medical help Tuesday to several people who were affected by chemical agents deployed by immigration officers.

“I think it’s part of their strategy to intimidate and show that they’re immune to any type of repercussions,” Wang said. “The fact that they’re ramping up their enforcement officers — that they’re bringing more here when they already know it’s a volatile situation — it just doesn’t seem that they’re looking for things to cool down. It looks like they’re actually trying to escalate things.”

The highly charged confrontations between protesters and immigration enforcement have been captured in various clips on social media, including posts showing agents asking people at an electric vehicle charging station if they are citizens and another in which protesters curse and scream as an agent appears to kneel on a man’s neck as officers arrest him.

The videos and images contribute to a picture of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations as they fan out across the country, triggering pushback from residents in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina.

In Minneapolis on Tuesday, resistance to the presence of federal agents was represented by the smell of tear gas, which lingered in the air of a neighborhood following a clash between community members and immigration officers who said they were conducting an operation in the area.

Residents and witnesses told NBC News they came out with whistles to alert others about the operation and act as observers while others began protesting. That’s when, they say, officers began deploying pepper spray and throwing tear gas canisters, which were still on the ground Tuesday afternoon.

ICE agents detain an observer Tuesday after they arrested two people from a residence in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Sam Luhmann, who saw the incident, said he spotted a large number of armed immigration officers in the area “pounding on doors” and arresting a few people.

Then, “they started tackling protesters” and deployed what he believed to be tear gas and pepper balls, Luhmann told NBC News. “It seemed like a war.”

Luhmann, 16, of Chicago, drove to Minneapolis with his older brother after Good was fatally shot. He said they wanted to help community members monitor immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis the same way they did when immigration officers were deployed to Chicago last year under “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Many of the clashes are taking place just blocks from where Good was killed.

Community observers and protesters gathered after immigration officers rear-ended his car, said Christian Molina, 40. Molina told NBC News officers were asking him whether he was in the country legally.

“Luckily, they didn’t hurt me or shoot at me. But what if they did?” said Molina, a U.S. citizen and father of four. He added that he wasn’t doing anything wrong when officers went after him.

“There’s no reason for them to just look at you and try to just chase you.”

DHS did not comment on the incident involving Molina.

The crowd that gathered around Molina was later hit with tear gas and pepper spray.

South of Minneapolis, in Richfield, Border Patrol agents stopped at a Target store Thursday and arrested two U.S. citizens, Democratic state Rep. Michael Howard said.

“Yesterday in Richfield, federal agents, including Greg Bovino, senior commander of US Border Patrol, entered Target without a warrant, physically assaulted, and arrested two Target employees, both who are U.S. citizens. Madness,” Howard wrote in a news release Friday.

Angela Oberfoell, who witnessed the arrests of her co-workers at Target, told NBC News the experience was “traumatic.”

Oberfoell also provided NBC News with a video she recorded of the incident. It shows workers in disbelief and customers confronting Bovino and other Border Patrol agents.

Another video of the second employee arrested showed the moment Border Patrol agents followed the employee as he recorded the agents and yelled “f— you” before the agent tackled the employee to the ground at the store’s entrance.

DHS said of the arrest captured in that video, “This individual was arrested for assaulting federal law enforcement officers under 18 U.S.C 111, assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.”

Howard said that both of the Target workers have been released but that they “sustained injuries and untold trauma while their rights were trampled for no reason whatsoever.”

“We continue to call on ICE to GET OUT of Minnesota,” he added.

Officials in Minnesota sued the federal government Monday to stop the deployment of thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota.

Shaquille Brewster and Natasha Korecki reported from Minneapolis and Nicole Acevedo from New York.

Shaquille Brewster

Shaquille Brewster is a political reporter for NBC News and MSNBC.

Natasha Korecki

Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Nicole Acevedo

Nicole Acevedo is a news reporter for NBC News.

Maggie Vespa, Colin Sheeley and Jean Lee contributed.

Some Democrats push for a fight over DHS funds after ICE shooting in Minneapolis

The democrats have to stand on this issue. Why have a budget if all the constitutional rights and laws of our country can just be ignored by the current administration? Hugs

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-push-fight-dhs-funds-ice-shooting-minneapolis-rcna253799

They want guardrails on immigration agents. The issue has risen to the fore ahead of a key Jan. 30 deadline after an ICE officer shot and killed an American woman in Minneapolis.

ICE officers question a man’s status on Lake Street near Karmel Mall in Minneapolis in 2025.Christopher Juhn / Anadolu via Getty Images file

Jan. 13, 2026, 4:48 PM EST

By Sahil Kapur, Kyle Stewart and Melanie Zanona

WASHINGTON — Democrats are wrestling with whether to use a key Jan. 30 deadline to demand constraints on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed an American woman in Minneapolis.

Progressives in the House and Senate are calling on their party to hold firm in opposition to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security unless it comes with conditions — such as requiring agents to wear identification, limiting Customs and Border Protection agents to the border and requiring judicial warrants to arrest suspects in immigration cases.

They say Trump is using autocratic tactics by deploying masked agents in cities to intimidate Americans who don’t support him.

“Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing DHS, wrote on X after the Minneapolis shooting.

Minnesota sues Trump administration over immigration enforcement operations

04:50

The Congressional Progressive Caucus announced Tuesday that its members have formally voted to oppose any bill to fund DHS “unless there are meaningful and significant reforms to immigration enforcement practices.”

The blowback from Democrats to the Minnesota ICE shooting, which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House have defended, may pose a problem for Republicans in Congress who will need at least some Democratic votes to fund the government — including DHS — before Jan. 31 or risk a shutdown.

Democratic opposition has already frozen a DHS measure that was slated to be added to an appropriations package getting a Senate vote this week. Republicans control Congress and have largely stood by Trump on ICE deployments across the country, but such a bill requires 60 votes to pass the Senate.

Congress may have to fall back on a stopgap bill to prevent a funding lapse for DHS. That’s where things get trickier for Democrats. If House Republicans pass a continuing resolution on their own, which would keep DHS running on autopilot, Senate Democrats would again have to choose between accepting it and forcing a partial shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wouldn’t say whether he’s open to guardrails on immigration enforcement when asked Tuesday by NBC News.

But he called on Democrats not to allow another shutdown.

“I think government shutdowns are stupid. I don’t think anybody wins. I hope the Democrats share that view,” he said, while acknowledging that DHS funding is “the hardest one, and it’s possible that if we can’t get agreement, there could be some sort of a CR that funds some of these bills into next year.”

The record-long shutdown last fall, triggered over a health care dispute, yielded no concessions for Democrats. And unlike the Affordable Care Act, a winning issue for Democrats, some in the party are more leery of a standoff over immigration. The center-left group Third Way is encouraging Democrats to steer clear of reviving the “abolish ICE” discourse.

And some Democrats note that the $170 billion infusion of funding for immigration enforcement was approved by Republicans on a party-line basis in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last summer. That wouldn’t be affected even if DHS funding through the normal appropriations process expires.

One Democratic aide, discussing the sensitive topic on condition of anonymity, noted that a stopgap funding bill for DHS would provide fewer guardrails and more flexibility for Noem to move money around as she sees fit.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sidestepped questions about whether he favors withholding DHS funding to slap restrictions on ICE, calling it “one of the major issues that appropriators are confronting right now.”

“The appropriators are working on that right now with the four corners and trying to come up with an agreement,” he said.

House Democrats’ strategy on ICE was a major topic of conversation during a closed-door party meeting Tuesday, according to attendees. But the conversation focused more on finding ways to hold the Trump administration accountable, other than withholding money for the agency.

One example of how they plan to do that: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a field hearing in the Minneapolis area on Friday, where they plan to highlight the impact of ICE in the community.

“That was a big bulk of what we talked about,” said Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who plans to attend the hearing. “The plea was to the caucus was that we have to hold people accountable. We have to do oversight when our colleagues won’t do it.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee overseeing immigration and former Progressive Caucus chair, said that if Democrats wait until next year, “a lot of people are going to die between now and then, because this is now a federalized military force that’s being unleashed.”

“Obviously, the Senate has more leverage than the House, but I do think it’s also critically important for us to be on the record against this amount of funding, number one, and funding without any accountability or guardrails,” she said. “So we have a list of guardrails that we have been working with our leadership and the Senate.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., slammed ICE and Noem as “totally out of control” and in need of “commonsense” restraints that reflect law enforcement conduct.

“What’s in front of us right now is a spending bill that will go either one of two ways,” he told reporters. “Either Republicans will continue their ‘my way or the highway’ approach as it relates to the Homeland Security bill, and if that happens, then it’s going to be on them to figure out a path forward.”

Before the Minneapolis shooting, a national poll by The Associated Press found last month that just 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 60% disapprove.

A YouGov/Economist poll taken Jan. 9-12, after the Minneapolis shooting, found that 69% of American adults said they saw video of it, while another 22% said they had heard about it. Seventy-three percent said ICE agents should wear uniforms during arrests, and 56% said they shouldn’t be allowed to wear masks while arresting people. A plurality said ICE was making the U.S. “less safe.” And respondents said 46%-43% they support “abolishing ICE,” within the survey’s margin of error.

Sahil Kapur

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Kyle Stewart

Kyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.

Melanie Zanona

Melanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.

Natasha Korecki contributed.

Protester permanently blinded after DHS agent fires nonlethal round at close range

These criminal gang thugs ICE are out of control and unless the police stand up for the public we are not a land of the free and we have no rights. Only might makes rights if that is the case, only those with the guns have rights. They hurt people and destroy property and suffer no consequences. Can a modern nation, a civilized nation survive that? This is shithole drug cartel warlord country. Now ICE will rush into peaceful protestors legally standing where they are allowed, grab one and drag them on to federal property to detain and beat them. Hugs

The video shows a group of protesters standing on the steps of the center, with several chanting and holding signs and one holding a megaphone. An officer then grabbed one of the young demonstrators—who appeared to be standing peacefully—by the arm, and dragged him up the steps.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-dhs-2674880952/

Stephen Prager, Common Dreams

January 13, 2026 6:27PM ET

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain a man on a street during a federal immigration operation, in Indio, California, U.S. December 18, 2025. REUTERS/Daniel Cole TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A young protester in Santa Ana is permanently blind in one eye after being hit in the face at close range by a “nonlethal” round fired by a Department of Homeland Security agent last week amid nationwide protests against an immigration agent’s killing of US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis.

According to a report from the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, the 21-year-old “underwent six hours of surgery and… doctors found shards of plastic, glass, and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face, including a metal piece lodged 7 mm from a carotid artery.”

His aunt, Jeri Rees, told the Times that doctors feared removing the shrapnel from her nephew’s face, concerned it could kill him, and that he had also suffered a skull fracture around his eyes and nose and had permanently lost vision in his left eye.

The shooting outside the Civic Center Plaza that took his sight on Friday evening was caught on film and has circulated widely on social media, and came hours after an earlier protest, organized by the organization Dare to Struggle, saw hundreds of demonstrators gather in downtown Santa Ana to oppose President Donald Trump’s flooding of US cities with immigration agents.

The video shows a group of protesters standing on the steps of the center, with several chanting and holding signs and one holding a megaphone. An officer then grabbed one of the young demonstrators—who appeared to be standing peacefully—by the arm, and dragged him up the steps.

As he attempted to wrest himself free from the agent’s grip, one of the protesters in the crowd threw an orange traffic cone in the direction of the struggle. This prompted at least one other officer to begin firing their weapons toward the crowd, striking one woman before striking Rees’ nephew in the face, causing him to drop to the ground.

The agent then grabbed him by the hood of his sweatshirt, dragging him across the ground. His face is visibly bloody and he appears to be struggling to breathe as he is dragged away by the neck.

According to the Times, another video shows Rees’ nephew lying bloodied on the ground inside the building while another agent fires pepper balls at another person who approached the building, attempting to film the incident.

While such projectiles are often described as “nonlethal,” Ed Obayashi, the Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and legal adviser to police agencies, told the paper that firing one just feet away from a person’s face “constitutes as deadly force as far as the law is concerned” because “these projectiles can cause serious injury [or] death.”

He added that officers are only supposed to deploy deadly force in situations where they believe their lives are in imminent danger or that they are at risk of grave bodily harm.

Rees said that her nephew told her agents pressed his face into the pool of blood and did not immediately call paramedics. She said her nephew also told her that “the other officers were mocking him, saying, ‘You’re going to lose your eye.’”

“This is an egregious abuse of power,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.). “Americans have the right to protest without fear of retaliation or worse. Trump’s violence must stop now.”

THIS IS F***ING ILLEGAL

Remember the clip I posted of the house invasion yesterday? Well this is the full clip. With no warrant ICE gang thugs broke into the home that had kids in it, stormed the house like they were in a war zone going after enemy combatants, and manhandled the woman and her kids. This is not police behavior, and it is not legal. But what can a person do if twenty heavily armed guys broke into your home? Where are the police who are to be protecting the public from gangs like this. No one knows who these guys are, they could be there to rob someone or rape them. Maybe traffic the kids? Who knows. I am tired of this. These armed criminal gang thugs are not going into bad areas, areas with other gangs, areas that they might be hurt, they are going after suburban parents and homes with kids? Hugs

Better Than Republicans Now!

Links within, and everything. Give it a read-especially the letter!-you’ll enjoy it. -A.

Hillary Clinton May Finally Get Lock-Her-Upped For Refusing Stupid Subpoena From Dipsh*t James Comer

Hell yes, and welcome to the resistance, guys.

Doktor Zoom

So far, the Justice Department has released only about one percent of the files it has on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump’s involvement with the serial child molester, and the government’s failure to hold Epstein accountable. It’s the sort of thing Congress should be demanding action on, but the House Oversight Committee was instead planning to spend this week grilling Bill and Hillary Clinton about their long-ago contacts with Epstein, because that would take the spotlight off Trump.

Yesterday, the Clintons sent a scathing four-page letter (New York Times archive link) to committee chair James Comer (R-Kentucky) telling him why they wouldn’t be playing along, arguing that instead of demanding the Justice Department comply with the law requiring release of the Epstein Files, Comer and the Oversight Committee “have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role.”

You should definitely give the full Clinton letter a read, because it lays out not just why the Clintons won’t go along with Comer’s attempt to shift attention away from Trump and the DOJ’s foot-dragging, but also why this government’s corruption must be resisted wherever possible, from the streets to closed-door hearing rooms. The letter, not from their attorneys but from the Clintons themselves, starts by laying out the unprecedented attacks on the rule of law by Trump’s government, and sums up:

Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences.

For us, now is that time.

The letter also notes, again, that Bill Clinton has repeatedly called for the DOJ to release every last bit of information about him from the Epstein Files, which isn’t exactly what somebody trying to hide something would say. As opposed to, let’s say, a president who has fought every single attempt to release everything.

Separately, the Clintons’ attorneys sent Comer a more conventional letter explaining why they consider the committee’s subpoenas “invalid and legally unenforceable,” which may be useful if Comer follows through on his threat to charge the Clintons with contempt of Congress. But the Clintons’ letter, like Comer’s attempt to drag them before the committee for show, is openly and unabashedly political.

In what may have been a deliberate throwback, the Clinton letter is in good old-fashioned typewriter text (or a digital recreation of it), not a more obvious laser-printed Times New Roman or Arial, as if to suggest that in contrast to a clumsy Twitter message or a random email blast, the IBM Selectric is an elegant communications device for a more civilized age:

Screenshot of the Clintons' letter to James Comer, with stylized presidential seal embossed in gold above the names 'WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON / HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON' printed on letterhead. Text: 'January 13, 2026 Chairman Comer, We want to take a moment, given everything, to address you directly. This past year has seen our Government engage in unprecedented acts, including against our own citizens. People have been seized by masked federal agents from their homes, their workplaces, and the streets of their communities. Students and scientists with visas permitting them to study and work here have been deported without due process. The people who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol have been pardoned and called heroes. Agencies vital to the country's national security have been dismantled. Universities, media companies, and law firms have been subjected to threats to their funding, access, and licensing unless they made concessions and surrendered their right to constitutionally protected free speech. American troops have been deployed on the streets of our towns and cities. The Justice Department has been used as a weapon, at the direction of the President, to pursue political opponents. And most recently and searingly, an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother only days ago. Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time.'

While Comer accepted sworn, written declarations from eight other people the committee subpoenaed, he’s only demanded that the Clintons show up in person to be grilled behind closed doors. But no thanks, they write, we aren’t going to help you create a sideshow that detracts from the administration’s stonewalling on releasing the files:

We have tried to give you the little information that we have. We’ve done so because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific. If the Government didn’t do all it could to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work — to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again. There is no evidence that you are doing so.

Predictably, Comer is now rattling on about charging Bill Clinton with contempt of Congress for not appearing Tuesday, and Hillary as well, since there was little chance she’d show up for her scheduled deposition today. Anticipating that, they basically tell him in the letter, BRING IT:

Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment. This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves.

Indeed, bringing the Republicans’ cruel agenda to a standstill while you work harder to pass a contempt charge against us than you have done on your investigation this past year would be our contribution to fighting the madness.

If that’s the direction Comer goes, the letter warns, get ready, because while they’re still willing to testify in a public hearing, the Clintons will also “defend ourselves in the public arena and ensure this country knows exactly why you are doing so, instead of helping the American people who need this Congress’s work and protection.”

The letter closes with another warning, with a nice jab at MAGA obsessions with the perfectly legal and cromulent use of autopens on official documents, which is fun to read in a letter that looks as if it came from a typewriter. (Are the signatures here digital or handwritten, and does anyone care?)

Screenshot of Clinton letter: 'Continue to mislead Americans about what is truly at stake, and you will learn that Americans are better at finding the truth than you are at burying it. Continue to pursue autopens instead of penning laws Americans need, and you will learn that you are signing away any remaining chance of being on the right side of history. Continue to abet the dismantling of America, and you will learn that it takes more than a wrecking ball to demolish what Americans have built over 250 years. Sincerely, [signatures] Bill Clinton / Hillary Rodham Clinton'

It’s a hell of a read, and it matters because unlike all the ways Trump and his sycophants have thrown norms (and the law) under the bus, this letter makes clear that the Clintons are defying the subpoenas not out of contempt, but to highlight that the GOP “investigation” is itself a political act aimed at intimidating Trump’s enemies. This isn’t an attempt to escape answering tough questions — they’ll happily do that in the open and in a sworn written statement. It’s civil disobedience, because this is a goddamned emergency.

Rebecca Solnit writes that we need to see more of this from people whose privilege usually protects them. They could testify in private and ride out the political screeching (neither would be at any risk) but they’re instead saying hell no and courting a contempt charge because it would bring attention to Trump’s crimes:

It’s significant that they’ve come out fighting. This is specifically about James Comer’s attempt to force them to testify about all things Epstein, even as this administration covers up for Epstein’s best friend, refuses to release 95% of the Epstein files, etc. What’s striking here is that the Clintons articulate it’s all of a piece with all the other appalling and lawless things the Trumpists are doing. That these supremely status quo/high status people see themselves as under attack in illegitimate ways and are now fighting back with broad accusations matters, not least because it may shake up some other people with high status/status quo positions, including high up in the Democratic Party.

We also wholeheartedly endorse Solnit’s caution that “I don’t really want or need to hear about why you don’t like the Clintons,” because yes, that conversation has been ongoing for 35 years, but this is something new, and because hey, did you notice the whole building is on fire?

https://open.substack.com/pub/wonkette/p/hillary-clinton-may-finally-get-lock?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Warren TORCHES Schumer And Warns Dems About ‘Abundance’

Warren was my preferred candidate in 2020. I would vote for her again if she runs. The country needs progressives who understand how hard it is for the average person in the US today. Due to the strangling of wages/ incomes for the majority and the increasing moving of all the countries wealth upward to the top few, people can not survive in this society. Hugs

THIS TRIGGERS TRUMP EVERY TIME…

notice at the intro Sam mentions that China has a huge trade surplus. Making lots of money and they don’t even tariff. Hugs

More ICE clips from The Majority Report

Things We Can Do

to spread brightness in as much space around us as we can, especially if we’re in an area endangered by the Trump enforcement brigades we’re seeing. But even if we’re not, we can extend these actions locally to build community so we’ll be safer when it is our turn.

For Minnesotans afraid to leave home during ICE crackdown, this pizza joint delivers free food across the city

Jan 12, 2026 1:04 PM

As the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown ramps up across Minnesota — especially following a deadly shooting of a bystander named Renee Nicole Good last week — locals are rallying to support their vulnerable community members.

One such example is local pizza chain Wrecktangle Pizza.

“F—k ICE, eat pizza, and we love you,” representatives of the pizza joint and nearby sex shop, The Smitten Kitten, started a video on Thursday.

Here, they announced they were teaming up for a community initiative.

“We, at Wrecktangle, at all locations for the rest of the weekend, are going to donate one pizza for every single pizza sold, to families and friends that are affected by the increased ICE presence in Minneapolis,” one representative said.

In the caption, they noted that they are “set on volunteers” who would deliver pizza and other goods to people unable to leave home, but added: “We could really use some help raising funds to keep the momentum and keep people safe inside during these disturbing and uncertain times.”

Wrecktangle leaders said they started with $2,000 in donations from family and friends, and figured if they posted their Venmo information, they might be able to double that.

The support exceeded their expectations.

In addition to the collection of non-perishable foods and home essentials, two days later, they announced that they had received over $83,000 in donations.

Along with the donations, the local chain sold 2,291 pizzas between Thursday and Sunday.

“We couldn’t be more stunned — or grateful,” they shared on social media.

During this time, they distributed 600 pizzas, non-perishables, and toiletries to vulnerable families, adding that “we have been working only with volunteers we personally know and trust to ensure the safety of our community.”

But thousands more meals are being made and prepared for free delivery as quickly as possible.

Wrecktangle co-owner Breana Evans told Bring Me The News that nearly every local restaurant in their area has been negatively impacted by the presence of ICE.

“We have staff, coworkers who are directly affected and scared to come to work,” Evans said. “It’s not fair for our friends to be scared to provide for their families and make a living. We know how to make food. So, we said, let’s just start making food.”

The company began donating their 13-inch frozen pizzas privately by connecting with their network of neighboring businesses and organizations. But then they realized the community could expand their efforts even wider.

Trusted volunteers were sent off to deliver free pizzas and meal kits, and others came to the shop to help assemble the goods.

“I think that’s a testament to our community and that there’s more good in the world than this horrible bad that they’re making us go through,” Evans said.

After meeting an immediate need to distribute food, Wrecktangle owners are working to figure out how to best use the funds they raised to help the community.

A screenshot of an Instagram story from Wrecktangle pizza in Minnesota, sharing that 2,291 pizzas will be donated to people in need — *A screenshot of an Instagram story from Wrecktangle, sharing a weekend total of donated pizzas. Photo courtesy of Wrecktangle/Instagram*

“We are working hard with nonprofit organizations to make sure these funds do the most good. We have not yet touched a cent,” they shared on social media. “As soon as we have updates as to specifically where your kindness is going, outside of purchasing food and home products, we will keep you thoroughly updated.”

And on Sunday, to finish out the campaign, Wrecktangle encouraged supporters to spend their money with other local restaurants. For one day only, they accepted emails containing a photo of a receipt from any Minnesota restaurant, and an additional meal was donated on their behalf.

“A lot of our community wants to come back to work, and we need to make sure these restaurants can help support their staff,” Evans said in a social media video. “We need you to be there.”

s of Monday morning, Wrecktangle shared on an Instagram story that they received 176 emailed receipts, which translates to 176 more meals for vulnerable community members.

“This week has spread so much love and friendship,” the company added in an Instagram story. “And we couldn’t be more grateful.”

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