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
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:
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?)
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?
According to a new study published in the Journal of Mammalogy, the number of living mammal species has increased by 25% since 2005 — meaning that more than 1,300 new species have been added to the scientific record.
“Our recognition of 25% more mammal diversity now than 20 years ago indicates an overall improvement in our understanding of how global mammals interact with their environments,” Dr. Nathan Upham, lead researcher and Arizona State University professor, told A-Z Animals.
“Each species is genetically unique, not interbreeding with their close relatives, and thus presumably doing something unique on the landscape — specializing in different food or habitat type or location of activity,” he explained.
Upham’s research centered on a series of mathematical equations.
Since 2005, the Mammal Diversity Database has listed an additional 1,579 species.
Of those new species, 805 were newly described and 774 were “splits,” or offshoots, of what was originally thought to be a single species. 226 species were also merged after new evidence came to light.
In total, that means 1,353 species have been discovered since 2005, amounting to an average of 65 new mammal species being introduced to the scientific record every year.
In his interview with A-Z Animals, Upham emphasized that species are not evolving at a faster rate; they are simply becoming easier to find and identify.
“Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have dramatically lowered the cost of obtaining DNA across the genomes from hundreds of individuals simultaneously,” Upham said.
Upham’s spotlight on mammalian research is supported by a larger, separate study published in Science Advances by John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
“These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi, and even hundreds of new vertebrates,” Wiens told the University of Arizona.
In 2025, Wiens also spearheaded research on the rate of species extinction and found that it lags significantly behind new species identification.
“Our good news is that this rate of new species discovery far outpaces the rate of species extinctions, which we calculated to about 10 per year,” Wiens said.
“Discovering new species is important because these species can’t be protected until they’re scientifically described,” he added. “Documentation is the first step in conservation – we can’t safeguard a species from extinction if we don’t know it exists.”
Photograph of a newly discovered mammal, the Bassaricyon neblina, or “Olinguito,” taken in the wild at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador. Header image via Mark Gurney / Wikimedia Commons (C. C By 3.0)
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
The video below has horrific clips of ICE assaulting bystanders and protestors. One clip showed the ICE gang thugs breaking down a door and entering a home like they think they are a special forcer unit in Fallujah Iraq. They seem to be acting like street gangs or drug cartel members as they just attack anyone that displeases them. They are not police nor professional but they act as though only they have rights. Hugs
I want to thank Ali for sending me this link. I really hope this causes some real soul searching with in some of these people as they sure need to. I saw these documents show on The Majority Report but I was not sure how correct it was because then I saw horrific actions, beatings, and gang thug behavior from ICE. Hugs
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In the wake of an ICE officer’s killing of Renee Good, the Department of Homeland Security is rolling out “Operation Metro Surge,” flooding Minneapolis with hundreds of additional federal agents — only to realize it doesn’t actually have the confidence to match the bravado.
While homeland secretary Kristi Noem and others in the administration preen about justifying last week’s shooting and trumpet their war on “domestic terrorism,” DHS is privately divided and hesitant about the latest deployments. According to documents leaked to me, not only is the Department seeking “volunteers” for the apparently unpopular mission, it is urging its agents to maintain a low profile and comply with the use of force policies.
Border Patrol memo leaked to me
On Friday, DHS sought volunteers to deploy to Minneapolis, in part due to opposition within the ranks, according to border patrol agents and other homeland security workers who have reached out to me.
“Please begin canvassing your personnel for volunteers,” a memo sent by the Border Patrol’s Acting Assistant Chief Joshua Andrew Post on Friday.
The memo outlines a request for 300 additional personnel — 200 Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) and 100 Processing Coordinators (BPPCs) — to be funneled into “Operation Metro Surge” by Sunday, January 11.
Leaked Border Patrol memo
A Border Patrol agent familiar with the discussions said the volunteer push reflects real unease in the ranks about the Good shooting in Minneapolis and the related surge.
“We do have personnel but some just don’t want to go,” the agent told me.
Asked about the hunt for volunteers, DHS and Customs and Border Protection did not respond to my request for comment.
“There might be some immature knuckleheads who think they are out there trying to capture Nicolas Maduro, but most field officers see a clear need for deescalation,” a high level career official at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington also told me. “There is genuine fear that indeed ICE’s heavy handedness and the rhetoric from Washington is more creating a condition where the officers’ lives are in danger rather than the other way around.”
Within hours of the shooting, Noem held a press conference declaring Renee Good had carried out “an act of domestic terrorism” when she “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over,” as Noem put it.
“There is a video and she just lied,” the Border Patrol agent said of Noem’s characterization of the incident.
The senior DHS official adds that an increasing number of homeland security workers are concerned about the public backlash. “The claim is that recruiting is up, but there is also dread that the gung-ho types that ICE and the Border Patrol are bringing in have a propensity towards confrontation and even violence.”
Today, Border Patrol Tactical Commander Greg Bovino circulated a “legal refresher” for agents in the field including on the use of force — not a move that screams certainty about their conduct. And the Department has sent memos to volunteers for Minneapolis warning about their “operational security,” covering everything from removing any signs of law enforcement affiliation when they are around their hotels to turning off location settings on their phones so that they can’t be tracked.
The guidance also reminds agents that things like profanity, insults and rude gestures directed at them are not illegal (though “incitement” is).
Legal refresher
Legal refresher
Legal refresher
Legal refresher
Legal refresher
“It sounds like they’re entering a war zone,” says senior intelligence official, who has been involved in discussions about calming the waters around ICE deployments. “Telling a bunch of 20-somethings to be prepared for war — and terrorism — creates the very condition officials are cautioning about.”
The Border Patrol agent said that while a significant minority of his colleagues agree with him, they are not comfortable speaking out given the political climate.
The agent also warned that the voluntary deployments, despite being symptomatic of splits within the agency, could further inflame the situation in Minneapolis.
“Key word is it’s on a ‘voluntary’ basis,” the Border Patrol said. “If no experienced senior agents step up, they send the new guys straight out of the academy. Not a good idea.”
He continued: “In a nutshell, it’s ‘Us versus them’ on steroids and I think some Border Patrol agents are more willing to use force and not feel restrained when you got DHS leadership lying to cover for them. For example, Kristi Noem lying her ass off on what happened is like saying to the federal agents on the ground: ‘Go ahead and do whatever you have to do. We got your back. We will find a way to justify it.’”
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Ok I know that as soon as most of you read the title you thought I was going to talk again about my childhood abuse.
No what I need help with is for another abuse victim I have come to care a lot about. He and I met through the abuse site and we bonded emotionally. He needed to vent a lot of anger / hate / why me stuff and I was OK with him doing it on me as long as he never attacked me personally. He also came to care about me and the kind nature I shared with him. He is much farther along in his therapy so was able to point things out to me far sooner than everyone here did.
I think by now everyone who follows here realizes I am talking about Kamyk. Pronounced Camick. He got very ill shortly after we were friends and if you look back through the archives I asked and many of you did send him cards in the ICU he was in. He has told me I can share his medical condition he has suffered from all his life and he blames it on both his childhood abuse and his father’s narcistic behavior he developed cysts on his colon. One day he was talking to me telling me how much pain he was in and then he was gone. Rushed to the hospital and placed in an ICU.
Normally to do a GI surgery they have to void the bowels entirely but they simply did not have time and when they tried he crashed, so they rushed him to surgery and according to the surgeon it was the worst most dirty bowel surgery he ever did.
Sadly they had to take a large part of Kamyk’s intestines and his entire colon. Kamyk wanted to die. After a year of nearly doing so and many surgeries he was left with a couple stomas and an ileostomy. He came so close to death that several times I asked people here to send him cards. I know some did.
Long story short, after all this time he got the ileostomy reversed and one of the stomas. He could have gone back to his apartment he had managed to keep paying for … but the first nursing home he was sent to let him get a huge pressure sore on his tailbone that is so deep doctors are saying it would take a year to heal. I get pressure sores and I know what to do once they developed, the pictures Kamyk sent me were so deep and so gross it is a violation of every medical rule I ever practiced under. It was criminal.
Sadly in a depressed area of the country one can’t sue a medical provider as all the other providers close their doors to you. I mean if you sue a hospital in your area you better hope you never need a hospital again. Unless you are in the emergency room dying no physician can admit you.
Against all odds Kamyk has pulled through everything life thrown at him. He aggressively started learning to walk again after one surgery left one of his legs not working. He really wanted to get out of there and return to his home and I think we can all understand that. Through it all on a very limited income Kamyk kept paying the rent on his apartment. Until just recently tragedy struck in the form of the government and greed.
Kamyk was looking forward to going home from the step down care facility he was in. But without his knowing the facility he was in made arrangements to transfer him to a nursing home. The nursing home grabbed his entire SSI payment which meant not only did his rent payment fail but a recent device he had saved up for to buy also defaulted in the payments.
I understand what he is saying as when Ron’s brother had to be put into a nursing home we had to jump through the same damn situation. He was only allowed 30 dollars of his SSI payment but Ron had to stop his military disability payment of $100 dollars because that put him over the limit allowed to be in the nursing home. Everything was so strict that Ron and his sister Diane had to pay what few bills he had, they sold his car, and they had to buy him anything he needed as he was not allowed to have any money build up in his bank account. The system is designed to keep the person in the home as poor as possible, while letting the home take all the money and assets that person has. It is the punish the poor republican idea of if they are poor then it is their fault.
Here is why I am writing all this. I was going to start a Go Fund Me for Kamyk. He bought a Steam Deck computer device that would let him keep up with friends around the world and with me in a situation where he couldn’t use voice talk to communicate. As you can imagine some of the things Kamyk would like to talk abut can’t be voiced loudly in a shared room. Also he needs it is so he can play games with his friend of a decades Wolfy and escape from the horrid place he is in at least for a while, something every one I really understand. I have worked in a nursing home for a few weeks and I can tell you that the residents in some homes don’t have much to do all day and don’t get much respect. The staff is over worked, underpaid, and they are struggling also.
I care deeply for my friend and have seen how horrendous this time has been for him. He is in a very depressed area of the country in Ohio and he has no family in a position to help him.
Kamyk has helped me do this by sending me a blurb and other information. They will be below. Thanks and hugs.
Kamyk’s journey has been incredibly tough, and it’s clear that every day presents new challenges. After enduring multiple life-threatening infections and a long recovery, the road ahead still feels uncertain. Living in a nursing home where their needs are often overlooked only adds to the struggle. One thing that could bring Kamyk some much-needed joy and connection is the ability to play games with their best friend in New Zealand. A Steam Deck and a secure backpack would provide a way to escape the pain and trauma, even if just for a little while. This small gesture could make a significant difference in their healing process. If you can, please consider contributing to this cause. Your support would mean the world to Kamyk and help them find moments of happiness during this difficult time. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Best regards,https://gofund.me/5d1def2cc
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Update: There was some questions as to the amount and what the situation was. I wrote kamyk and called him about it. He was able to respond after I went to bed.
Gofundme is weird it only starts with a minimum, supposedly to get the ball rolling before showing the full requested amount. My full requested amount is $1000
Steam deck is $700, TSA approved slash resistant locking backpack is $80, a bluetooth headset i can use with the steam deck or my phone is about $40 which would allow me to talk to you, mark, or wolfy semi privately without the issues the earbuds have, and gofundme suggested the additional difference so i could get some more games
I also added further text to my fundraiser page explaining that my ultimate goal is $1000, and that it feels deceptive to me to rely on a marketing technique to get donations, so I clarified
Thanks to everyone that reads this, forwards it, and if possible can help. I am sorry for the confusion I did not know how Go Fund Me works. Hugs
![Screenshot of Clinton letter: 'Continue to mislead Americans about what is truly at stake, and you will learn that Americans are better at finding the truth than you are at burying it. Continue to pursue autopens instead of penning laws Americans need, and you will learn that you are signing away any remaining chance of being on the right side of history. Continue to abet the dismantling of America, and you will learn that it takes more than a wrecking ball to demolish what Americans have built over 250 years. Sincerely, [signatures] Bill Clinton / Hillary Rodham Clinton'](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_WOJ!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6516cc3d-9699-4259-9e53-77fab75b5f17_747x548.jpeg "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'")
Scottie's Playtime 