Browsed by
Category: Politics

ICE’s brutality is its weakness

ICE’s brutality is its weakness

Omar Wasow writes: I study the political consequences of protest and state violence. So when federal immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month, I was reminded of Jimmie Lee Jackson. On the night of Feb. 18, 1965, police officers and state troopers attacked civil rights demonstrators in Marion, Ala. Jackson, a 26-year-old woodcutter, fled with his mother and grandfather into a cafe. Troopers followed them inside and began beating his mother; Jackson tried to protect…

Read More Read More

Next nationwide No Kings protests on March 28 with flagship event in the Twin Cities

Next nationwide No Kings protests on March 28 with flagship event in the Twin Cities

NBC News reports: The “No Kings” nationwide demonstration that has come to symbolize the resistance to the Trump administration is returning March 28, this time with a flagship event in the Twin Cities. Organizers with Indivisible, the grassroots group behind No Kings, said it was only suitable to stage a marquee march in Minnesota in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti by immigration agents Saturday and the shooting death of Renee Good weeks earlier. Other demonstrations are again…

Read More Read More

Key Gulf allies say they will not aid U.S. in an Iran strike, limiting Trump’s options

Key Gulf allies say they will not aid U.S. in an Iran strike, limiting Trump’s options

The Wall Street Journal reports: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ruled out the use of its airspace and territory for a potential U.S. attack on Iran, complicating the Trump administration’s options in response to Tehran’s violent crackdown against Iranian protesters. The Saudi move follows a similar statement Monday by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry. The statements from the two Gulf states represent a foreign policy setback for the Trump administration as it seeks to ratchet up pressure on Tehran, which…

Read More Read More

China’s messy renewable energy revolution might save the world

China’s messy renewable energy revolution might save the world

Wired reports: There’s a particular kind of sci-fi nerd who equates fusion tech with utopia. If we could only harness the engine of the stars, it would uncork near limitless energy and neatly sweep away a whole mess of humanity’s problems. But how would that work exactly? What would the transition look like? You don’t have to wonder. It’s happening now. Solar panels and wind turbines capture the fusion of the sun and convert it to electricity. And at the…

Read More Read More

Kristi Noem: ‘Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen [Miller]’

Kristi Noem: ‘Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen [Miller]’

Axios reports: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to “massacre” them. That language has now become a source of controversy in the Trump administration. White House officials are now blaming Customs and Border Patrol for furnishing inaccurate information, while others are targeting Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and top Trump adviser, six sources with knowledge of the situation told…

Read More Read More

For Silicon Valley’s fawning CEOs their lucrative partnership with Trump is all that matters

For Silicon Valley’s fawning CEOs their lucrative partnership with Trump is all that matters

Lila Shroff writes: Hours after Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy showed up for a movie night at the White House. Along with other business executives and several prominent Donald Trump supporters, they attended a private screening of Melania, a new documentary about the president’s wife. The moviegoers were treated to buckets of popcorn and sugar cookies frosted with the first lady’s name. Silicon Valley’s top…

Read More Read More

Meta is blocking links to ICE list on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads

Meta is blocking links to ICE list on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads

Wired reports: Meta has started blocking its users from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of what it claims are Department of Homeland Security employees, a project the creators say is designed to hold those employees accountable. Dominick Skinner, the creator of ICE List, tells WIRED that links to the website have been shared without issue on Meta’s platforms for more than six months. “I think it’s no surprise that a company run by…

Read More Read More

How ICE is using white supremacist messaging for recruiting

How ICE is using white supremacist messaging for recruiting

  Ken Klippenstein writes: “The brand new agents are idiots,” an experienced ICE agent assigned to homeland security investigations told me. This same sentiment was echoed by virtually everyone I talked to, with several conveying the view that [Alex] Pretti’s death was the fault of some skittish young recruit who panicked when he heard the word “gun” (if that’s what happened). Even one of the new ICE recruits agreed with the experienced agent’s low assessment of the Trump freshman class….

Read More Read More

‘ICE bounty hunters’: Small businesses win contracts to track undocumented immigrants

‘ICE bounty hunters’: Small businesses win contracts to track undocumented immigrants

  Scripps News reports: The Trump administration has offered open-ended contracts to 13 private companies for help verifying where suspected undocumented immigrants live and work. A Scripps News investigation found that some of the companies have no record of previously doing business with the government. Some also list post office boxes or residences as their main office addresses, raising questions about their qualifications to handle sensitive personal data and to conduct in-person surveillance of migrants. Just before Christmas, Immigration and…

Read More Read More

India and EU announce ‘mother of all trade deals’ amid Trump tariff tensions

India and EU announce ‘mother of all trade deals’ amid Trump tariff tensions

BBC News reports:The European Union and India have announced a landmark trade deal after nearly two decades of on-off talks, as both sides aim to deepen ties amid tensions with the US. “We did it, we delivered the mother of all deals,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a media briefing in Delhi. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the pact “historic”. It will allow free trade of goods between the bloc of 27 European states and…

Read More Read More

Alex Pretti’s final nursing student: ‘Caring for people was at the core of who he was’

Alex Pretti’s final nursing student: ‘Caring for people was at the core of who he was’

Jessica Hauser, Alex Pretti’s final nursing student, posted this on Facebook: I was Alex Pretti’s final nursing student. He was my friend and my nursing mentor. For the past four months, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him during my capstone preceptorship at the Minneapolis VA Hospital. There he trained me to care for the sickest of the sick as an ICU nurse. He taught me how to care for arterial and central lines, the intricacies of managing multiple IVs…

Read More Read More

Through its lies, the Trump regime is giving the green light to more extrajudicial executions

Through its lies, the Trump regime is giving the green light to more extrajudicial executions

Noah Berlatsky writes: The regime’s mind-blowing dishonesty is ultimately a way to demean and mark those who resist. They function as fascist solidarity, signaling that partisans can and should do anything and everything to political enemies, no matter how violent, cruel, or unnecessary. Trump lies about so many things and with such frequency that it can start to seem like a gag or a joke. He lied about the crowd size at his first inauguration. He lied that a hurricane…

Read More Read More

Our Gettysburg moment in Minneapolis

Our Gettysburg moment in Minneapolis

Jonathan V. Last, after summarizing the events immediately leading up to the Civil War’s pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, writes: It’s not clear why the Trump regime chose to invade Minneapolis. Maybe it was animus toward the city’s Somali population. Maybe it was because Gov. Tim Walz had run against Trump and Vance. Maybe it was because they believed the state’s welfare fraud investigations made Minneapolis favorable terrain on which to fight. But when the regime’s forces occupied the city they were surprised…

Read More Read More

Yes, it really is fascism

Yes, it really is fascism

Jonathan Rauch writes: Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and…

Read More Read More

Trump and Bondi’s threats and demands fuel legal case against Minnesota surge

Trump and Bondi’s threats and demands fuel legal case against Minnesota surge

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s threat of “retribution” and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s explicit policy demands may be undercutting the federal government’s legal arguments defending its immigration crackdown in Minnesota. A judge hearing a lawsuit seeking to halt the ongoing surge of thousands of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities repeatedly cited Trump’s and Bondi’s statements Monday as evidence that the massive “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities isn’t aimed solely at enforcing immigration laws. Rather, their comments…

Read More Read More