I'm trying to be careful how I talk about #OilPrices. I want #Americans to understand that there is a #CostOfWar in their lives, even if it's miniscule in comparison to the impact on people's lives in #Iran.
I want to avoid helping the #USA use oil prices as a #pretext for reopening the #StraitOfHormuz by force. And I worry that's the takeaway most Americans would have.
#ICE #ChildAbuse #pretext #RacialProfiling
"A 14-year-old girl described being zip-tied during Idaho raid, sparking fresh questions about ICE tactics.
(. . .)
In Idaho, questions still remain about what prompted the raid.
Sheriff Donahue said the objective was to take down what was suspected to be an illegal gambling operation at the racetrack. The FBI had obtained a federal criminal warrant to arrest five people suspected of running the unlicensed operation.
But at the scene, agents arrived with a massive show of force, including representatives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Witnesses told CBS News the agents set about rounding up hundreds of mostly Latino attendees — including dozens of children — to determine whether they were in the United States legally.
According to the ACLU complaint, law enforcement 'conspired to abuse a criminal search warrant as cover to go fishing for immigration arrests at an event where they knew they would encounter a large number of Latino individuals.'
After being detained, attendees were questioned about their legal status and directed to show documentation, according to the lawsuit. By the time law enforcement concluded, 105 attendees were determined to be undocumented immigrants and moved to nearby detention facilities for legal disposition. But some 375 others, all of whom were either U.S. citizens or lawful residents, were released after they were able to prove they were in the United States legally.
(. . .)
'ICE didn't zip tie, restrain, or arrest any children,' Homeland Security spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin told CBS News in a statement.
(. . .)
But those who were temporarily detained tell a different story."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-zip-tied-14-year-old-girl-idaho-raid-ice-tactics/
A 14-year-old girl said she was "crying" and "struggling to breathe" when law enforcement officers herded her onto a racetrack with other detainees and zip-tied her hands.
"Trump signs executive order to classify illicit fentanyl as weapon of mass destruction"
Colin Powell at the UN 2.0: Marco Rubio shakes a bottle as he makes a case for invading #Venezuela. Probably just a Poland Spring water bottle. 🙄
https://us.cnn.com/2025/12/15/politics/fentanyl-weapon-of-mass-destruction-trump
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday classifying “illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals” as weapons of mass destruction — though it was not immediately clear what practical effect that might have.
“For Israel, The Terrorist Attack At Bondi Is An Opportunity To Push For War With Iran”
by The Dissident on Substack
“Israel Hayom, the mouthpiece of Israel lobbyist and pro-Iran war hawk Miriam #Adelson, published an article quoting an anonymous ‘Israeli security official’ who claimed -without evidence- that ‘there is no doubt that the direction and infrastructure for the attack originated in Tehran’.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/the307/p/for-israel-the-terrorist-attack-at
#Press #Bondi #Massacre #Pretext #Israel #War #Iran #Netanyahu
“Trump administration switches from murdering fishermen to piracy”
by Ricky And Council Estate Media on Substack
“Modern imperialism is essentially looting a country while pretending you’re spreading democracy and liberating people. If you claim the US concerns in Venezuela amount to promoting democracy, you deserve nothing but contempt”
https://open.substack.com/pub/councilestatemedia/p/trump-administration-switches-from
#Press #US #Venezuela #Imperialism #Piracy #Oil #RegimeChange #War #Maduro #Provocation #Drugs #Pretext #Lies #HandsOffVenezuela
After the bother Pete Hegseth got in by ordering the killing of fishermen, you would think the Trump administration would be less blatant in its violations of international law, but we are not dealing with the brightest people here.
"#antifa is neither a #terrorist network nor a major source of organized lethal #violence."
It is however a convenient phantom boogey-man that #Trump's #authoritarian administration can use as #pretext to justify its #police-state abuses. A reminder here that "antifa" is short for "anti-fascist." Meanwhile, anti-antifa is long for "#FASCIST."
___
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/20/why-the-trump-administrations-comparison-of-antifa-to-hamas-isis-and-ms-13-makes-no-sense/
It's looking more and more likely that the #USA is going to #war with #Venezuela, and soon. The #USSGeraldFord is there, #Maduro has been asked to leave the country for #Russia or #Cuba, and #Trump has been presented with a menu for #strike options.
We all know by now that the #pretext is #BS. Maduro's not a #DrugTrafficking kingpin, and most Venezuelans oppose US #intervention. This is a war for #oil and #minerals, and for #MarcoRubio and his petty #gusano grudges. It could still be stopped.
“The U.S. Isn’t Even Bothering With Its Usual Lies to Sell Its Regime Change War in Venezuela”
by Séamus Malekafzali in The Intercept @theintercept @TheIntercept
“The days of justifying American military intervention anywhere in the world are on their way out”
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/22/trump-venezuela-boat-war-justification/
#Press #US #Trump #Venezuela #RegimeChange #War #Oil #Caribbean #Maduro #Drugs #ExtraJudicial #Execution #Pretext #Lies #Invasion
“The Israeli media is reporting on a ‘secret clause’ in the Gaza ceasefire deal that no one is talking about”
by Qassam Muadd in Mondoweiss
@palestine
@israel @yemen @lebanon
“[..] a ‘secret clause’ [..] that would allow Israel to resume the war. Palestinians worry this is the pretext #Netanyahu needs to get out of completing the deal”
Hebrew-language Israeli media reports say there is a “secret clause” buried in the Gaza ceasefire agreement that would allow Israel to resume the war. Palestinians worry this is the pretext Netanyahu needs to get out of completing the deal.
Letters from an American – October 8, 2025 – Heather Cox Richardson
Letters from an American October 8, 2025
By Heather Cox Richardson, Oct 08, 2025
Yesterday, journalists observed members of the Texas National Guard at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, Illinois, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. This morning, the Defense Department announced the federal activation of about 200 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and about 300 from the Illinois National Guard, saying they would be protecting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal agents “who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.”
The statement said the National Guard soldiers “are under federal command and control in a Title 10 status.” The section of the legal code to which the announcement pointed was the one permitting the president to call into federal service members of the National Guard whenever the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion by a foreign nation, there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or the president cannot execute the laws of the United States with the power of regular law enforcement.
It is this power under Title 10 that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller yesterday claimed was “plenary,” or absolute. The idea that exceptions to the rule of law reveal who is really in charge of the government was central to the political philosophy of German political theorist Carl Schmitt, who joined the Nazis and whose work is increasingly popular among the radical right in the U.S. these days. Since taking office in January, Trump has declared at least eight national emergencies that the administration has used to justify the use of emergency powers.
As J.V. Last of The Bulwark laid out clearly last night, there is no crisis in Chicago that makes it necessary for the administration to send in National Guard troops. Last points out that any instability in Chicago has been caused by the administration’s surge of federal agents into the city, where they shot and killed Chicago resident Silverio Villegas González; raided and ransacked an apartment building, leaving residents—including U.S. citizens and children—bound outside for hours; shot an unarmed woman, Marimar Martinez; and aimed a weapon at a resident who was simply recording what the agent was doing, In each case, the government initially insisted the federal agents either were under attack or were rounding up “the worst of the worst,” but subsequent information has showed the federal agents were the aggressors in each situation.
Federal agents have held journalists, who are now suing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for the use of “extreme force” against them, and pummeled them with tear gas and pepper spray. As Last notes, local police chief Thomas Mills has testified that the “use of chemical agents by federal agents at the ICE facility in Broadview has often been arbitrary and indiscriminate. At times it is used when the crowd is as small as ten people.”
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker warned that the administration is deliberately trying to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city.”
As Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center explained earlier this year, the Insurrection Act brings together a number of laws Congress passed between 1792 and 1871. They make up sections 251 through 255 in Title 10 of the United States Code. Together, they suspend the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits the U.S. military from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
The Insurrection Act permits the president to deploy troops to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
Courtney Kube, Katherine Doyle, Carol E. Lee, and Garrett Haake of NBC News report today that White House officials, led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have been having increasingly serious discussions about having Trump invoke the act.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: October 8, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson
#2025 #America #Chicago #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #Illinois #InsurrectionAct #JBPritzker #Legal #LettersFromAnAmerican #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Nazis #Opinion #Politics #Pretext #Resistance #Science #Substack #TexasNationalGuard #TheBulwark #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #UrbanChaos
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