Actually open up the New Testament and read it

My Sunday movie was Vermiglio. It is the name of a village high in the Italian Alps. The time is WWII. Cesare runs a farm and is also the area’s school teacher. He has (I think I counted) eight children. Also with the family is Pietro from Sicily who is a friend of son Attilio and a deserter from the army. The movie is mostly about the family, though Pietro does have an influence, mostly by falling in love with oldest daughter Lucia. There’s also little boy Pietrin who is enamored with Pietro and has a lot of questions about life. When the war ends Pietro is encouraged to visit his family back in Sicily. As one character says, “Men who come back from the war have secrets.” With that setting the views, of course, are gorgeous. The acting is well done. The story is quiet and heartbreaking. It deserves the awards it has won and has been nominated for. There might be an LGBTQ angle to the story. Daughter Ada is secretive, has a good friend in Virginia, finds and enjoys her father’s pornography, and has a great deal of guilt over it. The nasty guy made a big deal about signing an agreement with Greenland and Denmark about putting more US forces on the island and doing so while at the United Nations General Assembly. This seems to have quieted his quest to take over Greenland, though my fear is the increased US military will make an attack possible. A tweet by Nero plays golf includes a tweet by Capt. Karjalainen:

Denmark just pulled of the diplomatic heist of the decade. They basically got Trump to re-sign the 1951 Greenland agreement, but added a genius “poison pill”: the deal is only valid as long as the US stays in NATO. Trump gets the domestic headline, but Denmark quietly locked them into the European security architecture. Masterful.

Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy is doing for his plans for his triumphal arch the same thing he did to his ballroom – declare it is a military site and thus vital to national security. I hate to quote the nasty guy’s tweets, but this is the quickest way to say it. The arch:

will house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.

Of course, he also says there was a “strong request” from the military to turn the arch into a military complex. Needham wrote:

How will Americans make a pilgrimage to the Temu Trump Arch to venerate Dear Leader if the thing is also a military installation bristling with weapons? Do civilians normally just get to stroll through those sorts of things?

All this, well the arch all by itself, would be a violation of the Commemorative Works Act. A suit is being brought by a group of veterans. A big question is whether they have standing. The people who do have standing: Congress. The people not doing anything to stop this monstrosity: Congress. When this story broke Michel Martin of NPR spoke to retired Major General Randy Manner about arming the arch. The important points Manner made: Saying the military begged for it is an insult to the military, though it could have come from Secretary Hegseth. Actual admirals and generals are absolutely opposed to this absurd idea. Storing ammunition there is absurd, it offers insufficient protection. One does not advertise where the ammunition is being stored. One puts snipers nests where one intends to do the shooting and the only ones who will be around it are Americans – so the nasty guy is implying the target for the snipers is us. This is close to the flight path to the Reagan Airport, a terrible place to put drones. This is a site that does not need a military presence because there would be no enemy threat there, it would not be a combat zone. All that should scare every American. Needham also reported that Hegseth has announced all male service members 30 and older will be tested for their testosterone levels. Anyone with a deficiency will be given “treatment pathways.” Needham wrote:

That testing is mandatory. You can’t waive it by saying “Pete, unlike you, I am not so insecure in my masculinity as I age that I need to start juicing and shooting T.”

Doctors say screening for low T is weird when there are no symptoms. And high levels of T increase the risk of infertility. Needham noticed that this appears to be gender-affirming care, the same thing this administration is eager to deny to trans people. Hegseth claims it is different. But hypocrisy is frequently the point of this administration. And eventually this requirement is supposed to be rolled out for female service members. How is that going to work out? Definitely not great. Especially since they’re trying to ban actual trans soldiers. Clay Bennett posted a cartoon on Kos. He titled it, “Pete’s gender-affirming care.” It shows Hegseth’s desk with bottles and syringes. The label on one is facing out and says:

Testosterone Warning: High levels of testosterone can cause irritability, aggression, and impaired judgment.

Yup, Hegseth definitely wants the aggression and won’t notice the irritability and impaired judgment. In the comments of Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Kos I saw a cartoon that has been deleted, so I can’t credit the creator. It said essentially, “How can there be a triumphal arch when there have been no triumphs?” David Rothschild tweeted:

Republicans' largest donor (by far) is hosting a robust debate on his platform about whether Jews are white. Corporate Media will ask precisely 0 Republicans about their largest donor's all-consuming misogyny, xenophobia, antisemitism, he will instead by referred to as a visionary industrialist.

A comment by Dartagnan quotes an article in Salon:

If Talarico wins, the white evangelical leadership is very worried about an earthquake among their "faithful." Their biggest nightmare, apparently, is that their congregations actually open up the New Testament and read it. "This is why there’s a growing panic in the Republican ranks over the campaign of James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, and it’s not just fear that he could beat Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general. Win or lose, Talarico — a seminary student-turned-politician — embodies an existential threat to the right’s long-standing myth that to be Christian must necessarily mean voting Republican. “As a young evangelical we were taught repeatedly and clearly: It is not possible to be a Christian and a Democrat,” Brad Onishi, a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley and co-host of the “Straight White American Jesus” podcast, told me. “But candidates like Talarico are changing that. His theological acumen and keen ability to use the language of the New Testament to disarm bad-faith religious attacks is showing a new way forward.”

In response to a tweet and article about Sen. John Cornyn and Bush II holding a fundraiser in Dallas to benefit tight senate races but definitely not Texas candidate Ken Paxton, Evan Sutton tweeted:

lol at all the people who've been going "Why isn't Dubya speaking out about Trump??" folks, he's committed to the same f---ing project.

Back in May nasty junior was married. The big news at the time was that daddy didn’t bother to attend. But it was a lavish, three-day party, befitting someone who is rich and wants to impress people in how important he is. The party was held on private islands in the Bahamas and ended with fireworks launched from a barge. The bride wrote on Instagram, “It was everything we dreamed of and more.” Last week Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica investigated one important detail of the party – nasty junior paid for very little of it, even though his financial worth is estimated at $300 million. Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin paid for a great deal – hundreds of thousands of dollars. There were about 50 guests and most of them wondered why a few tended to stand off by themselves and speak Russian. The obvious questions are: Why? And is this a national security issue? Because also obvious: If Kremlev spent so much money on nasty junior he is expecting something in return from the son of the Oval Office occupant. The article goes into detail on who Kremlev is – he has a record of extortion and battery and Ukraine imposed personal sanctions. It also mentions the everlasting efforts of Kremlin operatives trying to build relationships with US government officials and their families.

The depth of active resistance in Minneapolis

This afternoon I braved the cold (temperature warmed up to 10F!) to go to the Detroit Film Theater to see The Glassworker. Director Usman Riaz set up Mano Animation Studio in Karachi, Pakistan. He learned how to do it from Studio Ghibli and elsewhere. The Ghibli influence is there (many of the images are quite beautiful) but this is a Pakistan story. At the start of the film are a few live action minutes in which Riaz talks about establishing the studio. All the images are to be hand drawn, though they’re drawn onto a computer screen instead of paper. He assembled quite a team and expressed thanks for help from those outside the studio. That story is about Vincent Oliver, trained as a glass artist since he was a boy. The son’s talent soon passes the father’s. While still a schoolboy he meets Alliz. She’s new to town, daughter of Colonel Amano. She’s as gifted on the violin as Vincent is in glass. Amano is in town to prepare for war. Soon many of the older boys are wearing military tunics. But Vincent’s father Tomas is a pacifist. Vincent hears people describe him as the son of the coward. That puts a strain on the growing friendship between Vincent and Alliz. Then Amano threatens Tomas to get him to work for the war effort. The story goes from there. I very much enjoyed the story and recommend it (I see it is available for streaming). However, some of the scenes are intense, so this animation is not for little kids (a young child in the audience wailed at a sad scene). I began to wonder who this film is for. Pakistan? America? The mouths don’t quite match the words, but that is typical in a dubbed movie (and IMDb lists the vocal cast as for the “English Version”), though all the names appear to be Pakistani (and they spoke with American accents). The source of the wondering is because the sign on Tomas’ shop says, “Oliver Glass” in English and a letter Vincent reads appears to be in English (and Vincent’s name doesn’t sound like a Pakistani name). Are those original or did the Studio create alternate scenes for originals in Urdu (I had to look that up)? Or do enough people in Pakistan know English through its colonial history? In today’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet from Ana Marie Cox on the ICE invasion of Minneapolis. I then looked at the original.

I know people keep saying this but it’s hard to communicate the depth of active resistance here. Like, I’m on random cafes and people are checking in for observation shifts. Signs everywhere. Folks in visibility vests on the corners. It’s wild. Absolutely wild. And that’s just on the surface! I’m also discovering the spread of second and third tier support no one is seeing. I have never ever seen anything like this. I have seen communities organize around natural disasters in a somewhat similar way but obv that wasn’t 80% SECRET.

One of the many comments to Cox, this one by Otto Simm.

These local invasions are meant in part to train Nazi feds for larger offensives, but they’re training the opposition, too. Lessons and tactics are being shared and as a result every fascist invasion seeking to incite violence will fail earlier and with fewer casualties.

Another reply to Cox led me to this thread by Sinister Minnesotan, Quantum Hamologist. Here’s the start and end:

I need to write a long-form piece about how dang *Minnesotan* the resistance to ICE is here. You have a metro population that quietly got itself organized in a completely decentralized way, and everyone just got down to work. And it's clearly sending the feds into a tailspin. So what makes it "Minnesotan"? The "quietly" and "decentralized" bits are a big part of it; everyone who's out there did so because they independently decided something needed doing. Taking responsibility and not sitting around jawing about it is A Thing here. And sure, sometimes it sucks. ... At some point in the past, I pointed out that the number of Minnesotans out in the freezing cold for something that was neither ice fishing nor sports was *remarkable*. I really can't explain how, on one level, what's happening is entirely abnormal; but on another, it's just 100% Minnesota.

Dworkin quoted the New York Times

The action on Friday, which unfolded in subzero temperatures, was the most widespread and organized demonstration since federal agents arrived in Minneapolis more than six weeks ago. It was aimed at pressuring the federal government to pull thousands of its agents from the streets. Businesses, many of them locally owned, closed their doors to halt economic activity, saying that losing a day’s revenue was worth the cost to be part of the effort to end the immigration enforcement. “There’s a time to stand up for things, and this is it,” said Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, a Minneapolis restaurant that closed on Friday. “If it takes away from a day of our income, that is worthwhile.”

The Washington Post on the nasty guy and Greenland:

The brazen ultimatum — give up Greenland or face tariffs — elicited a level of unity that largely had eluded the leaders of the 27-nation E.U. in the year since Trump’s second inauguration.

Joyce Vance in her Civil Discourse on Substack:

ICE seems to be arguing that if they think a non-citizen for whom there is a final order of deportation is in a house, they can blow right past the Fourth Amendment, take the doors off the house if they aren’t admitted voluntarily, and go right in. But the Fourth Amendment doesn’t change just because ICE says so. The Supreme Court has made it clear that a search warrant must be signed by a “judicial officer” or a “magistrate.” Their signature on the warrant says that they have reviewed the evidence that the agents believe constitutes probable cause to justify a search, and they agree that it is sufficient to breach the wall otherwise established by the Fourth Amendment and allow law enforcement into a private home (or car, or private areas of a business, etc.). The idea is that a detached, neutral judge—not someone involved in investigating a case or “on the same side” as law enforcement—should evaluate the evidence before a search warrant or an arrest warrant is issued.

Down in the comments Pierre Polyester of Canada posted a meme of the nasty guy’s 10 biggest lies during his speech at Davos (which implies there were a lot more than ten lies). I will list only a couple:

Lie: US paid 100% of NATO Truth: US pays ~16% of NATO budget Lie: US gave Greenland back [as part of the 1951 treaty] Truth: Denmark always owned Greenland.

On Thursday Lisa Needham of Kos wrote about a memo from ICE that overrides the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Since ICE officials know busting down doors without a warrant is illegal, the memo has been passed along secretly. It’s based partly on executive orders from the nasty guy (which are not law or part of the Constitution) and some of it is derived from recent rulings from the Supreme Court – the Kavanaugh Stops that allow for racial profiling. In Monday’s pundit roundup, both in the body and a ways down in the comments, are several memes and tweets of the nasty guy chasing after various prizes. I’m sure most of them were AI generated. A tweet by David Frum:

ICE should return to being a police force. No masks. No combat gear. No armored vehicles. They should audit employers suspected of employing illegal labor - and enforce deportation orders - with badges, warrants, and professional manners. "Demilitarize ICE" not "Abolish ICE."

Only after causing chaos and sowing turmoil

The nasty guy has put Greenland back in the news. To distract us because he has no idea what to do with Venezuela after kidnapping its leader? A second distraction (Venezuela being the first) from his Department of Justice which is definitely not releasing the Epstein files, though required to do so by law? A week ago Wednesday an Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported that Denmark and Greenland officials met with the vice nasty and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Afterward a Danish official said there was still a “fundamental disagreement.” The nasty guy has given reasons for wanting to take over Greenland. National Security. Keep it out of the hands of Russia and China. Take control of its mineral wealth – the kind of minerals needed in cars, computers, and green energy. The Danish and Greenlandic officials say: We already have treaties for you to put as many military bases there as you want. What Russian and Chinese attempts to take the island? There’s a reason why those minerals aren’t being extracted – the place is cold and covered in ice! Besides, the natives of Greenland don’t want to be a part of the US. So those reasons must be a cover for something else. Does the nasty guy want it own it to feed his vast ego? Denmark and other NATO allies are increasing their military presence on Greenland. On Thursday of last week another AP article noted troops from Denmark and several European countries, including France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, have started to arrive in Greenland. It is to tell the nasty guy that NATO can protect Greenland from Russia and China Under the nasty guy’s threats is a growing concern of what happens if the US, a member of NATO, invades Greenland, also a member of NATO through its association with Denmark? What happens to NATO and its vow that an attack on one is an attack on all? A week ago Saturday strawbale of the Kos community posted a delightful AI generated video showing those ready to defend Greenland from US invasion. Those stalwart fighters are polar bears and walruses. The song that goes with it is properly heroic. In the comments are two more videos. The first (and lower in the comments) was created back in April when the nasty guy first invoked tariffs, including on two southern islands populated by only penguins. The Democratic Penguins Republic was created to show they’re ready to protect their islands. That’s why the second video (higher in the comments) features the Democratic Penguins Republic in the fight for Greenland along with the polar bears and walruses, though that’s on the opposite end of the world. LEastsound tweeted a cartoon by John Deering. It shows a Greenland child facing the nasty guy surrounded by his Secret Service. The child says, “We’re already great, thanks.” On Wednesday Kos of Kos wrote about the state of the situation. The nasty guy gave a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Kos described it as “wildly incoherent.” In response the US stock markets dropped in the range of 1.5% to 2.5% (I don’t have numbers in front of me). Between that and Europeans holding firm, the nasty guy announced he and the Secretary General of NATO had a “framework” for a deal and that the tariffs he had imposed on every NATO country that supported Denmark had been called off. When I originally heard the news about having a “framework” I imagined Danish and Greenlandic leaders saying, “We do?” Guys, don’t feel bad about not knowing that a nasty guy’s “framework” is equivalent to his “concept of a plan” that will be delivered “in two weeks” that never seems to actually appear. It seems that NATO holding firm and the stock market reaction (it has since gained back most of its losses) prompted the nasty guy to fold. Or, as the phrase that became popular when he pulled back on the tariffs he had imposed, he did a TACO, Trump Always Chickens Out. Wrote Kos:

In other words, Trump has once again backed down from threats on which he couldn’t follow through—but only after causing chaos, sowing turmoil, and further damaging relationships with our closest allies. He then tried to declare victory for a “deal” that does not exist and—even if it did—would amount to little more than what’s already in place. ... How many more of these self-inflicted wounds can this country take?

So what will be the next Epstein distraction? Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary:

"That's right. After all the bullying, the threats, all the anguish we caused, all the alliances we damaged, all the demands, we reached an agreement that is in all probability nearly identical to the agreement we already made back in 1951. And that is the art of the deal, folks. No one solves a problem that he manufactured completely on his own better than Donald J. Trump." —Jimmy Kimmel

In the comments of Wednesday’s pundit roundup for Kos is a tweet from Christopher Hale:

For the first time in U.S. history, the archbishop responsible for Catholic pastoral care of U.S. service members said military officers may be morally obligated to disobey a sitting president’s orders. Archbishop Timothy Broglio said a Trump-ordered invasion of Greenland would violate Catholic teaching and that Catholic troops could refuse to comply.

In the body of the roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Paul Waldman of The Cross Section on Substack discussing the brutal tactics of ICE and the “Don’t Tread On Me” flags:

To the naïve observer, those statements and warnings might have indicated an aversion to excessive state power and state violence. But that was never what the conservatives felt. To the contrary; one could always detect a yearning for violence, not a dread that the day would come when they would have to start gunning down their enemies, but the fervent hope that the day would come sooner rather than later... In other words, many conservatives believe that if a liberal even tries to evade an ICE agent in their car, that’s sufficient justification for the agent to kill them, but using your car to kill someone is perfectly fine if the person under the wheels is a liberal. Many prominent Republican lawmakers support laws that allow people to kill protesters with their cars if those protesters get in their way, since shutting down traffic is a tactic that has more often been employed by leftists. Four Republican states have passed laws removing civil liability for those acts of vehicular death-dealing. And of course, conservatives regularly turn killers like Kyle Rittenhouse (who killed two people and wounded a third) into heroes, provided the people they kill are liberals. So when they saw the video of Renee Good’s murder, they weren’t horrified, they were exultant. It’s just the kind of thing they’ve been thirsting for: some woke lib lesbian who was “very, very disrespectful” (as Trump put it) to a man with a gun, and got just what she deserved. And they want more.

In today’s roundup Chitown Kev quoted a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

But the reality is also that, despite his over-the-top rhetoric, Mr. Trump can’t get away with whatever he likes. He is constrained by democratic institutions in the U.S., the necessity of maintaining alliances abroad, and public opinion as measured by polls and investors. The Greenland saga is a telling example. On Saturday Mr. Trump issued his demand to own the icy island and he vowed to impose tariffs on Europe to compel a sale. Opposition built over the holiday weekend, and financial markets cast a decidedly negative vote on the tariffs and threats on Tuesday. Members of Congress spoke against the use of military force in Greenland, with even GOP leaders expressing doubts. One Senator told us that, if Mr. Trump had gone ahead, Congress would have voted to cut off funds for an invasion, and with veto-proof majorities. European leaders also made clear that taking Greenland by force, military or otherwise, would break the NATO alliance. And what do you know? On Wednesday in Davos, Mr. Trump issued his familiar criticisms of Europe’s weakness, many of which are accurate. But he disavowed the use of force. And by the end of the day he had canceled the tariffs and claimed victory over what he called a “framework” deal over Greenland that he said will make everyone happy.

Nandita Bose tweeted:

Trump to Canada's @MarkJCarney at Davos: “Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your Prime Minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful. They should be grateful to us... Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that Mark the next time you make your statements.”

Benjy Sarlin added:

Glad Greenland is behind us so we can get back to threatening Canada.

In the comments is a tweet by Mrs. Betty Bowers with a link to a New York Times article titled, “Volunteers in Minnesota Deliver Groceries So Immigrants Can Hide at Home.” Bowers wrote:

These type of people are America's only shot at ever being great. In other words, they are the opposite of empathy-free Donald Trump and his terrorizing Gestapo goons who are destroying our country.

Comments to that tweet contain warnings that ICE is known to deliver food to get people to open their door. Only open for delivery people you know. I’ll get to the Board of Peace on another day. In this roundup Brian Allen tweeted:

Trump just “ratified” his Board of Peace like he’s founding a new world order. But the Constitution is clear: treaties need 2/3 Senate approval. So unless the Senate voted, this isn’t an international organization. It’s a photo-op with a flag.

If you try to stop us we will use our violence against you

Some of these posts are old, some are recent. Together they tell a developing story. Back on November 19 Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported that ICE was about to hire bounty hunters to track down immigrants for them. The hunters would get $300 for each person and address they verify and pass to ICE. Yeah, there are professional bounty hunters, though the field doesn’t have oversight and is full of abuse. But a big problem is this offer could be expanded to anyone who wanted to surveil and betray neighbors. There don’t seem to be safeguards on whether the address is for an actual undocumented person. This seems modeled on the Texas law that allowed citizens to sue someone for getting an abortion and collect the fee. But this is a paltry sum for selling your soul. Needham has more details in a report from November 13. Bounty hunters are not government employees and do not have restrictions that ICE agents have. Nevada Department of Insurance has 459 pages of complains about bounty hunters for harassment, stalking, and excessive force – yeah, what ICE agents are already doing – today ICE doesn’t seem to have restrictions. Kos of Kos wrote on November 22 that ICE went into Charlotte, North Carolina and over a week managed only 250 arrests, or 35 a day. The cost of this is large. Charlotte is deliberate in impeding ICE’s operations.

Which gets to the heart of the whole project: Trump isn’t crafting a coherent immigration policy. He’s staging a political stunt—punishing the immigrants his base hates while quietly protecting the ones corporate America finds useful.

On November 25 Needham reported that so many Department of Homeland Security personnel have been reassigned to the immigrant crackdown that investigations of actual crimes aren’t getting much attention. These are such crimes as “drug and weapons smuggling, cyber and financial crime, illegal technology exports and intellectual property crime” as listed on the Homeland Security Investigation website. Feel safer? Also, most of those detained by ICE do not have a criminal background (as has been mentioned before). I didn’t save articles about ICE for a while after that. I think there was one about using facial recognition software to identify people. Yeah, that will only lead to problems. On January 13 Kos wrote that Americans are turning towards the idea of defunding ICE. A few years ago there were calls to “defund the police.” But that caused more problems and didn’t provide much help. What is causing the big change in opinion is Americans used to assume that ICE was going after serious criminals, not ordinary immigrants and not citizens. But we now see ICE as a real, visible, and brutal presence. An important reason for that change is the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Now 40% of Americans have a favorable view of ICE and 51% view it unfavorably, according to a YouGov survey. Also, nearly 70% say agents must wear uniforms and 55% oppose agents hiding their identities behind masks. Support for protests against ICE is at 49% with opposition to protests at 41%. 45% don’t want to abolish ICE while 42% do. But trend lines show support for abolishing ICE may soon reach a majority. This morning A Martínez of NPR spoke to Liza Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice about what’s involved if the nasty guy invokes the Insurrection Act against Minnesota as he’s been saying he has a right to do. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal armed forces from being used against citizens. The Insurrection Act is the exception. It also means the president can take over the state National Guard without permission of the governor. There are restrictions to when the Act can be used. But this was a law passed in the early 1800s so now the language seems vague and archaic. Other restrictions have been there by tradition, which the nasty guy is very good at ignoring. There is also precedent that invoking the Insurrection Act cannot be reviewed by a court. So, of course, if it is invoked there will be court cases. Also this morning Michel Martin of NPR spoke to reporter Ximena Bustillo about the training ICE agents are getting. I’ll just say there are plenty of reasons to believe agents are not getting all the necessary training. This afternoon Sergio Martinez-Beltrán of NPR reported on how Minneapolis residents are working together to thwart what ICE is trying to do. Alas, at the time of this writing they have not posted a transcript. Thom Hartmann of the Kos community and an independent pundit analyzed the situation in Minneapolis. He first contrasted what ICE is doing compared to how deportations were done under Obama, where the rules were followed:

Nobody showed up to kick in the front door of their home. Nobody from the government was wearing a mask. No swearing, no threats, no guns, no tear gas, no pepper spray, no hitting his car with theirs or beating either of them to the ground. They merely told him he had to leave and served him with the appropriate paperwork, just like they do in most other democratic countries.

Immigration enforcement has been happening since the 1920s and we didn’t need a budget larger than for the Marine Corps to do it. Obama managed 3.1 deportations in 8 years, or an average of 387,500 a year, with 407,000 in 2012. The nasty guy did about 290,000 last year with a previous peak of 269,000 in 2019. Which means the nasty guy’s methods of deporting people are a lot less effective than Obama’s. But the nasty guy’s methods aren’t just about deportations. They aren’t about investigating fraud (Somali immigrants in Minnesota are accused of that). They’re about terrorizing a community. The nasty guy, vice nasty, and Stephen Miller have been clear their goal is not to run the country with “the consent of the governed” but with raw power, “authority without restrictions.” When autocrats want to seize power they begin by telling the people who they need to fear. And for the nasty guy that is brown and black people, particularly those born elsewhere.

Once the populace is sufficiently terrified of the “other,” they’ll accept increasing levels of repression in the name of stemming the danger to themselves and their families. Armed agents of the state begin to show up in public places to “enforce law and order,” but their real goal is to terrify people into submission. This is why Noem and Bondi are refusing to investigate Renee Good’s murder and instead demanding their federal prosecutors go after her grieving wife. They want not only ICE thugs but everybody in America who may think of challenging them to know that smashing windows, dragging people out of their cars, kicking in their doors, beating them to the ground, and even killing them — all without any legal basis, without a single warrant — are what we can all expect to happen to us if we defy their power.

Hartmann quoted the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 the nasty guy signed two months ago. It defines domestic terrorism.

“[A]nti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, … extremism on migration, extremism on race, extremism on gender, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.”

We can guess his definition of “extremism” and “hostility” which means just about everyone but MAGA fits the description of domestic terrorist. And ICE is reminding us of the awesome power the nasty guy has in enforcing it. Do something against us and we’ll turn the full force of our violence on you. Hartmann quoted Stephen Miller’s instructions to ICE agents, that they have full immunity. Anyone who obstructs their work will face our justice. Yeah, that’s full of lies. But Hartmann says the message is clear: We have the power. We will use the power. There is nothing you can do about it. If you try to stop us we will use our power against you. The threat of the Insurrection Act is a threat to override state and local government, suppress dissent, and put federal violence above the rule of law. This is not a democracy. It is state sponsored terror. That got me thinking. Considering how involved Minneapolis residents are in protecting the vulnerable among them and how much the nasty guy wants to use violence to thwart that protection. I think the next few weeks in the city will be critical to democracy in the US. There will be significant bloodshed. I knew that would be coming sometime somewhere. Then we’ll see how willing the US military is to shooting fellow citizens or whether Congress or state level Republicans will grow a spine. I have no idea so won’t guess on whether democracy or the nasty guy wins. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary:

"Right now there are over two-thousand federal immigration agents in Minnesota, and Trump is planning to send around a thousand more. So he's clearly invading Minnesota. Has anyone told him they don’t have oil? Because the best he's gonna get is 50-million barrels of cream of mushroom soup." —Stephen Colbert

In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted the New York Times. Here’s a bit of it:

Rather than encourage agents to de-escalate combustible encounters, as the agency guidelines emphasize, Mr. Trump and his lieutenants have provided tacit approval for more aggressive tactics.

Acyn tweeted a message from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

My position has always been clear that ICE funding should be cut. We’re seeing what they’re doing with this reckless explosion in funding, and I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this

David Shor added:

We recently tested ~ a dozen public statements from a diverse set of Democratic elected officials on the murder of Renee Good and this was the top testing one.

A tweet from Jonathan Cohn quoted @EggerDC:

"Minneapolis is overheating right now, not because protesters are running amok, but because federal immigration enforcement and its political leadership ... are comporting themselves with astonishing, outrageous deception and malice."

That came with a link to an article on The Bulwark, presumably written by @EggerDC, with this title and subtitle:

ICE started the fire Rather than trying to calm things down, the government is fanning the flames.

David Schuster of Blue Amp

But the real jewel in this crown of Trump administration insanity belongs to Vice President J. D. Vance. He announced with great solemnity that federal law-enforcement officers enjoy “absolute immunity.” Vance’s declaration is not merely wrong; it is ludicrous. There is no such doctrine in American law. None. It exists only in the fever dreams of fascist wannabes who mistake their own wishes for jurisprudence.

A tweet from the Omaha World-Herald:

Rep. Don Bacon tells The World-Herald that there would be GOP support for an impeachment of Donald Trump if the U.S. invaded Greenland.

Bacon added:

Bottom line: the WH talk of invading Greenland is WRONG & will backfire in worst way. America stands by our Allies. This is not the 1890s… today we lead free nations against totalitarian & imperialistic governments. We are better & won’t cave to outdated old thinking.

In the comments are a more cartoons about Greenland including a couple showing it defended by a Lego fortress. Medusa posted a cartoon by Rob Rogers showing two Iranian clerics wearing ICE vests. One says, “Wait... Why are we wearing these?” The other: “So we can engage in violent, bloody crackdowns with Trump’s full support!” PX Molina posted a meme showing a hand stopping a fist. The words say:

They want your silence. Don't give it to them. They want your fear. Don't give it to them. They want your violence. Don't give it to them. They want your misinformation. Don't give it to them. Deny them everything that feeds them.

A psyop to destroy manhood

Jelinda Montes, in an article for Uncloseted Media posted on LGBTQNation, discussed “The social psychology behind trans terrorism panic.” The article begins by describing male teens being sucked into alt-right websites. One of those was Joseph McConville, who managed to find his way out. The message he kept hearing was: As a male he’s entitled to everything and soon realized he wouldn’t get it all (he heard this one before he got online). Transgender people are a psyop to destroy manhood – “It’s all about making men hate themselves, to become women, to weaken the American hegemony.” The second part of the article is the anti-trans lies being pushed by various more mainstream media outlets. They’re giving false information to get one to support their position. The third part is why it works. Thekla Morgenroth, a professor of psychology at Purdue University said:

People are very attached to the way that they think about gender because it gives them a sense of certainty—it gives them a sense of who they are and who they’re not. ... Here’s an explanation for why I should be scared. I’m gonna endorse that and I’m gonna believe that regardless of whether that makes logical sense or not.

It is the same method used against gay people and other marginalized people. Frame them as a threat, an issue of protecting the community.

[Joseph Vandello, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida,] says many young men fall for anti-trans narratives because they confirm their place of privilege in the world and validate their insecurities. He coined the term “precarious manhood,” which is the idea that manhood is a social status that has to be won and can be lost. His research indicates that threats to one’s sense of manhood—like trans and queer identities—provoke not only insecurity, but aggression.

Fourth, the way out. Justin Brown-Ramsey was sucked in and found his way out. That happened in college when a professor required him to read about Frederick Douglass, which forced him to engage in ideas outside his usual diet. The phenomenon of getting sucked into the alt-right algorithms fascinated Anthony Slteman, so he began to study how it happened. But he could feel the “empathetic communication” of the network sucking him in. He turned to his professor to keep him grounded. He described the content: “ It’s always framed about fear, anger, and just some sense of belonging.” In Sunday’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos Chitown Kev quoted Cory Doctorow writing for The Guardian.

Donald Trump’s tariffs have opened up a new possibility for the technology we have become increasingly dependent on. Today, nearly all of our tech comes from US companies, and it arrives as a prix fixe meal. If you want to talk with your friends on a Meta platform, you have to let Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg eavesdrop on your conversations. If you want to have a phone that works, you have to let Apple’s Tim Cook suck 30p out of every pound you spend and give him a veto over which software you can run. If you want to search the web, you have to let Google’s Sundar Pichai know what colour underwear you’ve got on. This is a genuinely odd place for digital computers to have got to. Every computer in your life, from your mobile phone to your smart speaker to your laptop to your TV, is theoretically capable of running all programmes, including the ones the manufacturers would really prefer you stay away from. This means that there are no prix fixe menus in technology – everything can be had à la carte. Thanks to the infinite flexibility of computers, every 10-foot fence a US tech boss installs in a digital product you rely on invites a programmer to supply you with a four-metre ladder so you can scamper nimbly over it. However, we adopted laws – at the insistence of the US trade rep – that prohibit programmers from helping you alter the devices you own, in legal ways, if the manufacturer objects. This is one thing that leads to what I refer to as the ens***tification of technology. There is only one reason the world isn’t bursting with wildly profitable products and projects that disens***tify the US’s defective products: its (former) trading partners were bullied into passing an “anti-circumvention” law that bans the kind of reverse-engineering that is the necessary prelude to modifying an existing product to make it work better for its users (at the expense of its manufacturer). But the Trump tariffs change all that. The old bargain – put your own tech sector in chains, expose your people to our plunder of their data and cash, and in return, the US won’t tariff your exports – is dead.

In the comments LEastsound posted a cartoon by Michael de Adder that shows a scene that seems quite accurate to me. It shows a TV with a news program with the banner, “Trump wants Greenland.” In front of the TV is Putin with a big smile, jumping on the furniture, and popping s champagne cork. In the comments of Monday’s roundup paulpro posted a cartoon by Smit. It shows three ICE agents beating a person on the ground. A fourth agent approaches and says, “Make way guys! I, too, wish to cleanse a lifetime of cowardice, inadequacy, powerlessness and resentment through this one glorious act of obscene inhumanity which can’t possibly ever come back to bite us in the ass!” Maybe a decade or so ago people came to Detroit to take photos of the dilapidated buildings. It was called “ruin porn.” In Wednesday’s roundup Greg Dworkin quoted David Frum of The Atlantic who talks about what might be called “revenge porn” or “violence porn.”

For MAGA America, ICE is an instrument for cleansing violence. Visit ICE social-media accounts and you’ll see, again and again, videos of armed force against unarmed individuals, against a soundtrack of pumping music. There’s a montage of aggressive arrests in Minnesota of unarmed, nonwhite men, many of them thrown to the ground and cuffed, set to the 1977 hit “Cold as Ice”: “Someday you’ll pay the price.” A dozen heavily armed and armored agents round up a single unarmed woman in a T-shirt and two similarly defenseless men in California. In Indiana, armored agents throw handcuffs and ankle chains on a big haul of men and shove them in a cell, where they can be seen pacing, weeping, or with their heads plunged in their hands. Rarely do these videos present a situation that couldn’t be managed with a couple of plainclothes officers bearing holstered sidearms. The point is to prove that the fearsome power of the American state is being wielded by righteous MAGA hands against despised MAGA targets.

From the New York Times:

While Mr. Trump still says the ICE agent was acting in self-defense, his latest comments suggest that disrespecting law enforcement could help to justify the killing. The comments raise serious questions about the use of force by those carrying out Mr. Trump’s crackdown on immigration, and they underscore the extent to which Mr. Trump’s impulse is to condemn anything done by his critics and to defend the actions of his supporters.

In the same topic Paul Veronese tweeted:

In his book, "Kent State: What Happened and Why," James Michener concluded the best explanation for why the Ohio National Guard shot and killed multiple students is that the working class males in the Guard couldn't handle disrespect especially from *coeds* (female students).

Wall Street Journal, in an article about the nasty guy complaining about AG Pam Bondi:

“The better an attorney is, the more process-oriented they are going to be, and that is in direct opposition to what Trump wants, which is someone who is outcome-oriented,” said Sarah Isgur, who served as a spokeswoman for Sessions at the Justice Department. “He can never find a great attorney general because, by definition, they can’t be a great lawyer.”

In the comments paulpro posted a meme from Mr. Fish. It shows an ICE agent in full gear and aiming a gun. The caption says, “Only a coward arms himself against the First Amendment.” Mayra tweeted an image of a member of the Klan, a German SS officer, and an ICE agent. The caption says, “History doesn’t repeat. It rebrands.” Also in the comments FarWestGirl posted a long description of projection. It is from Simply Psychology, a website discussing psychological conditions. I’ve mentioned projection many times because the nasty guy and Republicans do it so frequently – enough that some people say every one of their accusations is a confession. The article is long so I’ll post only part of it.

Projection is a psychological defense mechanism that involves attributing one’s undesirable traits, feelings, or impulses to other people. For instance, someone who is dishonest might accuse others of being dishonest, thereby shifting attention away from their dishonesty. How does projection serve as a defense mechanism? + Projection, as a defense mechanism, helps protect the ego from anxiety-provoking thoughts or feelings. + By attributing these unwanted aspects to someone or something else, the individual distances themselves from what they find unacceptable within themselves. + This process helps reduce internal conflict and preserve a more favorable self-image. + For instance, a person who struggles with repressed anger might perceive others as hostile and aggressive, thereby avoiding the anxiety of confronting their own anger. Projection centers on attributing specific traits to others that we deny in ourselves. Sigmund Freud viewed projection as a way for individuals to manage aspects of themselves that contradict their self-concept or violate internalized moral standards. In Freudian theory, this process occurs unconsciously, with individuals unaware of the traits they project onto others. Projection emerges when repression, the primary means of keeping unacceptable material out of consciousness, proves ineffective. Narcissistic Projection: Narcissists will project their own negative qualities, insecurities, or shortcomings onto someone else to protect their fragile self-esteem and maintain their grandiose sense of self.

Back in mid December The Wolfpack posted a cartoon of a discussion between the nasty guy and an elephant:

Please don’t vote to release the Epstein files! Everyone will find out that I’m a pedophile! Hmmm... If we help ya keep the files buried, what’s in it fer us? I’ll give you huge endorsements when you’re up for re-election? Why the hell would we want endorsements from a known pedophile?

In today’s pundit roundup Kev quoted Eduardo Porter, writing his Being There Substack:

It is clever. Taking out president Nicolás Maduro while leaving in place his repressive regime, cutting a deal for Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez to take over the presidency, and allowing the heads of the regime’s repressive apparatus to keep their jobs, will prevent American casualties. The arrangement probably can guarantee some stability in the immediate term. But it will fail. President Trump may believe that America’s show of force will cow Rodríguez et. al. into doing as he says. But his view shares the hubristic myopia that has clouded American interventions over decades now. His nifty trick does nothing to correct the fundamental shortcoming in America’s approach to war, unparalleled at winning battles, but dismally bad at building stable, legitimate equilibria in the places it just blew up. ...Trump’s “regime change without changing regimes,” as Phillips P. O’Brien, a professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, called it, will also leave a painful mess that will do nothing to improve the lives of Venezuelans. The regime Trump left in Caracas is carrying on with business as usual, It has reportedly unleashed new rounds of repression, imprisoning journalists and ordinary citizens. The State Department in Washington issued an alert noting “reports of groups of armed militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the United States.”

Adam Mahoney of Capital B News wrote about the images of Venezuelans celebrating the departure of Maduro. He made the distinction between the lighter-skinned Venezuelans who are celebrating and darker Venezuelans, the ones with African ancestry, who are not celebrating and are less likely to migrate to the US. Racism is alive there too. In the comments a cartoon by Dave Granlund shows an ICE agent at a pharmacy counter saying, “Got anything for an itchy trigger finger?” A meme posted by exlrrp shows a sign with the head of an ICE agent with the words, “I murder people because a pedophile tells me to.” Lefty Coaster posted that the nasty guy has dementia, then listed common ways dementia changes a person’s behavior.

+ Losing inhibitions + Delusions and paranoia [though he’s been showing that a long time] + Agitation and restlessness + Aggressive behavior As a person’s dementia progresses, they will have more difficulty understanding logic and persuasion, so trying to reason or argue with them is not likely to help.

Tweets posted by exlrrp has one by Brooke Rollins:

We’ve run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing. So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money.

Sara Brnić responded:

I can’t wait to have one piece of chicken, one piece of broccoli and a single corn tortilla with one other thing for dinner every night just so I can afford to still not be able to buy a house!

Chasten Glezman Buttigieg added:

Private jets and tax breaks for them and their rich friends, and one piece of broccoli *AND* a tortilla for you!

Toonerman posted a cartoon of God and Satan (looking quite red) at a bar.

God: I have to admit Beelzbub, getting all those Evangelicals to believe that a racist billionaire that makes fun of disabled folks and dead soldiers, has 5 kids with 3 wives, rapes women and children, incites riots and lies ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME was sent by me? Ha-ha now that’s pretty darn impressive! Satan: Oh stop it God, you’re making me blush.

Off to the side, “Evangelicals must use an alternative New Testament.” Wolfpack posted a meme titled “Denmark is ready!” It shows Greenland surrounded by a fortress wall made of Legos. Nick Anderson posted a cartoon titled “Supreme Leaders.” It shows the Ayatollah of Iran and the nasty guy both saying, “We have the right to shoot domestic terrorists whose protests challenge the legitimacy of our regime.”

You won’t need a heart

There was a shooting at the school where Niece works as a librarian. She was not on campus at the time. One injured, perpetrator in custody. That’s way too close. The single injury was why it wasn’t in the news – it wasn’t dramatic enough. My Sunday movie was Young Hearts, a movie from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The story is about Elias, who is 14. This is a farming community and grandfather owns a farm. This is the time of life when literature class starts talking about love. He has a girlfriend in Valerie. Alexander, also 14, moves in next door. He admits he’s been in love before, and to a boy. Alex had lived in Brussels and rural life is new to him. Elias is glad to show him around. Elias soon falls in love with Alex, but he doesn’t know what to do with the feelings. He doesn’t know any gay people in his community. Isn’t he supposed to be in love with Valerie? How will his parents react? It takes a while, and the loving grandfather, to sort it out. Thankfully, the level of homophobia is quite low. I enjoyed this little movie. The actor who played Elias, Lou Goosens, did a fine job and has a good start on an acting career. Trenz Pruca of the Daily Kos community and author of his own blog looked at average income tax rates over the last six decades. He looked at the effective tax rate for the bottom 50% and middle 40% of taxpayers, then for smaller groups in the higher income levels, so that the top two are the top 0.01% to 0.001% and those above 0.001% of taxpayers. He then discussed his conclusions. I’ll mention his major points. The tax code has become much less progressive. The tax rate of the bottom 90% is roughly unchanged over these decades. When bills are passed they are described as everyone getting a tax cut, but those at the bottom (more accurately, not at the top) see little benefit. Over this time Republican administrations have cut tax rates for those at the top by a big chunk. Democrat administrations do nothing or raise the tax rate at the top by a modest amount. Then Republicans cut them again. Each cut is lower than the time before. These tax cuts are not done because the economy needs them to recover or continue growing. These tax cuts are not “paid for” within the tax system.

The adjustment occurs elsewhere: through higher deficits, increased federal debt issuance, or pressure on non-tax mechanisms such as spending cuts. This directly links the chart to the broader fiscal debates that follow major tax cuts: debt ceilings, entitlement reform, and “tough choices” about public investment. ... For most Americans, this does not arrive as a line item labeled “tax increase.” It arrives as constraints: what government can no longer afford, what benefits must be means-tested, what investments are postponed, what risks are privatized. In that sense, the chart helps explain why debates over Social Security, Medicare, healthcare access, and public investment intensify after periods of elite tax reduction. The system has already made its choice; the argument is over who absorbs the consequences.

Last Thursday, just a day after Renee Good was murdered by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, Emily Singer of Kos discussed the various ways Republicans in the administration and elsewhere praised Ross and slandered Good. Much of what they said was lies, easily shown through the various videos of the incident. No surprise here. Lisa Needham of Kos wrote on the day of the murder that it or something like it was always going to happen. She goes into a lot of detail of how we got here – the nasty guy calling in the National Guard in various cities and courts telling him he can’t. Even so, ICE has been active and brutal, yet ICE goons are the ones claiming to be fearful.

This was a favorite lie that ICE invoked in Illinois and California—basically, if your car happens to be anywhere near an ICE agent, they become so scared that they have to shoot you.

Needham gets to the core of her argument.

Trump desperately wants to invoke the Insurrection Act, which he threatened to do in 2020 during uprisings following the police murder of George Floyd—which, of course, was also in Minneapolis. With that, it’s no surprise that this shooting occurred less than a mile away from George Floyd Square. Trump has already declared that he is allowed to invoke the Insurrection Act if the courts won’t let him send in the National Guard, and … the courts won’t let him send in the National Guard. ... What we have now is a blue city on edge, enraged, and fearful—and Trump likely has a brand-new justification for a military crackdown. And, really, that’s what he wanted all along.

Mark Sumner, Kos staff emeritus, discussed whether Ross can be charged with murder. Short answer: Yes, he can, but it could be a difficult process. Sumner cites a Supreme Court ruling that says the charge is permitted. I thought he was referring to a recent case, but this one is from 1890. In the other big distraction from the Epstein files... Alex Samuels of Kos reported that less than a week after the nasty guy kidnapped Maduro if Venezuela the Senate advanced a resolution that would block using military force there without Congressional approval. All Democrats voted for it and five Republicans did too.

While largely symbolic, Thursday’s vote is a rare bipartisan check on Trump, signaling that even in a polarized Senate, some lawmakers are willing to challenge his lawlessness.

David Horsey posted a cartoon on Kos. It has a caption saying, “Since the precedent has been set...” It shows a Danish news reporter saying, “In response to threats against Greenland, elite Danish forces have raided the White House and taken into custody the corrupt, authoritarian leader of the United States.” Last Wednesday Emily Singer reported:

The Trump team released a new food pyramid Wednesday, and it’s as confusing and completely out-of-touch with reality as the rest of the administration’s actions. The new pyramid is an inverted triangle that features protein, dairy, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables at the top and whole grains at the bottom. But its guidelines are difficult to understand and fail to address how the Trump administration has been making those foods more expensive and harder to access. ... If the administration actually cared about health, it would be advocating for more assistance for poor communities to be able to access fresh fruits and vegetables, not crusading against them by vilifying food stamps. More than anything, it’s infuriating to watch the Trump administration embrace the very same idea that former first lady Michelle Obama promoted when Barack Obama was president—an idea that the right screamed about, accusing her of trying to create a “nanny state."

The next day Alix Breeden of Kos said the new guidelines “smell a little rotten.” At the news conference unveiling the new diet guidelines there was a lot of declaring these guidelines were free of conflicts of interest from food corporations. Well, that’s good. But then the actual guidelines seem to be the result of conflicts of interest – or maybe the people who put it together are a bunch of quacks. The top example is the recommendation for meat and dairy has been pushed to the top of the chart (meaning we should eat a lot of it), “despite that scientific research says these foods contribute to worsening heart health.” Robert Kennedy Jr. wants to end the “war on saturated fats.” There is some good in his efforts. He wants people to eat less processed foods and more whole foods. But his other weird efforts mean people will be skeptical of the rare good ideas he is promoting. In the comments of Friday’s pundit roundup for Kos are some good cartoons and memes. The Wolfpack posted a cartoon by BabylonBros of the nasty guy interviewing the Tin Man for a job. The nasty guy says, “You won’t need a heart. We’ll start you off working for ICE!” Adam Cochran tweeted about the way the vice nasty defended the Minneapolis killing:

The most insane thing about all this, is just that: -There is no reason to defend this. It’s not political. You could just say: “Officer didn’t follow protocol. Doesn’t reflect our values. Will be held accountable” There is NOTHING to gain from defending this UNLESS you *want* for ICE to have the freedom to kill US citizens for disagreeing with you!

Tom Gauld posted a cartoon for New Scientist marking going back to work after the break. Two scientists are talking:

First: I am a scientist, Martin. My observations must be meticulously documented rigorously analysed and objectively verified. Haste is the enemy of wisdom! Second: But could you share a preliminary appraisal of your general thinking? First: Well, if you insist on a crudely reductive answer, then, yes, I had a nice Christmas.

In Saturday’s pundit roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Lawrence Willerman of Blue Amp asking us whether the country is more like Charlie Kirk or Renee Good.

Renee Good was a queer mother of three. A poet. A neighbor. A human being who cared about her community and the people in it—especially the ones with less power, less safety, and fewer voices. She lived compassion in a way that didn’t require a microphone or a donor list. And that compassion is almost certainly what put her in the path of federal agents who never should have been there, doing a job they were wildly unqualified to do. She did not die because she was reckless. She did not die because she was violent. She did not die because she was dangerous. She died because she cared. She died because she believed that warning her neighbors—her fellow Minneapolis residents—that ICE was conducting raids was the right thing to do. Because she believed community mattered. Because she believed people deserved to know when armed agents of the federal government were sweeping through their lives.

In the comments The Literate Lizard posted a quote by Margaret Atwood:

Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.

A cartoon posted by paulpro and created by Jonesy shows Jesus saying to a crowd, “Blessed are the meek. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Love your enemies. Blessed are the peacemakers.” In the crows is a guy with a MAGA hat saying, “What the hell kind of Christian is this guy anyway?”

All violence is wielded in support of the hierarchy

Back on the day after Thanksgiving (yeah, this one has been sitting in a browser tab since then) Thom Hartmann of the Daily Kos community and an independent pundit described a time in American history similar to now when democracy was at risk. That time was when John Adams, our second president, was in office.

Adams and his Federalist cronies, using war hysteria with France as a wedge issue, were pushing the Alien & Sedition Acts through Congress, and even threw into prison Democratic Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont for speaking out against the Federalists on the floor of the House of Representatives. Adams was leading the United States in the direction of a fascistic state with a spectacularly successful strategy of vilifying Jefferson and his Party as anti-American and pro-French. He was America’s first Trump, albeit nowhere near as toxic or psychopathic.

Yeah, the same Democratic Party is in operation today. Thomas Jefferson was vice president at the time when the top guy and his vice could be from different parties. Jefferson was a Democrat. He tried to stop the Alien & Sedition Acts, but Adams’ party controlled Congress. When the bills were signed Jefferson left town (I think this was Philadelphia) until his own inauguration to replace Adams, who thankfully was in office only one term. Adams used the Acts to threaten to imprison those who attempted to repeal them. He shut down nearly 30 newspapers, throwing their staff in prison, including Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin. People who commented against Adams were also sent to prison. Adams needed only a few months to silence the opposition. Jefferson worked with pamphleteers, the independent press of the time. They printed posters and leaflets decrying Adams’ lies and supporting Jefferson. Of course, Adams used newspapers loyal to him to attack Jefferson and his colleagues. Adams was trying to destroy Jefferson’s Democrats. Hmm. A question: If Jefferson was not in town, how did he preside over the Senate? It was his voice that kept Democratic senators united in opposition. Jefferson’s next bit of support came from the states. Several of them opposed the shutdown of their newspapers and the use of the Army to threaten their protesters. Jefferson had to prevent his supporters from responding in violence, which would have given Adams a chance to declare an insurrection. That would have ended democracy. But the 1800 election was coming and Adams knew a war, even a little one, would boost his chances. The war didn’t happen. The country was tired of Adams’ abuse of power and Jefferson was elected. An early act was to free the newspaper people. Over the next two decades Adam’s Federalist Party disintegrated. A big thank you to the independent press of the time. And a big thank you to the independent press of today that will continue to report the truth. We need to support them. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted the New York Times discussing comments by Stephen Miller, the guy making this administration as racist as possible:

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper of CNN on Monday, during a combative appearance in which he was pressed on Mr. Trump’s long-held desire to control Greenland.

That’s the language of someone obsessed with the social hierarchy and his place high in it. There is a way to tell: All violence, all “force,” is wielded in support of the hierarchy, in support of one person saying I’m better than you. Vaughn Sterling tweeted:

Industry sources tell CNN that American oil executives are unlikely to dive headfirst into Venezuela for multiple reasons: The situation on the ground remains very uncertain, Venezuela’s oil industry is in shambles and Caracas has a history of seizing US oil assets.

Juliette Kayyem added:

I am curious who was whispering in Trump's ear about Venezuelan oil being easily accessible (it isn't) and coveted by the industry (it isn't). Is there some industry friend? Rubio? Miller? Beyond the legality and lack of planning, isn't the narrative now that Trump got duped?

Another quote from the NYT

In Venezuela, there have been signs of an intensifying crackdown by the government, with the so-called colectivos, or armed government militias, out in full force on the streets of the capital in recent days. Some citizens said the colectivos had been interrogating people and searching their phones for signs of support for the U.S. attacks. At least 14 journalists have been detained, and at least two people have been arrested for celebrating Mr. Maduro’s capture. Mr. Trump, when asked by reporters on Sunday whether he had discussed with the Venezuelan government the release of political prisoners or the return of opposition politicians to the country, seemed to foreshadow his plans. “We haven’t gotten to that yet,” he said. “What we want to do now is fix up the oil.”

As bad as Maduro was to Venezuelans the nasty guy seems to make their lives worse. This is repeated by LuluNYT (involved in writing the above article?) who adds an important question:

Speaking to people I know inside Venezuela and they tell me armed gangs (basically paramilitary gangs allied to the government) are roaming the streets, arrests of journalists are taking place, and the new/old government is undergoing a wave of repression. Is this what the US means by being in control?

This first stat is a bit annoying. From a Reuters report on a Reuters/Ipsos poll:

Trump’s approval rating rises to 42% 60% of Republicans support sending US troops to Venezuela About the same number favor controlling Venezuela's oil fields The two-day poll showed 65% of Republicans back the military operation ordered by Republican President Donald Trump, compared to 11% of Democrats and 23% of independents.

Cliff Schecter of Blue Amp discussing Democrat messaging over the next year.

So providing the simple straightforward narrative of Trump, and contrasting who we are, sharing what we do and how we fight him, is crucial. It goes like this:

Trump and his coterie of cruel, transactional, rich-beyond-consequence f---sticks are destroying our democracy and economy to pocket our paychecks and ban our freedoms. The Thiels, Musks, Bezos’, Zuckerbergs, Ellisons and other self-anointed ruling families meet in backrooms to decide our rights, economic station, our very lives…as they divvy up their billions they gain at our expense. They are, in every sense, the exact conspiracy The Right’s imagined about The Left for decades.

This is the message we must take into 2026 if we want an FDR-like blowout that turns out the Democratic base—even those who haven’t voted in years—-wins over a chunk of Republicans, and overwhelmingly cleans up among independents.

In the comments is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich showing a big mushroom cloud. One guy comments to another:

Is this a distraction from the taking economy, the cognitive decline, the corruption, or the Epstein files?...

Clay Jones posted a cartoon of the nasty guy looking in an empty prison cell. He asks, “Where’s Maduro?” The guard replies, “ICE deported him back to Venezuela...” The Naked Pastor has a cartoon of Jesus talking to the nasty guy using words from the Bible’s books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, “You say peace, peace, when there is no peace!” Bishtoons posted one of a weary old man saying, “Greenland? All I wanted was healthcare.” Bill Bramhall posted a cartoon of a man and woman watching TV. He says, “Can you name one thing Greenland has that we really need?” She replies, “Universal free health care.” Of course, lots more cartoons about Venezuelan oil.

Zero interest in refugees starving and dying

Detroit Film Theater is doing an end-of-year silent film festival with live music. Last evening I saw a couple Charlie Chaplin films. Today I skipped Mary Pickford’s Sparrows and I plan to see the end of the festival tomorrow afternoon. Last evening started with three short films with a Christmas theme. There wasn’t much to the first and second. The third was interesting because it was made in Russia. St. Nicholas, as a Christmas tree ornament, comes to life, goes out into the snow, and conjures to wake bugs and a frog to come to his Christmas party. The first of the Chaplin films was The Rink from 1916 where Chaplin as the Tramp is both a waiter at a restaurant and a skater at the adjacent roller skating ring. He’s not good at all at being a waiter, but on wheels he is quite good and can do a great comedic tumble (one wonders about the skill of the others he tumbled). The simple plot is to keep Mr. Stout away from the young Edna. I saw in the credits and confirmed in Wikipedia that Mrs. Stout was played by a man, Henry Bergman. Put a guy in the right costume and have no way to record the voice and only the credits will give him away. This film’s Wikipedia page includes the entire 25 minutes. The second Chaplin film was A Night in the Show from 1915. This time Chaplin didn’t play the Tramp. The movie is about all the things that go wrong in the audience during a vaudeville show – Chaplin is on the main floor as the gentleman Mr. Pest and also in the balcony with the common people as Mr. Rowdy. Again, Wikipedia includes the whole 24 minute film. I actually got tired of these two because the humor seems rather juvenile. That prompted me to look up Chaplin and his filmography. For 1914 it lists three dozen movies, about three a month. Chaplin’s famous movies are from the 1920s, when he successfully mixed comedy and pathos. Maybe for a Sunday movie sometime soon I should peruse this filmography page and watch some of the more famous movies. These will have the score that Chaplin composed for them. Nick Licata of the Daily Kos community discussed the nasty guy’s most serious illness. There has been lots of speculation about his health, mostly because he is obviously deteriorating and his released medical reports are not credible. However, the most serious is not physical, it’s mental. There are nine symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. The only previous president accused of being a narcissist was Nixon and he exhibited only two: a willingness to exploit others and fantasies about deserving success. The nasty guy exhibits those two plus belief in superiority (“the most dangerous trait that the leader of a democratic republic could exhibit”), grandiose sense of self-importance as in exaggerating achievements, frequent envy as in belittling the achievements of others, entitlement as in anger when people don’t appease him, lack of empathy, arrogance, and a need for admiration as in cabinet meetings where each member gushes with adulation. Yup, that’s all nine. Licata is not the first to see the nasty guy suffers from NPS, though he post is the first time I’ve seen a list of symptoms. When a person has NPS they refuse treatment because they don’t believe they are ill. Friends must intervene (and I’ve heard elsewhere even that won’t lead to healing because the patient won’t cooperate with treatment). The only ones who can intervene are Republicans. And they aren’t. About all they are doing now is trying to distance themselves from him. What they should be doing is removing him from office. Republicans may like the nasty guy undermining the country’s democratic institutions. But he is also undermining the integrity and popularity of their party. That will affect future elections. Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester with photography by Brian Otieno, in an article for ProPublica posted on Kos, wrote about the effect of killing off USAID in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya. The refugees are mostly people who fled the wars in Sudan. At the start of 2025 there were about 720,000 refugees in the camp and it is the third largest camp in the world. In 2024 USAID provided $112 million to feed the people there and had done so for many years. The 2025 assistance was canceled in January. The rest of the article is mostly about two things. The first is the cut in the food for the camp’s residents. An adult should get 2,100 calories a day according to humanitarians. But with the cut in aid about a fifth of the residents will receive 840 calories (about 40% of what is needed), another third will get 400 calories (less than 20% of what is need), and the rest, almost half, will get nothing.

[Dragica] Pajevic ended her presentation by relaying a truism that she said a government official in Liberia had once told her: The only difference between life and death during a famine is WFP [World Food Program] and the U.S. government, its largest donor. “The one who’s not hungry cannot understand the beastly pain of hunger,” Pajevic said, “and what a person is willing to do just to tame that beastly pain.”

That presentation involves the second thing. The presentation was made at a luxury hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital in July. In attendance were American officials on a world tour “to conduct exit interviews with USAID’s top experts, who were being forced out of the agency amid the administration’s stated commitment to austerity.” They had a hefty expense account to travel first class. When the US embassy in Nairobi heard the tour would stop there they set up the face-to-face meeting with Pajevic. And here’s the second thing: WFP officials had been getting a runaround but at the meeting the US officials showed complete indifference to refugees starving and dying. “There was just zero interest in the subject matter,” said a USAID official.

This was something different: an American-made hunger crisis. So far this year, community health workers have referred almost 12,000 malnourished children for immediate medical attention. “What has come with Trump, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said one aid worker who has been in Kakuma for decades. “It’s huge and brutal and traumatizing.”

Some of the refugees are trying to leave the camp. But they don’t have a good way to do that and don’t have a place to go. An American-made hunger crisis. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a pair of tweets. The first was by Stephen Miller, the guy pushing the deportation of anyone not white.

Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids. Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world.

Catherine Rampell responded:

Some people will commit human rights violations rather than go to therapy.

Others pointed out Martin and Sinatra were the sons of immigrants from Italy, a despised country at the time. Paul Waldman of The Cross Section discussed comments by the vice nasty at the annual Turning Point USA conference.

“I refuse to apologize for being white” has long been a mantra of segregationists and Klansmen, an outgrowth of the fear that any sort of equality for racial minorities — legal, economic, educational — by definition meant putting whites in a subservient position, forced to hang their heads and apologize. Equality is perceived to be a reversal of the racial hierarchy: If we’re not in a state of privilege, free to abuse our lessers, then it can only mean we are being abused. So who exactly has been demanding that JD Vance apologize for being white? Has that ever happened to him, a single time? Of course not. But this is a key element of Trumpism, of which Vance would like to be the heir: You have been humiliated, it says, but I will let you stand tall again. You, white people — and especially white men — have been hounded and oppressed, but those days are finally over.

Note the bit about equality and the reversal of the racial hierarchy. Those high in the hierarchy can’t conceive of a world without a hierarchy. So talk of improving the lives of one race implies the loss of status, being made subservient, of another race and they are convinced those they abused will then abuse them. Also this strange idea: Not being allowed to abuse is itself abuse. In the comments is a cartoon by Randy Bish. It says, “It’s a sad day when your government can afford to zip tie children... but can’t afford to feed them.” In response to renewed talk of acquiring Greenland, this time appointing some government official to go there Anne Applebaum tweeted:

They have never explained what they need Greenland FOR. There is no possible use of the territory that has not already been negotiated with the Danes. This can only be an attempt to align the US with Russia, China and other predator states

In response to a tweet by the nasty guy discussing the possibility of marble armrests for the Kennedy Center, which he sullied with his name, Turnbull tweeted:

Listen up, peasants, there is no affordability crisis and if you can’t afford healthcare, blame it on the Democrats. Now, congratulate me on the marble armrests I’m installing, at great expense to the taxpayers, in the cultural arts center that I’ve named after myself.

Brian Allen tweeted:

Trump is literally selling pardons. According to the WSJ, there’s an “official track” and a faster one where you corner him at Mar-a-Lago, say the magic words “unjust persecution,” and walk away clean. Lobbyists quote prices up to $6M. No process. No ethics. Just cash and proximity. This is raw corruption in plain sight.

Which shall rule—wealth or man?

My Sunday movie was Fortune Feimster, Crushing It. I quite enjoyed the first Fortune Feimster comedy video I saw a few weeks ago and this was like a sequel. It was also as much fun. The first story was about the honeymoon she took with her wife Jax to the Maldives. Only on the plane – a 24 hour trip – did Fortune find out being gay in the Maldives is illegal. The trip there included an overnight in Qatar, where being gay is also illegal. She was afraid of gay booby traps the whole time. It was not a romantic honeymoon. Again, there were stories of dealing with her mother. Some were when Fortune was a teen. After her parents divorced her mother started treating Fortune as her husband – even though there were older brothers. Other stories were about dealing with a now elderly mother. And to my delight she talked about being a teen in the church bell choir! Sigh, not the most flattering of stories. My phone has been added to an emergency alert system. It is now 0-3. The first alert I got was a couple weeks ago. The alert said that strong thunderstorms were heading my way and would hit in several hours. By the time the storm reached me it had died out and I think we didn’t even get a sprinkle. The second alert was 6 am Monday morning. It said there was a possible explosion, though unconfirmed. It gave an address, but not a city (and there are a lot of cities in the Detroit Metro area). The alarm sound woke me up. Then my phone chirped about once a minute demanding I read the message. I eventually got out of bed to get it to shut up. Going back to sleep wasn’t easy. I checked the local news this morning. Yes, there had been a fire at that address. Whether there was also an explosion is unknown. If I needed to be concerned about an explosion why did the alert come two hours after the fire started? Yeah, I’m glad it didn’t wake me at 4 am. The fire was about ten miles away. Why did I need to be concerned at all? The third alert is one that didn’t get sent. Sunday afternoon a line of thunderstorms did sweep across the area. It was strong enough my city’s civil defense sirens went off. The news this morning included how many homes had lost power. So why no alert? Who issued these alerts and under whose authority is not mentioned in the messages. As soon as I touch “OK” they disappear. How did I get on this alert system? I’ve had the phone about 22 months before the first alert. How might I get off? I think I would do better on my own city’s system, if I’m on any system at all. Now here on Wednesday evening a thunderstorm is passing through. No alert. So maybe the score should be 0-4. Big news out of the US Senate is the 25 hour speech given by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). He started at 7 pm on Monday and yielded the floor after 8 pm on Tuesday. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported on the speech as of Tuesday morning.

Throughout his marathon speech, the senator has taken aim at key Trump policies and actions, particularly the systematic attack on multiple government agencies under the guise of Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Trump has signed off on DOGE-led purges of thousands of government employees (some purges of which judges have ruled unconstitutional), closures of federal agencies, and intrusions of sensitive government systems at agencies like the IRS and Social Security Administration. “What kind of man is in our White House that makes fun of the disabled, who lies so much that the fact-checkers lose count, that minimizes the pain and the suffering?” Booker asked.

Alix Breeden of Kos reported this afternoon, and explains a bit more. Yes, this sets a record. The previous longest speech was by Strom Thurmond in 1957, fighting against civil rights. Breeden reported on the response from Democrats, which was strong praise, and on the response from the public.

According to The New York Times, more than 14,000 people called Booker’s office from the time he began his speech Monday until he yielded the floor. He reached young voters on TikTok, amassing more than 350 million “likes” on videos of his speech posted to his profile. On YouTube, his videos have more than 140,000 views. And across social media, the left is praising Booker for lighting a fire under the Democratic Party.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Christian Paz of Vox:

Into his second day of a marathon address on the Senate floor, Booker is engaging in almost, but not quite, a filibuster — an old congressional tradition. Filibusters are marathon addresses used as a procedural tool. They take advantage of the Senate’s rules that allow for unlimited debate or speaking by a senator unless there have been special limits put in place. Senators recognized by the presiding officer can speak indefinitely, “usually cannot be forced to cede the floor, or even be interrupted”…but “must remain standing and must speak more or less continuously,” according to the Congressional Research Service. But Booker’s address isn’t a filibuster — there’s no legislation that he’s trying to hold up. Instead, it’s a form of political theater and protest against the Trump administration. And it comes at a time when overwhelming shares of his party’s membership think their elected leaders aren’t putting up a tough enough fight to resist Donald Trump’s agenda. About two-thirds of Democratic voters would prefer their leaders “stick to their positions even if this means not getting things done in Washington” a March NBC News poll found.

Down in the comments was a lot of praise for Booker. And a rebuke to calling the speech “performative” or political theater. And exlrrp posted a meme, created by The Resistance before the speech ended.

If Senator Cory Booker can stand up and speak out against the fascist regime for over 22+ hours and still going strong, every single Democrat needs to do the same. One after another. We must disrupt business as usual. Our democracy is on fire. This is a national emergency. No more compromises with the fascists. They do not care about the US Constitution, or judges or the rule of law. RESIST. DISRUPT. DO NOT COMPROMISE.

Last Saturday, before yesterday’s Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, wrote a guest post for Kos. Wikler began with a quote by Justice Edward Ryan, chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1873.

The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power. The question will arise, and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine: Which shall rule—wealth or man; which shall lead—money or intellect; who shall fill public stations—educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?

Wikler brought that quote up to date.

Are we feudal serfs of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk? Or are we free?

Wikler wrote that because Musk spent likely more than $25 million to get the Republican backed candidate, Brad Schimel, elected. Musk came to Wisconsin several times. In the most recent trip he offered two $1 million checks to two selected voters. Yeah, offering money to get someone to vote is election bribery and is a felony. The Wisconsin AG has files suit. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate, won the seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This preserves the liberal majority and prompts a big sigh of relief from liberals.

The contest was the most expensive court race on record in the U.S., with spending nearing $99 million, according to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. That broke the previous record of $51 million record, for the state’s Supreme Court race in 2023. All of the spending and attention on the race led to high early voting turnout, with numbers more than 50% higher than the state’s Supreme Court race two years ago.

Two years ago the Wisconsin Supreme Court was flipped from a conservative to liberal majority. Emily Singer of Kos has details on how good this win is for Democrats – and how much of a rebuke it is for Musk and the nasty guy. Crawford won by 10 percentage points. All 72 counties had higher Democratic percents than in November. Crawford won ten counties that the nasty guy had won. Oh, yeah. There were to special elections in Florida to fill vacancies in the US House. They were vacant because Matt Gaetz resigned and Mike Waltz became National Security Advisor (though seems to know nothing about security). Both districts are strongly Republican and in both the Republican candidate won, though by a smaller percentage than in November. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported:

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will be reviewing nearly $9 billion in “multiyear grant commitments” to Harvard University and its affiliates. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination - all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry - has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the statement. ... Under the guise of ending antisemitism, the Trump administration has targeted 10 universities for similar federal investigations, including Columbia University. The attacks have led higher education institutions to pledge to remove protections for marginalized groups while cracking down on speech and activism on campus.

A Martinez of NPR spoke to Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor, who is in the process of leaving Yale University, where he’s been since 2013, for the University of Toronto. Stanley is Jewish and an expert on fascism, including writing the book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. The page for this segment is a combination of news article and shortened interview transcript. Alas, I think they left out an important point or two. Stanley is moving to protect himself and his family. That fear was prompted by Columbia University (with other universities targeted) agreeing to rework student protest policies to get back $400 million in federal research funding. From the news article:

Though the administration says they are pulling funding from universities to protect students from antisemitism, Stanley says the administration is using Jewish people as an "excuse to take down democracy."

In the interview Stanley said:

But you can't win a war unless you recognize it's a war. This way they're going to pick us off one by one. And history is watching here. Our institutions will be written about. They're being attacked for this entirely fake reason that's furthermore fomenting antisemitism in the United States. It's going to create mass popular anger against Jewish people. So, if universities want to fight anti-Semitism, they need to stand up and say, 'No, we are not threats to American Jews. You are threatening American Jews.'

If I remember right, that anger is because people will see these institutions losing money because of Jewish people. Also, Stanley said instead of allowing the nasty guy to pick them off, one by one, they need to start working together to present a strong and united voice. Stanley said of the University of Toronto:

I have the privilege and good fortune to get a job there. And they have a long term plan of creating a center that will be a refuge for politicians, journalists and professors from democratically backsliding or authoritarian countries like the United States or Russia. And my job will be to work with these people to jointly strategize about how to return our countries to democracy.

Last Friday Singer reported the vice nasty and his wife went to Greenland. They went to a military base quite a ways north and a good distance from actual cities. He was there long enough to give a combative speech, then flew home. In that speech he claimed Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, “hasn’t done a good job by the people of Greenland.” So the US just has to take it over. Earlier that day the nasty guy explained, in his rambling way, why he wants Greenland. One phrase: “If you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place.” Kos of Kos offered a rebuttal to the nasty guy and vice nasty.

“Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe,” Vance said, which was patently absurd on its face. Has anyone invaded Greenland in decades? Of course not. And the American military presence on the island, part of an array of early-warning radars against a Russian nuclear attack, is the reason why.

Denmark, a member of NATO, has allowed the US presence in Greenland. So yeah, Denmark is keeping it safe. The vice nasty said Denmark hasn’t done enough military spending to keep Greenland safe “from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, China and other nations…” What “aggressive incursions” by Russia and China? Put another way, looking at the nasty guy’s worship of Putin and what’s going on in Ukraine, Greenland should not expect the US to protect it from Russia. Kos included a map of Greenland showing the major cities and the military base. They’re not at all close.

Ultimately, as a NATO ally, Denmark has been open to allowing a greater American military presence in Greenland. There appears to be nothing stopping the NATO alliance, or the United States individually, from building up a presence in Greenland.

Easy to figure out this isn’t about defending Greenland. It’s about the nasty guy appropriating its mineral wealth, now unlocked because of climate change. Since Denmark has universal health care, free college, and low income inequality, is rated the second safest country in the world, and the seventh highest economic freedom score, Kos (and I) like the idea of Greenland annexing the US. disamson of the Kos wrote a variation of what I’ve written a few times. I probably wrote about this when discussing articles on Gaslit Nation. disamson took it from an article posted on Quora.

They don't want to take over the government, they want to destroy that ability of anyone to govern. Traditionally, government was the locus of power in a society. Whether it be right wing or left wing, the most significant power was exerted through government action. That is no longer the case. The real goal of people like Musk & Thiel is corporate feudalism.

I went to that article on Quora. It was written by Feifei Wang, who lives in Seattle. Here are some of the important ideas. A dictator needs a strong central government because that’s how they exert their power. Chaos is bad for maintaining centralized control. But the nasty guy and Musk are not building a central government, even though they have loyalists in the important posts. This looks more like destruction. But a weak government doesn’t help the nasty guy or Musk. The government is a source of enormous wealth for billionaires through the military-industrial complex, subsidies, and regulatory loopholes. A strong central government is the source of their power and money, yet they’re destroying it. So what’s the real goal?

Project 2025 is a “controlled demolition” of the US federal government. Instead of building a competent dictatorship, Trump and Musk (and people from the Heritage Foundation) are gutting federal institutions so they simply cease to function. If you replace career civil servants, scientists, and legal experts with unqualified loyalists, these institutions will be unable to function properly—even if someone competent takes office in the next election. This is not about reforming or restructuring the government for a dictator. It is about rendering it permanently ineffective. ... But what if there are better income sources? What if, instead of gaming the system, they became the system? What if, instead of bending the rules, they make the rules? ... If the government is weak and ineffective, essential services (education, health care, energy, law enforcement, military) will become private industries controlled by the wealthy. When everything is privatized, we effectively live in a plutocracy where corporations run everything, and ordinary people have no democratic protections.

Even if a Democrat were elected president in 2028 they would see the only way to govern is to rely on the private sector. And nationalizing basic government functions would be labeled communism. The nasty guy doesn’t want a functioning government because only a government can hold him accountable. Musk and billionaire tech bros don’t want a functioning government because they want a deregulated playground, one without antitrust laws, labor protections, environmental restrictions, or safety regulations. They become the new ruling class. This is worse than an authoritarian regime like China because they still fill potholes and check food safety. In response to this article Kelvin Bauldry commented:

The Republicans have been running up debt for decades because it makes government look “broken” and starves future governments of the resources needed to fix things let alone adopt new policies like universal health care. Fits right into a plan like what you described.

And Chris Jankowski replied to Bauldry:

You’re right Kelvin, and if you check the record, every single time this has happened, the economy tanks and we vote in a Democrat to fix it. We are a deeply stupid nation...