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Category: Politics

Instead of focusing on national security, DNI Tulsi Gabbard is hunting for 2020 election fraud

Instead of focusing on national security, DNI Tulsi Gabbard is hunting for 2020 election fraud

The Wall Street Journal reports: Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has spent months investigating the results of the 2020 election that Donald Trump lost, according to White House officials, a role that took her to a related FBI search of an election center in Georgia on Wednesday. Gabbard is leading the administration’s effort to re-examine the election and look for potential crimes, a priority for the president, the officials said. The national intelligence director is usually focused on…

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FBI’s search of Georgia election center is ‘dangerous,’ experts warn

FBI’s search of Georgia election center is ‘dangerous,’ experts warn

By Doug Bock Clark and Jen Fifield This story was originally published by ProPublica When the FBI executed a warrant on Wednesday to seize records from the 2020 presidential vote in Fulton County, Georgia, it marked both an extraordinary event in the history of American elections and a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s breaking of democratic norms, several legal experts said. Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him and blamed Georgia, in…

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Chief federal judge in Minnesota says ICE has violated nearly 100 court orders this month

Chief federal judge in Minnesota says ICE has violated nearly 100 court orders this month

The New York Times reports: The chief federal judge in Minnesota excoriated Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, saying it had violated nearly 100 court orders stemming from its aggressive crackdown in the state and had disobeyed more judicial directives in January alone than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” The extraordinary broadside by the judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, came in a ruling in which he temporarily rescinded an order he had issued on Tuesday, summoning Todd…

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ICE pretends it’s a military force, but its tactics would get real soldiers killed

ICE pretends it’s a military force, but its tactics would get real soldiers killed

John Publius (a pseudonym) writes: As a veteran of the war on terror, I have spent the past year watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers expand their operations across the country on a heretofore unprecedented scale and with a new faux-military bearing. From equipment to weapons to tactics, ICE and other immigration enforcement bodies want to be seen as combat forces carrying out their missions. Witness on Thursday, when White House border czar Tom Homan talked about Minneapolis as a…

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The chief liars are directly complicit in the deaths that just happened and in any deaths to come

The chief liars are directly complicit in the deaths that just happened and in any deaths to come

J.D. Vance (who obtained his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in May 2013 and was admitted to the bar in Kentucky later that year) lied after Renee Good’s murder when he made this baseless declaration: “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That’s a federal issue. That guy’s protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.”   Should we not assume that the federal agents who murdered Alex Pretti believed that they…

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Local prosecution is the answer to federal lawlessness

Local prosecution is the answer to federal lawlessness

Barry Friedman and Stephen I. Vladeck write: In the wake of another fatal shooting by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, many people are wondering what can be done. The answer has been right in front of us all along. Despite the incredulity with which some legal observers meet the idea, state and local prosecutors can prosecute federal officials for violating state criminal laws. Prosecutors should be gathering and securing evidence and seriously considering filing charges — sooner rather than later….

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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….

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‘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…

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