Category: Technology

Skip navigation Search Create 9+ Avatar image Let’s talk about disinformation about Minnesota….

Belle talks about the right wing propaganda being generated to discredit the woman shot by ICE in Minnesota, Renee Good.  It was not even a good fake hit piece as Belle describes it.  I posted a few weeks ago about Russian and other enemy off the US countries posting stuff that is not true so that once it is circulated it discredits the real news in peoples minds.  Ron fell for that himself.   

Ron watches YouTube clips in the morning with his coffee.  Yesterday he was listening to what he thought was a financial newsgroup called Buffet Unfiltered.  That site reported that Deutsche Bank had called in tRump’s loans and seized tRump Towers.  I questioned it because no other news source reported anything and I felt with news that important they would have.  Today they reported how underwater on loans and to creditors tRump was, again that is believable but not the way Ron was telling me was being reported.  So I again warned him about misleading propaganda.  He asked me who to check the stuff out.  I showed him how to both search out the group, which on their YouTube about page said they were fictional dramatizations, then I showed him how to search new groups like ground news for the story reported.  Now he is upset these groups do this.  But it was a good lesson for both of us.  I post a lot of what I think is real news.  However I have made mistakes and posted stuff not true or quite accurate.   Thankfully the people who come here are smart and have pointed these out to me and I can correct or take the posts down.  Thank you for helping keep this site as honest and correct as it is important to me.    Hugs

Witnessing the Gaza Genocide | Anthony Aguilar | TMR

The Trump Administration Says It’s Illegal To Record Videos of ICE. Here’s What the Law Says.

The lawless tRump and criminal gang Gestapo thugs in ICE do not want to be held accountable.  They are demanding they have the right to lie and you must believe it.  They think they would be allowed to get away with everything and anything to harm and terrorize people if no can see what they do.   So they try to convince you it is a crime to record them.  It is not a crime.  But remember how racist cops tried to do the same thing after the George Floyd murder?  We must not let them take our rights away from us and we must fight against the tyrannical dictatorship of a lawless government ruling a powerless public.  Hugs

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-administration-says-illegal-record-110053452.html

C.J. Ciaramella
The Trump Administration Says It’s Illegal To Record Videos of ICE. Here’s What the Law Says.

The Trump administration believes you don’t have the right to record Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in public. This stance is both factually wrong and an attempt to chill free speech by conflating it with violence.

At a July 2025 press conference in Tampa, Florida, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said, “Violence is anything that threatens them and their safety, so it is doxing them, it’s videotaping them where they’re at when they’re out on operations, encouraging other people to come and to throw things, rocks, bottles.”

In September 2025, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called “videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online” a form of doxing. She added, “We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law.”

These aren’t idle threats. The Trump administration strong-armed Apple into removing an app from its mobile store that tracked ICE activity and threatened criminal investigations into its creators.

The most aggressive application of this policy has come in Chicago under “Operation Midway Blitz,” where ICE officers have relentlessly targeted protesters, reporters, and clergy engaged in protected First Amendment activity.

In October, a group of journalists and protesters filed a lawsuit alleging “a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians.”

In court filings, the plaintiffs stated that federal officials’ own testimony illustrated their point. For example, when ICE field director Russell Hott was asked if he agreed “that it’s unconstitutional to arrest people for being opposed to Midway Blitz,” he answered “No.”

“Similarly, [U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Greg] Bovino testified that he has instructed his officers to arrest protesters who make hyperbolic comments in the heat of political demonstrations, even though such statements—which do not constitute true threats—are protected speech,” the motion argued. (Hott and Bovino’s depositions were filed under seal, and those comments were later redacted in a corrected filing by the lawsuit plaintiffs, but not before others took screenshots of them.)

Based on voluminous evidence that feds in Chicago ignored her previous orders to curb their use of force, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis issued a preliminary injunction against DHS in early November 2025, saying the government’s conduct “shocked the conscience.”

Ellis found much of the officials’ testimony not credible. Bovino, for instance, testified that he never used force against a protester he was filmed tackling, and in another instance, Ellis said, he lied about being hit with a rock before firing tear gas at demonstrators. Nor did evidence support the government’s claims that federal officers issued warnings before firing less-than-lethal projectiles at those protesters.

“Describing rapid response networks and neighborhood moms as professional agitators shows just how out of touch these agents are, and how extreme their views are,” said Ellis.

The Trump administration responded by calling Ellis an “activist judge,” but it is squarely wrong when it comes to recording and protesting the police. Cato Institute senior fellow Walter Olson points out that, “While the Supreme Court itself hasn’t yet faced the issue squarely, the seven federal circuits that have done so…all agree that the First Amendment protects the right to record police performing their duties in public.”

Likewise, federal circuits have upheld the right to use vulgar language to oppose police without fear of retaliation, and to warn others of nearby police checkpoints or speed traps.

As Olson writes, the administration’s “attempt to alter reality by establishing new legal facts on the ground” ultimately serves as a green light for informal repression. “If the agents come to believe that they have blanket immunity [for] whatever they do, or that citizens have no right to record them, they are more likely to take aggressive informal action, such as grabbing phones or taking news reporters into custody on charges of obstruction (perhaps later quietly dropped).”

It’s not hard to find examples of this rotten agency culture in practice. In late October 2025, ICE officers broke out the window of a U.S. citizen’s car and detained her for seven hours after she followed and photographed their unmarked vehicles. DHS accused her of reckless driving, attempting to block in officers with her car, and resisting arrest—all claims that she and her lawyer deny. Prosecutors did not charge the woman with a crime.

Recording government agents is one of the few tools citizens have to hold state power accountable. Any attempt to redefine observation as “violence” is not only unconstitutional—it’s authoritarian gaslighting. When a government fears cameras more than crimes, it isn’t protecting the rule of law. It’s protecting itself.

The post The Trump Administration Says It’s Illegal To Record Videos of ICE. Here’s What the Law Says. appeared first on Reason.com.

Let’s talk about Trump’s Venezuela dreams collapsing….

‘I’m not mad at you’: Renee Good’s last words captured by ICE agent who killed her

Trump discussing how to acquire Greenland, US military always an option, White House says

I want to thank Ten Bears for the link to this story.  Hugs https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2026/01/06/page-tue-and-a-big-fu-to-you-too/

https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-advisers-discussing-options-acquiring-greenland-us-military-is-always-an-2026-01-06/

By ,  and 

An aerial view shows a fjord in western Greenland
An aerial view shows a fjord in western Greenland, September 16, 2025. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
  • U.S. purchase of Greenland also an option being discussed
  • Invasion would send shock waves through NATO
  • Trump’s drive to acquire Greenland ‘not going away’, official says
  • Some U.S. Republicans and Democrats push back against Greenland comments
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is discussing options for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S. military, in a revival of his ambition to control the strategic island despite European objections.
Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a U.S. national security priority necessary to “deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” the White House said in a statement.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House said.
Greenland has repeatedly said it does not want to be part of the United States. Leaders from major European powers and Canada rallied behind the Arctic territory on Tuesday, saying it belongs to its people.
A U.S. military seizure of Greenland from a longtime ally, Denmark, would send shock waves through the NATO alliance and deepen the divide between Trump and European leaders.
The strong opposition has not deterred Trump from reviewing how to make Greenland a U.S. hub in an area where there is growing interest from Russia and China. Trump’s interest, initially voiced in 2019 during his first term in office, has been rekindled in recent days in the wake of the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Emboldened by Maduro’s capture last weekend, Trump has voiced his belief that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” and has put pressure on both Colombia and Cuba.
He has also started talking about Greenland again after putting it on the back burner for months.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Trump and his advisers are discussing a variety of ways to acquire Greenland.

IS GREENLAND FOR SALE?

Those options include the outright U.S. purchase of Greenland or forming a Compact of Free Association with the territory, the official said. A COFA agreement would stop short of Trump’s ambition to make the island of 57,000 people a part of the United States.
The official did not provide a potential purchase price.
“Diplomacy is always the president’s first option with anything, and deal making. He loves deals. So if a good deal can be struck to acquire Greenland, that would definitely be his first instinct,” the official said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that recent administration threats against Greenland did not signal an imminent invasion and that the goal is to buy the island from Denmark during a classified briefing late on Monday for congressional leaders, two sources familiar with the briefing said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Rubio’s comment.
Members of Congress, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, pushed back against the administration’s comments on Greenland, noting that NATO member Denmark has been a loyal U.S. ally.
“When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, said in a statement.
Administration officials say the island is crucial to the U.S. due to its deposits of minerals important for high-tech and military applications. These resources remain untapped due to labor shortages, scarce infrastructure and other challenges.
“It’s not going away,” the official said about the president’s drive to acquire Greenland during his remaining three years in office.

Reporting by Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Bo Erickson; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker

Mamdani Hits The Ground Running

Let Them Fight…

Trump says the U.S. government may reimburse oil companies for rebuilding Venezuela’s infrastructure

No healthcare subsidies, no money to feed poor people or kids who need government help to have lunch.  As a kid often the only meal I got was lunch at school.   No one monitored if I paid or not I was given food to eat like every other kid.   In Jr / Senior high school, say from 13 to 18 again my only meal was lunch or snacks at school.  But yes the tRump admin was cutting every safety net program and even halting child care so it hurts Walz, and stopping FEMA funds to states run by democrats among other cuts to already congress approved funding.   All illegally I will add but the republicans in congress are too scared of tRump to object to his being a tyrant.   But we have plenty of money for companies and businesses to extract oil.   

On The Majority Report I am listening to an oil person saying that the price of oil has fallen below $50 a barrel because of a glut on the market, and that Venezuelan oil is “sour oil” meaning it is hard to refine.  He says that to make a profit on that prices have to be over $80 dollars a barrel.   Which means this demented daydream of Rubio’s and Miller’s is not about oil so much as territorial control over other countries and Rubio has long wanted Cuba to fall to the US so his parent’s lands and money can be claimed from the rightful owners of it now.   Rubio’s family fled Cuba as refugees and lost all their holdings in Cuba, he has made a career of wanting it all back and toppling Castro.  But … well Rubio and the neocons claim that if we can make Venzualia fall into line then all the other Latin American countries will fall in line also and Cuba’s government will be destroyed.  Just like if we take out Saddam Hussein then the entire Middle East will embrace democracy.   Same story different location.   And it is all lies.  Just an excuse to use the US military might and have a reason to deny any public relief or safety nets at home.   Hugs

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/trump-venezuela-oil-companies-reimburse-rcna252434

Big oil firms will either “get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” Trump told NBC News in an exclusive interview.
By Kristen Welker and Steve Kopack

President Donald Trump said he believes the U.S. oil industry could get expanded operations in Venezuela “up and running” in fewer than 18 months.

“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump told NBC News in an interview Monday.

“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” he said.

Whether the U.S. government ultimately agrees to reimburse the oil industry’s costs in Venezuela, or alternatively, decides that future revenue is sufficient repayment, will likely be a key factor for the oil companies as they consider their options.

Trump declined to say how much money he believes it would cost companies to repair and upgrade Venezuela’s aging oil infrastructure.

“It’ll be a very substantial amount of money will be spent” by the oil companies, Trump said. “But they’ll do very well.”

“And the country will do well,” he added.

Despite Trump’s optimism, oil companies have appeared skeptical of quickly entering, expanding or investing in Venezuela. A history of state asset seizures, the ongoing U.S. sanctions and the latest political instability all feed into this caution.

Trump said he believed that tapping Venezuela’s oil reserves is “going to reduce oil prices.”

Gas prices are already at multiyear lows. The average retail gas price on Monday was $2.81, according to AAA. That’s the lowest since March 2021.

“Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Trump also added.

While lower oil prices could make gas cheaper at the pump, it would likely also mean lower revenues for the same big oil companies that Trump is counting on to bankroll the rebuilding of Venezuela’s oil industry to the tune of billions of dollars in foreign investment.

Asked if the administration had briefed any oil companies ahead of Saturday’s military operation to capture deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Trump said, “No. But we’ve been talking to the concept of, ‘what if we did it?'”

“The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” Trump said. “But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”

Trump told NBC News it was “too soon” to say whether he had personally spoken to top executives at America’s three largest oil producers, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

“I speak to everybody,” he said.

ConocoPhillips declined to comment Monday on Trump’s plans for Venezuela’s oil reserves. Chevron told NBC News it does not comment “on commercial matters or speculate on future investments.” Exxon did not immediately respond to questions.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright plans to meet with executives from Exxon and ConocoPhillips this week about Venezuela’s oil industry, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Wright will be a point person for the Trump administration’s broader campaign to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a White House official said Monday.

The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. oil industry is eager to return to Venezuela, nearly two decades after the country last nationalized billions of dollars’ worth of oil company assets.

“They want to go in so badly,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening.

Despite Venezuela’s massive reserves of crude oil, large U.S. oil firms have a good reason to pause before committing to expand operations in Venezuela.

In the 1970s, the Venezuelan government nationalized energy assets there, including those owned by Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. In the years since, the companies have tried unsuccessfully to recover billions of dollars.

In 2006 and 2007, the Venezuelan government nationalized even more assets. Then-President Hugo Chávez allowed foreign oil firms to remain, but on less favorable terms, leading to the full departure of Exxon and Conoco.

Chevron, however accepted the terms and remains to this day, thanks in large part to a limited waiver exempting it from U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods recently expressed caution about re-entering Venezuela.

“We’ve been expropriated from Venezuela two different times,” he told Bloomberg News in November, replying to a question about whether Exxon would be interested in Venezuela’s oil or gas. “We’d have to see what the economics look like.”

Kristen Welker

The banana wars