Authoritarianism & the Police State
posted 2025-07 to 2025-09
A reading list (roughly in reverse chronological order) of contributions to the common pool of resources" beginning late July.
— a readers travelogue ::: to bear witness
Turning Point USA: A case study of the hard right in 2024
Several weeks after the 2024 presidential election, Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), proudly embraced a white nationalist conspiracy theory while celebrating then-President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation
from Southern Poverty Law Center
"Over the last several years, the political right has increasingly shifted toward an authoritarian, patriarchal Christian supremacy dedicated to eroding the value of inclusive democracy and public institutions. The political right in the U.S., whose party infrastructure is dominated by the Republican Party but includes the current Libertarian Party and is flanked to the right by the Constitution Party, has embraced aggressive state and federal power to enforce a social order rooted in white supremacy. Turning Point USA and its growing influence on conservative politics is emblematic of this current state.
"Turning Point USA’s primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists. TPUSA and its spokespeople often warn their audience that their children, wives, religion, way of life and they themselves are under attack by various constructed enemies. TPUSA exploits complicated feelings of insecurity and anxiety to manufacture rage and mobilize support to revive and maintain a white-dominated, male supremacist, Christian social order."
Wounded Knee
from Heather Cox Richardson
"Today Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that twenty men who were awarded the Medal of Honor for their participation in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre would keep their medals, despite more than a century of controversy over them. The defense secretary who preceded Hegseth, General Lloyd Austin, had ordered a review of the awarding of those medals to 'ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor.' Hegseth today called the men 'brave soldiers' and said: 'We’re making it clear that [the soldiers] deserve those medals.'
"It’s fitting that Hegseth, a political appointee whose tenure has been marked by incompetence, would defend the awarding of those particular Medals of Honor, because they were awarded to cover up the incompetence of political appointees that led to the deaths of at least 230 peaceful Lakotas, as well as about twenty-five soldiers who were caught in their own crossfire.
"Over the next two hours, frenzied soldiers hunted down and killed every Lakota they could find. Soldiers trained artillery on the fleeing wagons as troops on horseback combed the hills for fugitives. Some of the escaping women were ridden down three miles from the encampment. When the wagons stopped moving, the soldiers moved the guns to the creek bed and shot everyone who moved. Within a few hours, at least 230 Lakotas, mostly women and children, were dead.
"The outcry against this butchery started in the Army itself. Miles was incensed that the simple surrender of a peaceful band of Lakotas had become what he called a “criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.” He demanded an inquiry into Forsyth’s actions. Miles’s report was so damning his own secretary asked him to soften it..."
Restoring Sanity and Humanity to the Immigration System Requires Putting Enforcement Under Article I Congressional Courts
Leaving it to the executive-controlled Justice Department has led to politicization, instability, and the erosion of due process
from The UnPopulist
"The United States immigration court system, currently housed within the Department of Justice, was originally intended to serve as a neutral forum for adjudicating immigration cases. For years, critics have argued that its structural placement under the executive branch has compromised its impartiality, turning it into a mechanism of immigration enforcement rather than a fair judicial body. Under the second administration of President Donald Trump, these critics have proven to be prescient.
"Only a few months into the second Trump term, the immigration courts have been weaponized against immigrants and are rapidly losing indicia of due process. To reverse this degradation of the immigration courts, Congress should restructure them into an independent Article I court system and bring this system under its own control. Only then is it likely that justice and due process can be restored to the immigration courts."
Hell on Earth’: Immigrants Held in New California Detention Facility Beg for Help
from the Guardian
"Immigrants locked up in California’s newest federal detention center have described the facility as a 'a torture chamber', 'a zoo' and 'hell on earth', saying they were confined in filthy cells and suffered medical crises without help.
"Six people detained at the California City detention center, which opened in late August and is now the state’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center, shared accounts with the Guardian of poor conditions and alleged mistreatment by staff.
"The detention center is located in a desert region 100 miles (160km) north-east of Los Angeles, on the grounds of a state prison that closed in March 2024. CoreCivic, the private prison corporation, re-opened the facility as an Ice detention center as the Trump administration has pushed to rapidly expand immigration detention capacity. Advocates argued the process was rushed, and city officials said CoreCivic is operating the facility unlawfully without the required permits."
Pushing Back
from Heather Cox Richardson
"Today, with the popularity of President Donald J. Trump and his administration dropping, Trump’s disastrous performance at the United Nations, the return of comedian Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves, and the Tuesday’s election in Arizona of Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva, who will provide the final signature on a discharge petition to demand a floor vote in the House over releasing all the government files on convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the administration appears to be making a dramatic push to seize complete control of the government.
"Last night, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought tried to jam the Democrats into passing the Republicans’ continuing resolution to fund the government. Officials leaked a memo to Politico, Punchbowl News, and Axios—publications that focus on events concerning Capitol Hill—saying that if the Democrats refuse to pass the Republicans’ measure, the administration will try to fire, rather than furlough, large numbers of federal employees.
"House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded: 'Listen Russ, you are a malignant political hack. We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings. Get lost.' Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement: 'Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.'"
More Minnesota Counties are Partnering with ICE
Congress approved $170 billion for immigration enforcement, and local agencies that work with ICE could see new federal revenue
from MN Star Tribune
"Opponents of Trump’s deportation push say residents should be troubled by ICE offering financial incentives to local law enforcement to help with federal immigration enforcement. They argue it raises legal questions and undermines residents’ trust.
"'I think people see this as a very bad idea,' said Julio Zelaya of the Minnesota ACLU. 'It attempts to blur the line between what is local and what is federal law enforcement.'
"Seven of Minnesota’s 87 county sheriffs have signed on to help ICE: Cass, Crow Wing, Freeborn, Itasca, Jackson, Kandiyohi and Mille Lacs. Most did not reply to requests for comment, but the two sheriffs who spoke to the Minnesota Star Tribune said they did so more to avoid legal liability than to earn money enforcing immigration laws."
Hegseth Puts Us All at Risk
Why put all the American commanders in one room?
from Thinking About (Timothy Snyder)
"My historian colleagues might correct me, but I do not think anyone at least in recent history has done what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is about to do: put all of the American generals and admirals from around the world into a single room (next week, in Virginia) just to say something to them.
"There is no practical reason to do this: he has easier and more secure ways to communicate with the commanders. And there are obvious risks: the entire armed forces of the United States, spread around the world, will be without its leaders. Given that the government could well shut down the next day, the separation of commanders from their command might be indefinite.
"And if Hegseth has his way, those generals and admirals will all be in one site, announced in advance, which means that the entirety of the American command structure will be more vulnerable, physically, than in any conceivable military scenario, including nuclear war. There is no scenario other than this one in which they would all be in the same place at the same time.
- "He has some trivial thing to say and does not understand the risks.
- "He wishes to endanger the lives of the generals and admirals.
- "He will stage a purge, perhaps involving a loyalty oath or something similar that requires personal presence.
- "He will tell the commanders that henceforth their assignment will be to oppress American citizens ('homeland defense'). This could be combined with the third scenario: those who refuse will be fired.
Why are We So Polarized? Why is Democracy is Such Peril?
Confronting the longer-term erosion
from Robert Reich
"It’s too easy to accept the conventional view that the widening polarization of our society, and the decline of democracy, are due to the demagogue in the Oval Office.
"That conventional view is way too simple. Follow the money. The underlying cause is the tsunami of legal bribes flowing from huge, wealthy corporations (and their oligarchic CEOs and major investors) into American politics.
"Over the last four decades, corporate political spending has more than quadrupled, adjusted for inflation.
"Labor unions no longer provide a counterweight. Forty years ago, union PACs contributed about as much as corporate PACs. In the 2024 election, corporations outspent labor by more than 3 to 1.
"Corporations have fought off safety nets and public investments that are common in other advanced nations, such as universal health care and paid family leave. They’ve attacked labor laws —
"They’ve collected hundreds of billions in federal subsidies, bailouts, loan guarantees and sole-source contracts. Corporate welfare for Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Tech, Big Ag, Wall Street, and the largest military contractors now dwarfs welfare for people.
"The profits of big corporations have reached record highs, and the ratio of CEO pay in large companies to average workers has ballooned from 20-to-1 in the 1960s, to nearly 300-to-1 now.
"Most Americans, however, are going nowhere. The typical worker’s wage is only a bit higher today than it was forty years ago when adjusted for inflation."
University of Minnesota Ends Gun Range Rental to all Outside Groups
U had been leasing to ICE
from Minnesota Reformer
"A Reformer analysis in April found four contracts between the university and ICE, the most recent amounting to $18,867, for the federal agency to use the firearm range for training. Around a third of the most recent year-long contract amount — $6,200 — was used by the time the contract ended in May. According to public spending data, it was ICE’s only existing contract with a university at the time.
"The Reformer report spurred months of advocacy from university students and Rosemount residents, according to the university’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Isaac Stets, a sophomore at the U and a member of SDS, said the campaign to end the gun range lease overlapped with existing efforts by several student organizations to protect noncitizen community members from ICE."
Day 1710: 'Why is that such a big deal?'
from WTF Just Happened Today
"Today in one sentence: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of U.S. generals and admirals to assemble at Quantico for an in-person meeting without giving a reason; the FBI said the Dallas ICE shooter planned to 'maximize lethality against ICE personnel' and cause 'real terror'; the Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James on charges of making a false statement and obstruction; every living former chair of the Federal Reserve urged the Supreme Court to block Trump from firing Fed governor Lisa Cook; the Justice Department sued California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania for refusing to turn over full statewide voter registration rolls; Trump signed an executive order declaring a proposed TikTok deal compliant with U.S. national security requirements; Trump personally called Rupert Murdoch from Air Force One to try to kill a Wall Street Journal story about a 2003 Jeffrey Epstein birthday book, insisting a letter with his name 'didn’t exist'; and the Trump administration ordered agencies to plan permanent layoffs if the government shuts down Oct. 1."
Ex-FBI Director James Comey Indicted on Criminal Charges Stemming from 2020 Testimony
from NPR
"The Justice Department has leveled charges against former FBI Director James Comey, after President Trump demanded prosecutors speed up their pace in an investigation targeting one of his most prominent critics.
"Comey faces one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly five years ago. The move comes days after the top federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia cast doubt on the evidence, only to be forced out by the president and replaced with one of Trump's former defense attorneys."
Trump Administration Fires More Immigration Judges
from NPR
"Nearly 20 immigration judges received emails this month informing them that they are being let go, NPR has learned, adding to the over 80 judges that have already been cut by President Trump so far this year.
"'The dismissal of more immigration judges is an illogical and costly setback for the nation's immigration courts,' said IFPTE President Matt Biggs in a statement to NPR. 'At a time when the backlog has reached historic levels and the administration has made immigration enforcement a central issue, the removal of experienced judges is hypocritical, undermines the law, wastes taxpayer dollars, and further delays justice for citizens and immigrants alike.'
"The latest sets of terminations landed after Congress approved a mega-spending bill that allocated over $3 billion to the Justice Department for immigration-related activities, including hiring more immigration judges. The funding and additional personnel are aimed at alleviating the growing case backlog, which stands at nearly 4 million. Hiring and training new judges can take more than a year.
"Earlier this month, about 600 military lawyers were authorized to work for the Justice Department as temporary immigration judges. And the DOJ made changes to who could qualify as a temporary immigration judge — effectively lowering the requirements and removing the need to have prior immigration experience."
When Autocratization is Reversed
Episodes of U-Turns since 1900
from Taylor & Francis Online (Research articles)
"The world is in a 'wave of autocratization.' Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces 'U-Turn' as a new type of regime transformation episode in which autocratization is closely followed by and linked to subsequent democratization.
"This article introduces 'U-Turn' as a new type of regime transformation episode in which autocratization is closely followed by and linked to subsequent democratization. Drawing on earlier literature, it provides a general conceptualization and operationalization of this type of episode, complementing the existing Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) framework. The accompanying database provides descriptions for all 102 U-Turn episodes from 1900 to 2023, differentiating between three types: authoritarian manipulation, democratic reaction, and international intervention. The analysis presents a systematic empirical overview of patterns and developments of U-Turns. A key finding is that 52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy. The data on U-Turn episodes opens up new avenues for research on autocratization and democratization that were previously treated as isolated processes, particularly it could help us understand why some processes of autocratization trigger a successful pro-democratic backlash – a critical question during the starkest-ever wave of autocratization."
Military Lawyers Called Up To Relieve a Shortfall in Immigration Judges
from NPR
"About 600 military lawyers have been authorized to work for the Justice Department as temporary immigration judges, with 150 of them potentially starting as soon as this week, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
"The move comes after the Justice Department last week made changes to who could qualify as a temporary immigration judge – effectively lowering the requirements and removing the need to have prior immigration experience.
"Immigration judges are the only ones who can revoke someone's green card or issue a final order of removal for people who have been in the country for more than two years and are in the process of being deported."
Are Billionaire Bribes, Ideology, or Fear Driving the Supreme Court’s Obedience to Trump?
Whether bought, brainwashed, or bullied, the six conservative justices have abandoned their oath, and the consequences are tearing our republic apart
from The Hartmann Report
"'Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation’s separation of powers'"
— Justice Elena Kagan
"The six Republicans on the Supreme Court have been amazing, baffling, and horrifying Court-watchers and judges beneath them from across the political spectrum, as they use their so-called Shadow Docket to issue dictates that clearly contradict the Constitution, violate settled precedent, and even break black-letter law.
"Consider also what else they’ve done so far this year, handing down more shadow docket rulings in nine months than during the entire sixteen years of the Bush and Obama administrations combined:..."
This essay goes on to detail the shadow docket rulings made this year alone and speculates on the reasons behind the Court's departure from its constitutional duty.
The Uphill Battle to Safeguard Rights
Report — Freedom in the World 2025
from Freedom House
"Violence and the repression of political opponents during elections, ongoing armed conflicts, and the spread of authoritarian practices contributed to the 19th year of declining freedom. In the year to come, all those who understand the value of political rights and civil liberties must work together in the defense of democracy."
DOJ Quietly Deletes Study on Politics of Domestic Terrorists
The Justice Department has taken down a study that proves Republicans’ entire narrative wrong about left-wing violence
from The New Republic
"404 Media has reported that in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Trump’s Justice Department deleted a study from its website stating that right-wing violence 'continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism' in the United States. This comes as the Trump administration and Republicans generally blame political violence solely on the left.
"The study was available online at least until Friday, according to 404 Media, but can now only be found via a Wayback Machine link.
"The study, published in 2024 and conducted by the National Institute of Justice, is titled, 'What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism.' The first words are: 'Militant, nationalistic, violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.'
"'Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives,' the study noted. 'In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.'"
Political Violence is on the Rise in America
What's driving it?
from NPR
"...as NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro explain, political violence in America rarely follows left-right politics.
"Instead, the data show an increase in political violence committed by people who have been influenced by a mix of different extremist ideologies. There have also been instances where people are committing violence just for the sake of violence.
"Still, at a time of heightened partisanship, division and vitriol in the country, these acts of violence have frequently led to people projecting their own political beliefs onto the situation."
How to Talk with Kids About Violent Images of Charlie Kirk’s Killing
from PBS
"The rapid online spread of graphic images tied to Charlie Kirk’s killing has raised questions about how to talk to kids about political violence. Within hours of Kirk’s death, videos of the shooting had been seen more than 40 million times on TikTok, Instagram and X. We hear from parents and teens about their concerns, and Geoff Bennett speaks with clinical psychologist Tori Cordiano for more."
Is Charlie Kirk Their Reichstag Moment?
Trump and the GOP are itching to exploit Kirk’s murder to expand their authoritarian aims
from The Big Picture (Jay Kuo)
"The Trump regime is sure acting like it’s found its 'Reichstag' moment.
"That of course refers to the burning of the Reichstag parliament building in Germany in 1933, an incident the Nazi Party then used to justify suspension of civil liberties and an authoritarian takeover.
"In the United States in 2025, the current regime’s 'Reichstag moment' is the murder of right-wing provocateur, Charlie Kirk.
"Or so it hopes.
"Going from a lone, mysterious shooter to blaming the entire left for Kirk’s death is a giant stretch, to say the least. Were that the standard, the right would be inescapably condemned from the constant murderous actions of its own gunmen.
"We should begin from a very basic point. The killer, Tyler Robinson, is now in custody but is not yet cooperating with authorities. He was raised in a conservative part of Utah by a white Trump-supporting family who fetishized guns. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox claims that Robinson was recently indoctrinated by leftist ideology.
"As I laid out over the weekend, what clues Robinson did leave on his ammunition casings indicate that his 'ideology' was closer to meme trolling and video game culture than any coherent political position or side. Rather than credit this possibility and proceed with caution, the government is leaping to 'leftists did this.'
... a public fight might ultimately wind up having the opposite effect of what the Trump White House intends. Instead of keeping the nation’s attention upon Kirk’s murder and hoped-for martyrdom, it could turn this narrative into a full-scale attack upon our democracy by a rabid right that is using Kirk’s death as a transparently false flag.
"Instead of a Reichstag fire, they could see an end-of-the-McCarthy era awakening, where baseless accusations of 'radical left' draw far more suspicion than heat, and the U.S. public understands that, once again, these people in the end have no decency."
Trump’s Immigration Police State Is Growing at Warp Speed
nd now more local cops than ever before are signing up to work with ICE
from Mother Jones
"On Friday, ICE hit a new milestone: The agency has now signed more than 1,000 so-called 287(g) agreements nationwide. These agreements, which deputize local police and jails to perform certain immigration enforcement functions, have exploded under Trump. At the end of the Biden presidency, ICE had just 135 287(g) deals in place; now there are 1,001—a 641 percent increase.
"About half of these agreements are what ICE calls task force agreements, which allow state and local cops to essentially act as immigration agents while fulfilling their regular police duties. If these sound familiar—and familiarly problematic—it’s because they were discontinued in 2012, following a Department of Justice investigation the year before that found widespread racial profiling by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, then led by the notorious Joe Arpaio. The Trump administration brought task forces back this year, and ICE has signed more than 500 of these particular agreements across 33 states."
The Supreme Court Has Always Upheld White Supremacy
Receipts show the current Court's right wing extremist rulings are not aberrations, but manifestations of SCOTUS history—and that must change
from Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid
"This week the Supreme Court issued a ghastly ruling to hasten fascism in America. On a shadow docket 6-3 opinion written by credibly accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump's ICE fascists can use ethnicity as a ‘relevant factor’ when furnishing reasonable suspicion to detain people, specifically citing Latino ethnicity. Notably, the Supreme Court made no mention of the ~600,000 mostly white Canadian and European undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"This same Supreme Court previously stopped Affirmative Action to 'ban targeting based on race.' Yet they continued to allow legacy admissions, allow white Afrikaaner "refugees," allow over-policing of Black communities, & allow bans on Afghan refugees and South Korean workers. Apparently it is okay to target based on race to give white people an undue advantage, or to discriminate against Black and brown people, but not to ensure Black and brown people have an equal opportunity.
"Meanwhile, I keep hearing comments alleging that this Supreme Court has now dishonored a once honorable Court. The truth is actually far worse than that. This Supreme Court’s extremism is not an aberration, but a manifestation, of Supreme Court extremism throughout U.S. history. The receipts are devastating and ignored by corporate media, but it is critical we shed this collective amnesia if we hope to move forward. Should Democrats ever retake the House, Senate, and White House, expanding the Supreme Court to uphold justice is not just wise, but critical to protect our Republic from total collapse."
Just Another Day ...
September 12, 2025
from Heather Cox Richardson
"Since a gunman murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, both social media circles and the political sphere have been alight with accusations that 'the Left' was responsible for the shooting. Prominent right-wing social media accounts called the Democratic Party 'a domestic terror organization' and declared 'WAR.' Billionaire Elon Musk posted: 'The Left is the party of murder.'
"Meanwhile, it was not clear the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was up to the task of finding the killer...
"Meanwhile, David J. Bier of the Cato Institute reported that one in five FBI agents have been diverted from their jobs to conduct immigration raids with Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
"Robinson appears to have admired the 'Groypers,' led by Nick Fuentes, who complain that more mainstream organizations like Kirk’s Turning Point USA are not 'pro-white' enough and have publicly harassed Kirk in the past.
"Allison Gill of The Breakdown explained that the rumors the shooter had engraved anti-fascist rhetoric on some of the bullet casings found at the scene turned out to be a misunderstanding of terms from the video game Helldivers2. The claim that he had used 'transgender ideology' was apparently a misreading of the headstamp 'TRN' that marks ammunition as the product of Turkish manufacturer Turan.
"Almost as soon as Robinson was identified, the tone of MAGA leader’s conversation about the shooting changed. Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC), who had used a slur to refer to the shooter as pro-transgender, posted on social media: 'We know Charlie Kirk would want us to pray for such an evil, and lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ. We will try to do the same.'
"The day of Kirk’s murder, Russia sent 19 drones into Poland—some armed and some unarmed—testing the strength of the neighboring country.
"If the U.S. is weakening ties to traditional defensive alliances, it is attempting to flex its muscles by going after alleged drug dealers with a newly dubbed 'Department of War.' On September 2, Trump announced the U.S. had struck a boat he claimed was carrying drugs to the U.S., killing 11 civilians he claimed were 'Tren de Aragua Narco terrorists.' The administration posted a video of the operation online.
"From the start, legal specialists noted that the U.S. made the strike without legal authority. Trump simply claimed the power to kill men he claimed were a danger to the U.S., advancing the argument that drug smuggling is the same thing as an imminent military attack on the U.S. and thus the laws of war are in force.
. . .
'America’s Reichstag Fire'
Political violence remains rare, but leaders can help prevent tragedy by condemning hate and defending democratic values
from Strength in Numbers
"There is a puzzle at the heart of this recent violence: Most Americans reject political violence in all circumstances, especially when you measure it carefully. The few who do support violence are typically isolated, sick, and, unfortunately, in America, also have easy access to weapons manufactured for the sole purpose of murdering people.
"So if support for violence is very low, why does violence appear to be getting more common — and more severe? I’ve taken a look at the evidence from social science, and much of the answer has to do with toxic rhetoric from our political leaders. Rising level of hate and affective polarization, exacerbated by social media, also play a role."
People are more likely to support partisan violence when they think the other party does too
Studies finds that Americans are more likely to express anti-democratic views, including support for partisan political violence, when they believe the other party also holds those views
from Strength in Numbers
"Now it would be one problem if the share of people with these anti-democratic, violent views was high. But research also finds most Americans dramatically overestimate the share of the opposing party that holds pro-violence beliefs. This causes a second-order national increase in those beliefs that is entirely preventable with the proper information.
"The paper shows that Democrats and Republicans overestimate the share of the other party that approves of partisan violence by 2.4-4.9x, or 239-489%!!
"Social media, I think, has a big role to play here. A while back, I read a book by Yale social scientist Christopher Bail that showed how social media distorts our collective view of the opposition party’s politics.
"But luckily, there is a way to decrease mass partisan violence: spreading the truth about how few Americans actually hold violent beliefs."
Trump’s Deportation Hub: Inside the ‘Black Hole’ Where Immigrants Disappear
from the Guardian
"The isolated, Ice staging facility in rural central Louisiana has emerged as a hub of the Trump administration’s deportation machine. The center, which has operated since 2014, is run by the private corrections giant Geo Group. It is considered a 'black hole', by many lawyers, advocates and former detainees interviewed by the Guardian. Living conditions are deplorable, many former detainees have alleged, and there is almost no legal access to the center.
"A four-month Guardian US investigation into the Alexandria facility has revealed a pattern of alleged due process violations, previously unreported accounts of neglect and abuse, documented health emergencies and long stays, despite the center’s intended use as a short-term detention facility. It also found that the facility adopted a temporary and unexplained change to normal medical standards earlier this year that protect detainees’ welfare. Reporters relied on court documents, public records, internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statistics, 911 calls and interviews with 10 people either formerly detained or deported from the Alexandria facility, or those with loved ones held there."
How the US Rightwing is Taking Over News Media and Choking Press Freedom
from the Guardian
"The US right has appeared to increase its influence on mainstream media in America in recent weeks, especially in television news which has been a major target of the Donald Trump administration.
"CBS News – once home to legends of US journalism like Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow – installed a Trump ally as its ombudsman, weeks after the family of Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, and a friend of the US president, sealed control over Paramount, the owner of CBS.
"Now Paramount is reportedly looking to buy Warner Bros Discovery, the media behemoth behind CNN, which would potentially bring the influential news network under the roof of an increasingly Trump-friendly conglomerate.
"At the same time a long-running family feud among Rupert Murdoch and his children was settled with a deal that will assure Fox News – and other powerful media outlets run by the family – will retain their conservative bent."
I Stand With Korean Immigrants, Not Trump
from People Power United
"34-time convicted felon Donald Trump may have been elected the President of the United States of America, but he is no leader. In fact, almost 80 percent of people who call America home did not vote for Trump (People Power United). He disgraces the United States daily by clawing to power not to serve the people but to serve himself. Trump has been emboldened by the laziest and most corrupt Republicans in Congress, men and women who have abdicated their sworn duty to represent the American people. Instead of working to secure our borders with smart policy, stop drug traffickers and smugglers, and fix labor shortages that cripple industries, Trump and Republicans have weaponized ICE and DHS against our communities—targeting especially Korean and Latino immigrants who have come here seeking freedom, dignity, and opportunity.
"The Associated Press reported bluntly: 'Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents four of the detained South Korean nationals, told The Associated Press on Monday that many were doing work that is authorized under the B-1 business visitor visa program. They had planned to be in the U.S. for just a couple of weeks and 'never longer than 75 days,' he said.' (AP News) South Korea has urged our government to guarantee that these skilled workers can return later, free from re-entry bans.
"Yet Trump's DHS has doubled down, boasting of the raid as if humiliating allies and terrifying immigrants were a victory."
Brett Kavanaugh explains that SCOTUS really IS doing racism
from Public Notice
"On Monday, the Supreme Court’s six conservatives legalized racial profiling, allowing ICE to snatch any non-white person off the street and lock them up until they 'prove' their citizenship.
"And they did it on the shadow docket, simply mumbling that the lower court’s order was 'stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought.'
"This was clearly a calculation by five justices that it was better to remain silent and be thought of as a bunch of racist hacks with no regard for law or precedent than to speak out and remove all doubt. But Justice Kavanaugh, channeling his inner Col. Jessup, refused to sign on to the plan.
"Kavanaugh began by accepting the government’s claim that one in 10 residents of LA is an undocumented immigrant. There is no citation for this figure, and there’s some evidence that it’s wildly inaccurate. But it undergirds Kavanaugh’s entire legal theory, so he wasn’t about to factcheck it!
"'Not surprisingly given those extraordinary numbers, US immigration officers have prioritized immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area,' he went on, noting 'the myriad ‘significant economic and social problems’ caused by illegal immigration.'
"That internal quote about immigrants causing 'significant economic and social problems' is actually dicta from Brignoni-Ponce, a decision which is five decades old. Recent data proves that immigrants greatly strengthen the US economy and commit crimes at significantly lower rates than native-born Americans — which is why only blood and soil nationalists say that stuff today."
ICE Agents in the Park Ave Neighborhood Spark Large-Scale Protest
from WXXI NPR News
"Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site Tuesday in the Park Avenue neighborhood after being confronted by more than 100 protesters.
"The group shouted 'shame' and "Gestapo,' and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed.
"Roofing contractor Clayton Baker identified the man taken into custody by ICE as 'Chino,' one of his employees. Baker said the man has been in the United States for about 25 years and had legal documentation to work.
"'They took my best worker that's been working with me for 5 years, and just basically, ‘See you later,’ you know?' Baker said. 'He's a family guy, and he's got a baby on the way. He's never even had a speeding ticket that I know of. He goes to church every Sunday, and he pays his taxes.
"...as time went on — the whole ordeal lasted about four hours, advocates said — representatives with the Western New York Coalition of Farmworker Serving Agencies began urging the agents to move on, arguing that the workers weren't coming down, the arrests weren't going to happen and the crowd was only continuing to grow. The agents relented, they said, and they offered to help them leave, urging protestors to step aside.
"'The coalition is committed to standing alongside farmworkers, immigrants, and migrants to ensure dignity, fairness, and access to justice,' coalition executive director Irene Sanchez said in a news release sent out Tuesday evening. 'In moments like this, our role is to make sure people know their rights and to safeguard their due process under the law.'"
Plane to Purgatory
How Trump’s deportation program shuttles immigrants into lawless limbo
from the Guardian
"44,000 immigrants, 1,700 flights, 100 days: a Guardian investigation of leaked flight data and government detention data reveals the inhumane journey of immigrants shuttled around and outside the US
Trump Is Building His Own Paramilitary Force
Interview with Radley Balko of The Watch
from Ezra Klein Show
"Radley Balko is a journalist who has written about policing and criminal justice for decades. He’s the author of 'Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,' and he writes the terrific Substack The Watch, where he has been tracking the militarization and the escalation of law enforcement under Donald Trump.
"You’ve tracked internal policing for a long time. What is different about what we’ve seen over the past months of the Trump administration versus what we were seeing from them, say, five years ago?
"'What we’re seeing now are the tactics, operations and policies that, over the last 20 years, I refrained, or tried to restrain myself, from warning about because it would sound too unhinged.
"'I’ve warned for a long time about police agencies becoming too militarized, too aggressive and too us versus them. Militarized both in the sense of the equipment that they use but also in the mentality that they bring to the job. But it was always in response to a real threat. So it happened during the crack epidemic, which killed a lot of people. It happened again after Sept. 11, when you had these attacks on American soil. Homeland security started equipping police departments across the country with this military-style police gear.'"
Stop Acting Like This Is Normal
from NY Times (Ezra Klein)
"In about three weeks, the government’s funding will run out. Democrats will face a choice: Join Republicans to fund a government that President Trump is turning into a tool of authoritarian takeover and vengeance or shut the government down.
"But the bill that passed back in March funding the government runs out at the end of this month. And so we’re facing the question again: Should Senate Democrats partner with Senate Republicans to fund this government?
"I don’t see how they can.
"Not a single argument Schumer made then is valid now.
"I want to be very clear about what I am saying here. Donald Trump is corrupting the government — he is using it to hound his enemies, to line his pockets and to entrench his own power. He is corrupting it the way the Mafia would corrupt the industries it controlled. You could still, under Mafia rule, get the trash picked up or buy construction materials. But the point of those industries had become the preservation and expansion of the Mafia’s power and wealth. This is what Trump is doing to the government. This is what Democrats cannot fund. This is what they have to try to stop."
Trump wants people scared-instead Chicago and DC punched him in the face!
This is what patriots look like!
from the Dean's Report
"Donald Trump like all aspiring tyrants needs people to fear him. That is why on Saturday, Trump shared an image on social media threatening to send the U.S. military to destroy the city of Chicago. The image features an AI generated Trump in a U.S. Army uniform with the words, 'Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.'
"Ironically, Trump’s meme was based on the film 'Apocalypse Now' –which was about the Vietnam War. That is the very war Trump evaded the draft for by lying that he had bone spurs. So this image is not only stolen valor—it also marks the closest the coward Trump has ever come to serving in our military!
"Trump thought the people of Chicago—and Washington, D.C. where he already sent the troops—were going to cower in fear. But that’s because Trump doesn’t know what it means to be an American. Period.
"Trump must have been shocked to see massive protests in both cities on Saturday as the people made it clear they will not bow down to Trump."
The American Dictator
from Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
"Tonight, we have the specter of an American president trying to take control of an American city for thinly veiled political reasons. Not for the first time, or even the second, but for the third. This time, Donald Trump lacks even the veneer of justification he asserted in Los Angeles, when he claimed anti-ICE protests were out of control. He lacks the unique status he holds in D.C. as the head of the National Guard, which gives him greater latitude to act than anywhere else in the country.
"'I love the smell of deportations in the morning,' Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday morning, an off-base reference to the famous line in the Vietnam film Apocalypse Now, 'I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.' 'Chicago about to find out why it’s called the DEPARTMENT OF WAR, followed by three helicopters. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was quick to point out 'This is not a joke. This is not normal.'"
One Step Closer to Bombing Civilians
Why Trump's military strike on a drug boat should spook America
from Treason with Miles Taylor
"No one provided proof that the people on board were armed. Indeed, the White House gave no explanation for why the drug mules were hit with a missile and incinerated, rather than just arrested. And there’s no indication that these individuals posed any imminent threat to the United States."
The Sooknanan Monologue
The trump administration attempted to remove 600 terrified unaccompanied minors to Guatemala in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend until Judge Sooknanan entered an order to stop it.
from The Breakdown (Allison Gill)
"Judge Sparkle Sooknanan made the same clarification with the government over its attempt to disappear approximately 600 unaccompanied minors to Guatemala in the middle of the night during a holiday weekend. Her salvo came in what I’m calling the Sooknanan Monologue:
"'... absent action and intervention by the court, all of those children would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to extremely dangerous situations. And even now that the government has appeared, you're telling me that even though you think you have the authority to do this, and that what you're trying to do here is unify families, not violate the law, you need five days to respond...'"
How to Protect People During ICE Raids
A Rapid Response Action Plan for Faith Communities
from Vote Common Good
"Faith traditions call us to welcome the stranger, protect the vulnerable, and love our neighbors.
"In the face of renewed ICE enforcement actions and immigration raids, we must be ready to act swiftly, courageously, and in solidarity.
"This action plan equips faith communities to respond immediately and meaningfully when immigration enforcement threatens the well-being of undocumented individuals and families in our communities."
Federal Judges Are Fed Up With SCOTUS
from Democracy Docket
"Lower court judges overseeing the avalanche of lawsuits against President Donald Trump’s powergrab are increasingly voicing their concerns and frustrations with the Supreme Court’s handling of the second Trump administration thus far.
"In recent court opinions and rare media interviews, judges have critiqued the high court for overturning lower court rulings while offering little to no legal explanation. The practice, judges have said, is unleashing uncertainty throughout the federal judiciary and hampering lower courts’ abilities to defend the rule of law.
"They have also accused SCOTUS of failing to protect the integrity of the judiciary amid Trump’s unprecedented assault on the courts
"Every action SCOTUS has taken in Trump-related cases this year has instead been through its emergency — or 'shadow' — docket.
"Unlike its traditional merits process, cases that go through the court’s emergency docket normally do not undergo full briefing or oral argument and are usually decided in just a few days, often through unsigned and unexplained orders."
Remember Your Oath
"As veterans of the United States we took an OATH to support and defend the CONSTITUTION, we took upon the DUTY to protect American citizens from anything which threatens our homeland. Now, as we see the National Guard activated and deployed to our streets - this is NOT in keeping with that OATH nor that DUTY. This is a blatant MILITARY OCCUPATION of American cities.
"WE DO NOT COMPLY!!
"We intend to expand [our] protest to all major cities. So if you’re a veteran, go to rememberyouroath.org and register. It’s a self-starting group, so once registered, you can get a permit, a tent, and a recording of General Milly’s [retirement] speech and go to town."
Miley's Speech
from Politico (2023)
"Gen. Mark Milley used his final speech as Joint Chiefs chair on Friday to emphasize that troops take an oath to the Constitution and not to a 'wannabe dictator,' days after former President Donald Trump suggested the nation’s top officer should be put to death.
"In an impassioned speech during his retirement ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va., Milley spoke of the continued bravery of American service members and underscored that the oath they take to protect the Constitution encompasses 'all enemies, foreign and domestic,' emphasizing 'all' and 'and.'
"'We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,' Milley said. 'We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.'
"'Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, guardian and Coast Guardsman, each of us commits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price,' Milley continued. 'And we are not easily intimidated.'"
Revisiting America’s Dark History of Internment
from Joyce Vance
"'The objective of this contract is to obtain all infrastructure, including temporary housing structures, physical plant, staffing, resources, services, and supplies necessary to house aliens in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a safe and secure environment to effectuate their removal from the United States,' the 80-page document on ICE’s new staging facility at Fort Bliss, Texas, starts out. But the vanilla bureaucratic language can’t hide the stark reminders of one of the worst episodes in our nation’s history, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Instead of being treated like the cautionary tale it should be, Fort Bliss is on the way to becoming another stain on our nation.
During World War II, Americans were held at Fort Bliss in an uncomfortably small compound behind a double barbed wire fence overseen by guard towers. Internment is an ugly word. It refers to the confinement of people due to suspicions, based on nothing other than Japanese origin or ancestry, that they were a security threat after the attack on Pearl Harbor. They were never charged with a crime. They were not brought to trial and given an opportunity to defend themselves. They were incarcerated without due process."
Pritzker Responds to Trump Sending in the Troops
from Heather Cox Richardson
"At the press opportunity, Trump claimed that he saved Washington, D.C.—where crime was at a 30-year low before he took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilized the National Guard—from such rampant crime that no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses. 'People,' he said, 'are free for the first time ever.'
"This afternoon, standing flanked by leaders from business, law enforcement, faith communities, education, local communities, and politics at the Chicago waterfront near the Trump Tower there, Governor Pritzker responded to the news that Trump is planning to send troops to Chicago.
"Pritzker noted that every major American city deals with crime, but that the rate of violent crime is actually higher in Republican-dominated states and cities than in those run by Democrats. Illinois, he said, had 'hired more police and given them more funding. We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stops, and high-capacity magazines' and 'invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs.' Those actions have cut violent crime down dramatically. Pritzker pointed out that 'thirteen of the top twenty cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago. Eight of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.'"
US Placed on Rights Watchlist Over Health of its Civil Society Under Trump
from The Guardian
"International non-profit Civicus says ‘sustained attacks on civic freedoms' put US on par with El Salvador and Kenya"
"Civicus pointed to three major issues including the deployment of military to quell protests, growing restrictions placed on journalists and civil society, as well as the aggressive targeting of anti-war advocates surrounding Palestine."
ICE Detention 59,000: Record Levels, Horrible Overcrowding, Dwindling Due Process
from American Immigration Council
"ICE detention levels just hit a record 59,000 people. Fueled by $45 billion in funding in President Trump’s signature budget bill, more people are being held in immigration custody than ever before in American history. But as the administration has increased the detention system’s capacity by 150% in a matter of months, concerns are rising about a strained system that has led to mistaken deportations, deteriorating detention conditions, and a lack of basic due process protections.
"The American Immigration Council has brought together experts to raise alarm bells on the deteriorating immigration detention system and shed light on the barriers facing elected officials seeking to conduct oversight into an increasingly opaque system of incarceration."
Privacy scholar Daniel Solove: "We're entering a dark age"
from Creative Good
"I started the interview by asking Solove about the "nothing to hide" argument – that is, the reason many people give for not being worried about intrusive surveillance. You've probably heard it: "I don't mind if they know everything about me, because I have nothing to hide."
"As Solove points out, such a response misses the point entirely about what's at stake in a society devolving into a surveillance state. For starters, individual data is being tracked and analyzed largely without citizens' knowledge or consent, which first harms the marginal and vulnerable but eventually creates negative effects for everyone else. But that's just the beginning.
"The more systemic issue, Solove says, is that privacy is a fundamental requirement for a free and democratic society. Conversely, the loss of privacy creates the conditions for autocrats and totalitarian ideologies to take over."
ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data
from Wired
"Per the agreement, ICE officials will get login credentials for a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) database containing sensitive medical information, including detailed records about diagnoses and procedures. Language in the agreement says it will allow ICE to access personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, banking data, and social security numbers."
U.S. Companies Honed Their Surveillance Tech in Israel. Now It's Coming Home.
from The Intercept
"Since he took office barely six months ago, Donald Trump has handed billionaire Peter Thiel's surveillance company, Palantir, contracts reportedly worth more than $113 million to build detailed profiles of Americans. Here's what they're planning to do with that data:
"Track immigrants' movements in real time. Monitor their social media. Map where they live, work, and travel. Generate instant reports on visa holders that include what they look like and with whom they associate.
"And targeting immigrants is just the beginning.
"Palantir specializes in mining personal data from thousands of sources — your social media, financial records, travel patterns, associations — and converting it all into searchable databases that map connections between individuals and organizations. This isn't speculation. It's already happening — and Trump is turbocharging it.
"U.S. spy agencies plan to create a master surveillance database that would make it even easier for them to surveil anyone they choose. This massive database would be a one-stop shop for authorities that want to track, intimidate, and retaliate against Americans — all built with our tax dollars.
"The Intercept also recently highlighted how U.S. companies like Palantir first honed these surveillance technologies on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. After Trump's reelection, the companies thought they could now operate with little pushback at home, so they're bringing those same tools to American soil."
Peter Thiel Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
from Blue Amp
"Billionaire Peter Thiel hints at replacing democracy with elite tech rule in shocking NYT interview—what it means for 2025, AI, and the future of freedom."
"In a recent New York Times podcast interview, billionaire technocrat Peter Thiel pulled back the curtain—just a little bit—on the ideology that has guided his decades-long mission (some might say obsession) to reshape American power.
"What Thiel revealed in this interview didn’t resemble a vision of progress. It was a peek inside the heart of darkness, moral decay and a blueprint for authoritarian control.
"Thiel, the gay Silicon Valley billionaire who has backed Donald Trump since 2016, dismissed democracy as inefficient. He also questioned whether 'too much participation' in our democracy has slowed America down. He openly fantasized about a post-liberal world governed by elite, centralized forces.
"Thiel believes in acceleration. Not just of technology, but of upheaval. Collapse. Of a civilization and democracy so paralyzed by complexity that it must be reset by something stronger—smarter, harder, colder. Something more 'rational.'
"This 'rational' ideology—which has a cult-like devotion among its followers—is called accelerationism. It un-ironically borrows from Karl Marx, and is shared by white supremacist groups who lead terror attacks against modern society to *hasten acceleration* of its fall."
GOP Budget Bill Will Make ICE "Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation"
Democracy Now
This bill provides a whopping $170 billion to transform immigration enforcement and detention. This includes $45 billion for new detention jails. That's 265% more than the current ICE detention budget and more than the budget of the federal prison system. ICE's enforcement budget would increase by $30 billion, a threefold increase, and there's some $46 billion for border walls and more.
American Immigration Council calls the bill, quote, "the largest investment in detention and deportation in US history; a policy choice that does nothing to address the systemic failures of our immigration system while inflicting harm, sowing chaos, and tearing families apart"...
The administration is targeting immigrants as a "gateway, "opening the door into violating the rights of anyone they choose to. They're banking on citizens not paying attention if "only" immigrants are affected.
But this $170 billion is to fund a private army that answers only to Trump, and it would be the third largest military force on Earth, after the U.S. and Russia. For perspective, the FBI has a budget of $10 billion
Concentration Camp Labor
by Timothy Snyder
Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers
"You Feel Like Your Life Is Over"
from Human Rights Watch
"Within a month of the inauguration, the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began increasing. Throughout 2024, an average of 37,500 people were detained in immigration detention in the US per day.[1] As of June 20, 2025, on any given day, over 56,000 people were in detention across the country, 40 percent more than in June 2024, and the highest detention population in the history of US immigration detention. As of June 15, immigration detention numbers were at an average of 56,400 per day, and nearly 72 percent of individuals detained had no criminal history.
"Between January and June 2025, thousands were held in immigration detention at the Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome), the Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC), in Florida, under conditions that flagrantly violate international human rights standards and the United States government's own immigration detention standards. ...
"Detainees in three Florida facilities told Human Rights Watch that ICE detention officers and private contractor guards treated them in a degrading and dehumanizing manner. Some were detained shackled for prolonged periods on buses without food, water, or functioning toilets; there was extreme overcrowding in freezing holding cells where detainees were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors under constant fluorescent lighting; and many were denied access to basic hygiene and medical care."
ICE eyes shuttered Appleton prison as it plans massive expansion of immigrant detention centers
The $45 billion plan to double immigrant detentions has breathed new life into privately owned and operated prisons like the Prairie Correctional Facility.
from Minnesota Reformer
"With detention beds at full capacity, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is eyeing a long-shuttered prison in Appleton, Minnesota, as part of a massive expansion plan. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Appleton city officials have known that the Prairie Correctional Facility, a 1,600 private prison that has been shuttered since 2010, could be repurposed to hold detained immigrants. … An ICE takeover of the Prairie Correctional Center could greatly increase the number of immigrants in detention in Minnesota. Currently, ICE does not run a detention facility in the state but has entered into arrangements with at least four local jails to hold detained migrants, including the ones in Freeborn, Kandiyohi and Sherburne counties."
ICE is Detaining Journalists
from the ACLU
"ICE is detaining journalist Mario Guevara for reporting on law enforcement activity – so the ACLU and ACLU of Georgia are petitioning the court for his immediate release.
"Two months ago, millions showed up across the country to protest the Trump administration's massive abuses of power. This 'No Kings' protest was the largest yet in a series of protests condemning President Trump's attacks on our rights.
"Among those in attendance to document the event was Mario Guevara, a prominent Georgia journalist who's been covering immigration and law enforcement activity for over 20 years. That day, even though he was wearing a press vest and attending in his capacity as a journalist, he was detained and arrested by local police.
"Even though all criminal charges against him were dropped and an immigration judge granted bond, ICE has refused to release him – arguing that his livestreaming and reporting are dangerous. Guevara is still in custody today, over two months since he was arrested while reporting on a protest, five hours away from his family."
Line 3 protester convicted of felony granted new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct
from Minnesota Reformer
"An anti-pipeline demonstrator convicted of a felony is entitled to a new trial after the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the prosecutor’s repeated misconduct robbed her of a fair trial.
"The decision is the latest rebuke of Garrett Slyva, a former Aitkin County assistant attorney who oversaw numerous since-dismissed prosecutions of Line 3 protesters including prominent Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke."
As deportations of southeast Asians ramp up, community organizes response
from Minnesota Reformer
"More than 150 southeast Asians have been deported from Minnesota since May, according to MN8, a Southeast Asian political advocacy group. More are awaiting deportation at an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
"Many of those deported were brought to the U.S. as children as their parents fled the destruction of the Vietnam War and what’s known as the Secret War in Laos. The CIA recruited Hmong people in Laos to fight against the North Vietnamese army; many of the surviving soldiers fled with their families to the U.S. after the war.
"Activists gathered at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul Sunday to call attention to the deportations and discuss how to respond."
Flock's Surveillance System Might Already Be Overseeing Your Community
Millions in Public Funds, Zero Public Input
from Drop Site
"Flock is a $7.5 billion surveillance technology company, operating in over 5,000 communities across 49 states. Flock has a proven playbook to expand through securing local government contracts, often behind closed doors.
"Flock's technology has been used to assist with everything from ICE investigations in Illinois to abortion investigations in Texas. 'Local police around the country are performing lookups in Flock's AI-powered automatic license plate reader (ALPR) system for 'immigration' related searches and as part of other ICE investigations, giving federal law enforcement side-door access to a tool that it currently does not have a formal contract for,' 404 Media reported in May. A Johnson county sheriff searched over 83,000 cameras to prosecute a woman traveling over state lines to obtain an abortion, including searches of thousands of cameras in Washington and Illinois where abortion is legal, according to data obtained by 404 Media.
"The technology brings into question the presumption of innocence, the legal principle that people are innocent until proven guilty. Charles Siefe, the former NSA employee who spoke at the June 10th meeting in Scarsdale, explained to Drop Site how Flock provides a system of 'persistent severance' through interconnected Live View Cameras (LVCs) and License Plate Readers (LPRs). 'You can actually go into the database and look for stuff to see if you can tag that person with a crime.' He compares this to traffic stops, saying, 'police officers know if you follow someone in a car for a couple of miles, the likelihood is you'll be able to pull them over for something.'"
"We'll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out"
from ProPublica
"In Los Angeles, a terrified immigrant sits inside a truck as a masked man swings a baton, shattering his window."
"Use-of-force experts and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement insiders say the tactic was rarely used during previous administrations. They say there is no known policy change greenlighting agents' smashing of windows. Rather, it's a part of a broader shattering of norms."
"'There are arrest quotas, and they are increasingly aggressive. There's been an emphasis placed on speed and numbers that did not exist before,' says Deborah Fleischaker, who served as ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden."
This U.S. Executive Order Turned Mental Illness Into a Crime, Complete with Data Collection and Forced Institutionalization
from Care2
"An executive order that Trump signed in July 2025 has effectively made it a crime to have a mental illness, struggle with substance use, or be unhoused. And the punishment for those crimes could be both forced institutionalization without consent, and loss of privacy rights over sensitive health data."
Trump Moves to Ban Flag Burning Despite Supreme Court Ruling That Constitution Allows It
from the AP
"President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order requiring the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American flag, an activity that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is legitimate political expression protected by the U.S. Constitution.
"'You burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don’t get 10 years, you don’t get one month,' Trump said. 'You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record, and you will see flag burning stopping immediately.'"
Presidential Actions
from the White House
Keeping an eye on the endless ...
How Big Tech Powered A Justice Department Coup
from The Lever
"After a secret lobbying effort, Trump's Justice Department ousted staff and reversed course on Hewlett Packard Enterprise's proposed megamerger."
The Fight Against ICE's Cruelty and the Rise of State Violence
from ICEbreaker News
"ICE may deport migrants to countries other than their own with just six hours notice, memo says"
"A senior White House aide has reportedly set a daily ICE arrest quota of 3,000, guiding DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to oversee high-volume immigration raids nationwide."
"New data shows ICE is focusing more on non-criminal undocumented immigrants, contradicting its messaging about targeting 'criminal' migrants and raising questions about enforcement priorities"
"After temporarily pausing workplace raids, ICE has rescinded the exemption, resuming enforcement in farms, hotels, and restaurants despite industry concerns."
De Flock
Flock Camera Locations
"Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are cameras that capture images of all passing license plates, storing details like the car's location, date, and time. These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles—regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. While these systems can be useful for tracking stolen cars or wanted individuals, they are mostly used to track the movements of innocent people.
"LPRs are a threat to your privacy and civil liberties. They're regularly used to track everyone's movements without a warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. Law enforcement agencies use them for various purposes, including ICE raids and tracking abortion seekers across state lines.
"Learn more about how Flock, the most popular ALPR vendor1, is being used in your community on the independent site: Eyes on Flock."
Surveillance Company Flock Now Using AI to Report Us to Police if it Thinks Our Movement Patterns Are 'Suspicious'
from the ACLU
"The police surveillance company Flock has built an enormous nationwide license plate tracking system, which streams records of Americans’ comings and goings into a private national database that it makes available to police officers around the country. The system allows police to search the nationwide movement records of any vehicle that comes to their attention. That’s bad enough on its own, but the company is also now apparently analyzing our driving patterns to determine if we’re 'suspicious.' That means if your police start using Flock, they could target you just because some algorithm has decided your movement patterns suggest criminality."
Agencies that use License Plate Readers (LPR)
from Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (MN)
"This page contains information provided by Minnesota law enforcement agencies about their use of License Plate Reader (LPR) technology. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) publishes this information on the BCA website as required by Minnesota law."
Surveillance locations in St. Louis County
Flock Camera Locations
- Co. Rd. 7 S/B @ Co. Rd. 133 (Meadowlands, MN)
- Midway Rd. N/B @ Seville Rd. (Hermantown, MN)
- Lavaque Rd. S/B @ Martin Rd. (Duluth, MN)
- Co. Rd. 7 N/B @ Co. Rd. 101 (Iron, MN)
- Rice Lake Rd N/B @ Martin Rd. (Duluth, MN)
- Co. Rd. 21 S/B @ Wahlsten Rd. (Embarrass, MN)
- Co. Rd. 4 N/B @ Co. Rd. 16 (Aurora, MN)
- US Hwy 53 S/B @ MN 194 (Duluth, MN)
- Co. Rd. 77 N/B @ Lost Lake Rd (Tower, MN)
- US Hwy 5 S/B @ Hobson Lake Rd. (Hibbing, MN)
Minnesota sheriff’s departments seek to cooperate with ICE
from Minnesota Post
"While Minnesota has been derided as a ‘sanctuary’ by the Trump administration, seven counties have agreed to help implement federal immigration law."
ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data
from Wired
"Per the agreement, ICE officials will get login credentials for a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) database containing sensitive medical information, including detailed records about diagnoses and procedures. Language in the agreement says it will allow ICE to access personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, banking data, and social security numbers."
U.S. Companies Honed Their Surveillance Tech in Israel. Now It's Coming Home.
from The Intercept
"Since he took office barely six months ago, Donald Trump has handed billionaire Peter Thiel's surveillance company, Palantir, contracts reportedly worth more than $113 million to build detailed profiles of Americans. Here's what they're planning to do with that data:
"Track immigrants' movements in real time. Monitor their social media. Map where they live, work, and travel. Generate instant reports on visa holders that include what they look like and with whom they associate.
"And targeting immigrants is just the beginning.
"Palantir specializes in mining personal data from thousands of sources — your social media, financial records, travel patterns, associations — and converting it all into searchable databases that map connections between individuals and organizations. This isn't speculation. It's already happening — and Trump is turbocharging it.
"U.S. spy agencies plan to create a master surveillance database that would make it even easier for them to surveil anyone they choose. This massive database would be a one-stop shop for authorities that want to track, intimidate, and retaliate against Americans — all built with our tax dollars.
"The Intercept also recently highlighted how U.S. companies like Palantir first honed these surveillance technologies on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. After Trump's reelection, the companies thought they could now operate with little pushback at home, so they're bringing those same tools to American soil."
Angela Davis — Tanner Lectures on Human Values
Held at Yale in April
"Angela Y. Davis is professor emerita of history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974) to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (2015). Her most recent books include Abolition. Feminism. Now., written with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, and a book of essays Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, vol. 1.
"She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, an abolitionist organization based in Queensland, Australia, that works in solidarity with people in women's prisons.
"Like many educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a "prison industrial complex," she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a twenty-first-century abolitionist movement."
Feds Make It a Crime to Give PPE to ICE Protesters
from the Intercept
"The Trump administration is trying to criminalize activism like identifying masked immigration agents."
"In addition to arresting hundreds of immigrants across Southern California, the government is targeting a mounting number of people who are responding to the raids or helping protests. Some of those targeted have provided supplies to protesters or tried to identify ICE agents conducting raids in masks and plain clothes."
Every action counts in the fight against ICE’s cruelty and the rise of state violence.
from Icebreaker News
- "ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings"
- "ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens"
- "L.A.'s protest movement shifts tactics as ICE raids continue"
- "Protesters' most powerful weapon is rising"
- Read Icebreaker News for more ...
"From detentions to deportations, ICE continues to terrorize our communities. Read the latest news, share the truth, and join us to demand dignity, safety, and justice for all. Together, We Can Expose and Stop ICE's Cruelty."
DOJ Demands Access to Minnesota’s Voter Rolls
from Democracy Docket
"The Minnesota letter, sent to Secretary of State Steve Simon (D) on June 25, asked the state to provide information on HAVA-related questions involving voter registration, voter roll maintenance procedures and the state’s security measures to ensure unauthorized individuals can’t access voter rolls."
Concentration camp expert warns Trump won’t stop with just immigrants in camps
from the Dean's Report
"'We need to be aware, as a country, how quickly this can get much, much worse.'
"That is the warning from Andrea Pitzer--an expert on concentration camps who wrote the 2017 book, 'One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps'-on where we find ourselves today under the Trump regime."
ICEbreaker News has just launched!
from People Power United
"From mass detentions to forced deportations, ICE continues to terrorize families and communities across the country. Stay informed, spread the word, and take action. Together, we can expose and stop it."
How Do We Stop Trump, Thiel & Their Approaching AI Autocracy?
from Blue Amp
"Trump’s second term is already a constitutional demolition derby:
- "ICE raiding sanctuary cities with no due process.
- "Mass deportation orders streamlined through algorithmic 'targeting' lists.
- "Tariff trade wars launched without congressional oversight—crashing small businesses, jacking up prices, creating global instability with no accountability.
- "Militarized responses to protest and domestic surveillance of political opponents.
- "A provision hidden in Trump’s budget bill making it easier for him to ignore court orders without being held in contempt.
"And now? They want to plug AI into all of it.
"And Thiel—Trump’s most powerful Silicon Valley backer—has made it clear that he views democracy as an obstacle, not an ideal. In fact, according to Thiel, 'democracy and freedom are incompatible.'
"So he’s built surveillance empires (Palantir), propped up anti-democratic regimes, and now wants to privatize the next stage of human governance. By building automated control systems to bypass the people entirely.
"Trump gives Thiel access. Thiel gives Trump power. Together, they’re building something worse than dictatorship: Algorithmic autocracy.
"A future where unelected billionaires feed data to machine-learning systems that determine your freedom, your finances, and your fate. This isn’t a conspiracy. It’s a corporate-state merger (which is what is also known as 'fascism')."