(click on images to enlarge)
(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)
(Michael de Adder, @deadder)
(Andy Marlette, Creators.com)
(Jesse Duquette, @misterjesseduquette)
(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(Ann Telnaes, @anntelnaes)
(Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal)
(Jeff Koterba, caglecartoons.com)
(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia)
(Ella Baron, The Guardian, UK)
(Joe Heller, hellertoon.com)
(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)
(Matt Reuter, The New Yorker)
Border Patrol Gruppenführer Bovino is jackbooted out of Minneapolis --
Exclusive: Border Patrol “Commander at Large” Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role and is expected to retire soon, sources tell @nickmiroff.bsky.social.
— The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) January 26, 2026 at 7:30 PM
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Well done, Minnesota --
Highlight injustice, put oneself at risk, take the state violence while remaining nonviolent, generate images for the public, more see the undeniable injustice and grow more sympathetic, until state behavior changes. That’s exactly how civil disobedience is supposed to work. Well done, Minnesota.
— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 9:50 PM
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 8:06 AM
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Message to wishy washy, clueless ol' Chuck Schumer --
If Dems are squeamish about "abolish," fine, the demand is still simple: zero funding for ICE and CBP. Pretend you just want a "pause" to "sort it out." Whatever. But, yeah, "do not vote to fund murder and other rampant lawbreaking by Trump's gestapo" is indeed a "purity test" you must pass.
— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 7:40 AM
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What could possibly go wrong? --
What?
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 8:02 AM
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Attention NRA and assorted right-wing gun humpers --
Trump: "With that being said, you can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. You just can't. You can't walk in with guns. You can't do that. But it's just a very unfortunate incident."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 27, 2026 at 12:42 PM
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Plastic "Melanoma" wants "unity" behind her despicable, fascist husband. Buzz off. --
We will crush the skulls of our enemies beneath our boots and hear the lamentations of their women. <loses humiliatingly> Look, I think it’s time to turn down rhe temperature a little. Why are you so divisive?
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 9:46 AM
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Speaking of which... --
— John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 10:01 AM
The betrayal of Ukraine by the Malignant Fascist and his minions continues --
FT reports that US is bullying Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas territory it controls US links security guarantees for Ukraine to peace deal ceding territory - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 6:12 AM
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Allies hedge their trade bets, thanks to the moronic Malignant Fascist --
Reuters: PM Starmer will fly to China on January 27 on the first visit by a British leader in 8 years, in a bid “to mend ties with the world's second-largest economy and reduce its dependence on an increasingly unpredictable United States”.
— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) January 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Um…this is bad.
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 12:20 PM
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ICE Barbie's message --
Kristi Noem Calls On Minneapolis Residents To Stop Obstructing Murders https://theonion.com/kristi-noem-calls-on-minneapolis-residents-to-stop-obstructing-murders/
— The Onion (@theonion.com) January 26, 2026 at 4:15 PM
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The world took notice when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke of the "rupture" in previous alliances and economic / trade assumptions in Davos. Canada's new "strategic partnership" with China is an outcome of the ignorant Malignant Fascist's vindictive trade policies. Now, it's clear that others are forming new links in the wake of the MF's tariff and security threats. From CNBC:
"India and the European Union on Monday closed a 'landmark' free trade agreement, touted as the 'mother of all deals,' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a speech at the India Energy Week on Tuesday.
The FTA with the EU, which represents about 25% of global GDP and about a third of global trade, will also complement India’s deals with Britain and the European Free Trade Association, Modi said.
The agreement will forge a market of 2 billion people at a time when trade ties are being tested amid rising geopolitical tensions.
'I congratulate our colleagues associated with every sector, such as textiles, gems and Jewelry, leather and shoes. This deal will prove to be very supportive to these sectors,' Modi said in a speech in Hindi, translated by CNBC.
Modi and EU President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to make a joint statement at the India-EU summit in New Delhi, later in the day, revealing the details of the deal that had been in the making for nearly two decades." (our emphasis)
The key that unlocked this deal after two decades was provided by the MF's destructive tariffs and security threats against our European allies who, as Prime Minister Carney suggested, can't trust the U.S. any longer to adhere to alliances or agreements under the MF's regime.
(photo: European Council President Antonio Costa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in New Delhi, India, on January 27, 2026. Sajjad Hussain / AFP)
"... How do we make sense of Pretti being murdered for coming to the aid of another female ICE victim? We don’t. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s related. We know the fascists don’t want white people standing up for immigrants and other people of color, who are the main victims of Operation Metro Surge (and all the other perversely named federal invasions, including Maine’s revolting 'Catch of the Day,' as though immigrants are fish to be caught and killed.) And apparently, they don’t want men coming to the aid of the women they assault.
"But it was not lost on Pretti’s devastated parents that he died “while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper-sprayed,” they said in a statement. They wanted us to know that fact. 'Please get the truth out about our son,' they added. 'He was a good man.'” -- Joan Walsh, The Nation, on the character of Alex Pretti, slain by the domestic terrorist organization DHS, while coming to the aid of a female fellow protester. Walsh rightly connects the dark irony of this act of brave decency compared with the brutal, fascistic violence directed at women and children by sad little heavily armed masked males. A time of great evil.
In another masterful show last night, after some well-timed shots at the vain "Melania" movie, Jon Stewart looks closely at the murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of masked Border Patrol goons, and explodes the lies and gaslighting of their despicable chain of command about the murder. In lying, they must have forgotten that virtually everyone has a phone that can record actions, and many did. As he says, "there is nothing more dangerous to a regime predicated on lies than witnesses who capture the truth.”
Heroes:
Zeroes:
(Craig Lassig, EPA)
(via prismreports.org)
(Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, AFP)
(Screenshot via CNN)
We thought what Gov. Tim Walz had to say was important enough to post the full transcript of his remarks opening a press conference yesterday in Minneapolis, MN:
I had the privilege of talking with Michael and Susan, Alex's parents, yesterday and the heartache in the hours after your son's murdered in front of the world is one thing, but what stood out to me was a parent's desire and their passion to make sure that the story of Alex was told.
Someone who went to work to care for veterans, someone who was a valued co-worker, someone who relished and lived in this state in a big way whether it was outdoor activities or being down there on the street as a First Amendment witness to what ICE is doing to this, to this state.
So, once again to Michael and Susan, when I talk to these parents, it's always in deep confidential conversation. In this one, though, Michael was very clear to me. He said, "Don't let them forget Alex's story."
The world knows how he died. He died at the hands of ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis. They want us to make sure we said how he lived. So to Michael and Susan, our deepest sympathies, but you have my commitment to continue to tell that story.
So now we've got two Minnesotans dead, we didn't have time to start telling [Renee Good's] story of a poet and a mother and a bright spirit, and now we're telling Alex's story.
So my question is, what's the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? If fear, violence and chaos is what you wanted from us, then you clearly underestimated the people of this state and nation.
We are tired, but we're resolved. We're peaceful, but we'll never forget. We're angry, but we won't give up hope. And above all else, we are clearly unified. If it was the intention of Donald Trump to make an example of Minnesota, then I'm damn proud of the example that the world's seeing.
We believe in law and order in this state. We believe in peace, and we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person, and we're up here telling another story of a Minnesotan just trying to live their life without the interference.
To Americans who are watching this right now, and I don't know, maybe you're watching it with curiosity, bewilderment, horror, scorn or sympathy. I've got a question for all of you: What side do you wanna be on?
The side of an all-powerful federal government that can kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets? On the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such a government? Or the side of a mother whose last words were, "I'm not mad at you"?
The sight of tens of thousands of peaceful citizens who showed up to march when the wind chill was 40 below because they love this state and they love this country.
You're allowed to decide at any point that you're not with us anymore. If you voted for this administration, heck, even if you thought Operation Metro Surge was a good idea, sounded like the thing to do a month ago, you're still allowed to look at what's happening here in Minnesota and say, "This isn't what I voted for, and this isn't what I want."
I ask you not to stand by idly. Speak out, share what you're seeing to others and urge others to put politics aside. We're no longer having a political debate. We're having a moral debate.
We all want secure borders and immigration enforcement that prioritizes criminals, and I want to thank the press, especially the local press, who has done a deep dive to show that's exactly what Minnesota does.
But what you're seeing is not common sense, lawful or humane enforcement. That's not what this occupation is about.
Let me say our conversation should not be about, and I know we get asked of what we're doing out there, how many state patrol or police or national guard I can put on the street. This isn't about how many people I can put on the street; it's about how many of these people, these ICE agents and whoever else was thrown into this unholy mess, how many Donald Trump can get out of here?
Minnesotans, you've won the hearts and minds of people across this country, and you've done it through your peaceful, resolved defense of your neighbors and the Constitution.
So once again, Minnesotans, stay peaceful, stay safe. Change is coming and we can feel it. But this fight still goes on.
I'm going to close with one thing that I promised the parents, with Michael and Susan, and I speak to all Americans on this over these last 24 hours, what you saw, you're now knowing more about this young man, beloved by his family, accomplished ICU nurse, skillful ability to work with veterans, someone who is beloved by community, no criminal record, lawful firearms owner.
And you know what you saw, and then you heard the most powerful people in the world, certainly in this country — the president, vice president, Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem — narrate to you what you were looking at that this was a domestic terrorist, crazed, running at law enforcement with the intent to kill massive numbers of them, sullying his name within minutes of this event happening. And then closing the crime scene, sweeping away the evidence, defying a court order and not allowing anyone to look at it.
I don't care if you are conservative and you are flying a Donald Trump flag, you're a libertarian, don't tread on me, you're a Democratic Socialist of America. This is an inflection point, America. If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don't know what else to tell you.
This has to be the moment.
Your government here in Minnesota, I've made it clear I'm accountable for things that happen here, and I will take responsibility for that. Someone has to be accountable. Someone has to hold the final decision on this. And sitting behind a keyboard at 2 a.m. and besmirching a VA nurse and a son and a co-worker and a friend is despicable beyond all description.
This is not "we need to see both sides." This is not "we need to wait for this." This is basic human decency. And at this point in time, I'm just asking try, for a moment, to set aside the political side of it and go back and ground in the humanity of this. This family has gone through enough, and to have the most powerful man in the world drag their dead son with absolutely no evidence and gaslight the entire country? This is enough.
And I would say, President Trump, you can end this today. Pull these folks back. Do humane, focused, effective immigration control. You've got the support of all of us to do that, let our law enforcement continue to do what they do, making Minnesota one of the safest states in the country, one of the best places to live. Allow our children to go back to school. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside.
Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody is going to write that children's story about Minnesota. And there's one person who can end this now.
And I'll go back to it again. Please show some decency, pull these folks out, reset this situation and allow us to do the job that the attorney general and myself were elected to do: protect the people of Minnesota and carry out the laws of Minnesota.
We hope you read that in full. It's exactly what this country needs to hear right now from as decent and effective a public servant as exists in America today. Pass it on, please.
(Photo: Gov. Walz / Abbie Parr, AP)
The Epstein Files coverup / pro tip to pedo protector Bondi / Greenland speaks --
Reporter: You received a letter from AG Pam Bondi making several demands…. Walz: I would just give a pro tip to the AG. There's 2 million documents in the Epstein files we're still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 2:31 PM
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— Minnesota DFL Party (@dfl.org) January 25, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Mood in Nuuk, Greenland today.
— The Ken Harbaugh Show (@thekenharbaughshow.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 1:51 PM
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It's OK if you're a fascist --
A thread of MAGA protesting with guns and not getting murdered for it... Arizona, November 2020
— Sarah Longwell (@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 5:22 PM
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Trump's domestic terrorist ICE/ Border Patrol goon squad --
I will canvass for whichever candidate runs on putting this man in prison in 2028.
— Isi Baehr-Breen (@isibb.bsky.social) January 24, 2026 at 3:49 PM
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“OUR HUMANITY” is under assault by our own government.
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) January 26, 2026 at 7:39 AM
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NBA Players Association stands up for Minnesota --
The National Basketball Players Association releases a statement following the Trump regime’s murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, saying that NBA players “can no longer remain silent.” The NBPA is standing up for free speech, civil liberties, and the people of Minnesota demanding justice.
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) January 25, 2026 at 4:18 PM
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Philly won't be so nice to ICE --
imgaine getting sent packing with your ass in your own two hands by some of the nicest people in the world and then showing up in a city that is famous for booing santa claus
— Len (@len.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 10:36 PM
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Media, do your effing job --
A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.
— Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com) January 25, 2026 at 7:28 AM
Just say the government is lying. The goal of journalism should be to inform, not gaslight.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 25, 2026 at 8:29 PM
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The person who publishes the Free Press — where the words “Minneapolis” and “Minnesota” never appear tonight — also runs CBS News.
— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 8:39 PM
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💩"Melania" screening attendees (remember them!) --
White House VIP screening of “Melania”now on our dime: Guests include director Brett Ratner; Queen Rania of Jordan; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan; Apple CEO Tim Cook; NYSE CEO Lynn Martin; AMD CEO Lisa Su; Mike Tyson; Fiat heiress Azzi Agnelli; self-help guru Tony Robbins; and photographer Ellen von Unwerth. 🖕🏼
— Outspoken™️ (@out5p0ken.bsky.social) January 24, 2026 at 10:41 PM
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Future diary? --
— Morgan J Freeman (@mjfree.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman, writing today in his Substack column, about whether the murder of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol thugs will mark a turning point in the public's view of the Malignant Fascist's brutal and lawless immigration policy:
"One thing I can safely predict is that Trump and his people won’t admit error. They won’t concede that Pretti was murdered, and that their initial claims about what happened were false. They won’t discipline the ICE agents responsible. They probably won’t call off the siege of Minneapolis, although they have silently backed down elsewhere, notably in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Why will the brutality continue? Because these people are malignant narcissists, whose lives are all about displaying dominance. The sheer horror of what they’ve already done makes it impossible for them to change course, because climbing down after you’ve murdered people and lied about it would be humiliating — and humiliation is their greatest fear.
The big question is what happens when the administration’s determination to keep terrorizing the American people collides with public outrage. One safe prediction is that Trump will try to subvert the November elections: in a clear example of a shakedown, Bondi has demanded that Governor Tim Waltz hand over the Minnesota voter rolls.
Many Americans are grieving over the murder of Alex Pretti, who was simply trying to defend a woman being assaulted by federal officers when he was executed. Beyond the horror of the moment, however, we’re at an existential fork in the road. Let us hope that this country wakes up to the full magnitude of what is happening before more martyrs are offered up as sacrifice." (our emphasis)
As Krugman shows, the MF's poll numbers overall are plummeting, including those on his vicious immigration actions. The more the public sees with their own eyes that the claims coming out of the lying mouths of the MF, the perverse "ICE Barbie" Noem, the pint-sized thug Greg Bovino and the entire corrupt crew are fake, the more they should understand that lying is the major part of this regime's essence.
(click to enlarge)
The greatness of fascism, unscientific quackery, oligarch perversion and threats against our (former?) allies: all in the Malignant Fascist's vision of "greatness."
Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here.
One year ago this week, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. He entered office with a net approval rating of +5 in the FiftyPlusOne.news approval rating aggregate. Despite a tumultuous first term — which ended with the president posting his worst-ever numbers after the January 6 insurrection — voters, it seemed, were willing to give him another shot.
They are no longer willing to give him that chance. Trump sits at an -16 net job approval on average today, down from +5 on his first day in office. His 21-point drop is the worst first-year performance, in the eyes of public opinion, of any president’s first term going back to at least 1948. If you compare the last year to other second-term presidencies, Trump’s is still the worst first-year performance of any president in the modern polling, with one exception: Richard Nixon (who was consumed by Watergate and other national crises at this point in his term).
Either way, Trump is in historically bad company.
As The New York Times reported this week, Trump’s support among key groups he persuaded to vote for him in 2024 — notably, young, Black, and Latino voters — has now sunk below levels measured in the run-up to the 2020 election (which Trump lost to Joe Biden by 4.5 points in the national popular vote)... [snip]
The president has lost the most ground among the groups that put him back in the White House. (our emphasis)
As the weeks go by, it's become harder and harder to find something "good" to begin with. Increasingly, we've been relying on polling showing how historically unpopular the Malignant Fascist and his malevolent policies and enablers are. That the polls consistently show this erosion of support tells us that a growing majority is rejecting the MF's toxic, un-American politics. A would-be dictator who loses "the consent of the governed" is, in time, destined to fail.
"... The behavior of ICE and CBP agents reminds me of the Fascist blackshirts who arrived in trucks, armed with clubs, knives, guns, and castor oil, to subjugate towns in early 1920s Italy, before Benito Mussolini declared dictatorship.
"Like the original Fascists, ICE agents want their violence to be public. They want the world to understand that anyone who challenges their authority and occupation of public space can be 'taught a lesson,' humiliated (parading their victims around in their underwear was a Fascist specialty, too) or eliminated.
"The United States has its own history of using organized public violence in neighborhoods and cities. We need only think of the role of violence in sustaining the Jim Crow South (which was a regional form of authoritarianism) and the lynchings of Black people that could happen at any time, and then the shootings of civilian protesters during the Civil Rights movement.
"Yet those around the world who watch the behavior of DHS operatives may make comparisons to military juntas abroad and other foreign regimes. Shooting protesters is standard practice where war is waged on domestic populations and even peaceful public dissent is considered a form of terrorism. People were shot for protesting in Belarus in 2020; in Turkey, anti-regime protesters have had chemical agents sprayed directly at their faces or in their mouths.
"In Iran, women were shot in the face and the eyes during the 2022-2023 protests, leaving many of them blinded. As Firouzeh Nahavandi has written, such acts “are part of a political rhetoric that is echoed throughout Iran’s long history, in which aiming for the eyes symbolically signifies stripping someone of their personal, political capital.”
"In all of these cases, state security forces are given license to kill and torture to shut down the sights most threatening to them: people showing the world through nonviolent protests that they do not fear the regime and will not lose their civic courage no matter what happens. This is the message that Minnesotans are sending to the world right now." (our emphasis)
Our fascist regime's approach to public humiliation and "manufactured cruelty" appears to be altering mug shots to falsely show arrested protesters crying.
We take heart that resistance is growing and that Minnesotans and their Democratic leaders are fighting back against our homegrown fascists. (Bravo to the FBI supervisor in Minneapolis who resigned after DOJ HQ told her not to investigate the Renee Good murder. Contrast that with AG Bondi extorting Minnesota.) We need to show them in our words and actions that they're not in this alone.
"Days into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. 'Please Donald Trump, I need your help,' he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. 'I am an American. … Help me come home.'
"The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had renounced his citizenship more than a decade earlier. At the time of his video, Ver was under criminal indictment for millions in tax evasion and living on the Spanish island of Mallorca. His top-flight legal defense team had failed around half a dozen times to persuade the Justice Department to back down. The U.S., considering him a fugitive, was seeking his extradition from Spain, and he was likely looking at prison.
"Once, prosecutors hoped to make Ver a marquee example amid concerns about widespread cryptocurrency tax evasion. They had spent eight painstaking years working the case. Just nine months after his direct-to-camera appeal, however, Ver and Trump’s new Justice Department leadership cut a remarkable deal to end his prosecution. Ver wouldn’t have to plead guilty or spend a day in prison. Instead, the government accepted a payout of $49.9 million — roughly the size of the tax bill prosecutors said he dodged in the first place — and allowed him to walk away.
"Ver was able to pull off this coup by taking advantage of a new dynamic inside of Trump’s Department of Justice. A cottage industry of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants with close ties to Trump has sprung up to help people and companies seek leniency, often by arguing they had been victims of political persecution by the Biden administration. In his first year, Trump issued pardons or clemency to dozens of people who were convicted of various forms of white-collar crime, including major donors and political allies. Investigations have been halted. Cases have been dropped.
"Within the Justice Department, a select club of Trump’s former personal attorneys have easy access to the top appointees, some of whom also previously represented Trump. It has become a dark joke among career prosecutors to refer to these lawyers as the “Friends of Trump.”... (our emphasis)
As the Malignant Fascist's DOJ threatens blue states to knuckle under to their demands, they collaborate with the white collar billionaire criminals to make the charges or convictions go away. In addition to being the most fascistic regime in American history, it's also the most transparently and overwhelmingly corrupt.
(click on image to enlarge)
From NASA/ ESA, December 29, 2025: Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week highlights another view of a distant stellar birthplace. Captured in a parallel field to a recently released image, this scene reveals a neighbouring region of the N159 star-forming complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud, approximately 160 000 light-years away.
Thick clouds of cold hydrogen gas dominate the scene, forming a complex network of ridges, cavities, and glowing filaments. Embedded within these dense clouds, newly formed stars begin to shine, their intense radiation causing the surrounding hydrogen to glow in deep red tones.
The brightest regions mark the presence of hot, massive young stars whose powerful stellar winds and energetic light reshape their environment. These forces carve out bubble-like structures and hollowed cavities in the gas, clear signatures of stellar feedback in action. Dark clouds in the foreground are lit from behind by new stars. Together, the glowing clouds and sculpted bubbles reveal a dynamic interplay between star formation and the material from which stars are born, capturing the ongoing cycle of creation and transformation within this neighbouring galactic system.
N159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. This image shows just a portion of this expansive star-forming complex, as the entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across.
[Image description: A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.]
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Indebetouw
(click on images to enlarge)
(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Chris Britt, Creators.com)
(Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun)
(Milt Priggee, caglecartoons.com)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)
(Marco De Angelis, caglecartoons.com, Italy)
(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(Martin Rowson, The Guardian, UK)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Ivan Ehlers, The New Yorker)
"After the past three weeks of brutality in Minneapolis, it should no
longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to
govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant
fear — a fear of violence from which some people may at a given moment
be spared, but from which no one will ever be truly safe. That is our
new national reality. State terror has arrived.
"Please look at this list with me. Since early January, when
Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanded its operation in
Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., federal officers have: killed Renee
Good, a white middle-class mother; menaced a pregnant immigration lawyer
in her firm’s parking lot; detained numerous U.S. citizens, including
one who was dragged out of his house in his underwear; smashed in the
windows of cars and detained their occupants, including a U.S. citizen
who was on her way to a medical appointment at a traumatic brain injury
center; set off crowd-control grenades and a tear gas container next to a
car that contained six children, including a 6-month-old; swept an
airport, demanding to see people’s papers and arresting more than a
dozen people who were working there; detained a 5-year-old. And now they
have killed another U.S. citizen, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse
with no criminal record. It seems he was white. The agents had him down
on the ground, subdued, before they apparently fired at least 10 shots
at point-blank range..." -- Masha Gessen, NYT, in her op/ed "State Terror Has Arrived." Russian- born Gessen, of course, is an expert in autocracies and has seen how democracies can slide into dictatorships.
There's not much more to add, except to say "a picture is worth a thousand words":
After yesterday's murder of Veterans Administration ICU nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol goon, Senate Dems are vowing to stop funding of the Department of Homeland Security unless restrictions on ICE / CBP enforcement are included. This de minimus action assumes that bad faith DHS officials would abide by those restrictions, of course. The DHS funding is part of the package that would fund major agencies of the government until September 30, and which would need to be passed by February 1 to avoid a Government shutdown. From NBC News:
"The legislation needs 60 votes to secure passage in the chamber, where Republicans control 53 seats. And a number of key Democrats who have voted for recent appropriations measures said they’ll vote against funding the Department of Homeland Security unless restrictions are put on how immigration officers carry out enforcement operations.
The package, which has passed the House, is slated to come up for a Senate vote next week.
'What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday. 'Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.'” (our emphasis)
Several Dems are seeking to separate DHS funding from the omnibus bill, but are receiving pushback from their corrupt and frightened Republican counterparts, acting at the behest of the mentally unfit Malignant Fascist. Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy broke with his cult to insist on an independent Federal / State investigation of Pretti's murder. We'll see if more follow.
The Malignant Fascist's regime is refusing to allow an independent investigation of both the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by DHS agents. Several videos taken by onlookers at the scene of Pretti's murder contradict statements by Border Patrol and DHS that the killing was in self defense. It was clear that Pretti, who was pepper sprayed and dogpiled by at least six Border Patrol thugs, was not in a position to attack the officers when he was shot in the back.
BONUS: Let's never forget the "people on our side" 7 "Democrats" in the House who voted to fund the domestic terrorists, and "Leader" Jeffries who refused to whip the vote. When lives were on the line, their backbones disappeared.
