RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115957125308834255

IT IS WORKING. If you haven’t called today, call again!!

Today the Trump mob is hinting and waffling and shuffling and floating half-measures, and none of it means anything except this:

They are afraid.

They are afraid of losing what little support they have. They’re afraid of losing funding. Redouble the pressure. Press the advantage.

Call if your Senator already agrees. Push them to do more. Make them lose sleep wondering how they can stop ICE harder.

Cal if your Senator is an irredeemable right-winger. Let them feel the heat. Make them know ICE’s murders will haunt them.

Call if your Senator is waffling. That means they’re weak, and right now that means we have the advantage.

For this brief moment, the fight is in the electoral arena, and your calls are actually good for something.

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“top Republican candidate for Minnesota governor has dropped out of the race”

“‘I cannot support the…stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.’”

“‘National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,‘ he said”

“calling ICE operations in the state an ‘unmitigated disaster’”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/26/republican-chris-madel-minnesota-governor-race-ice

Republican ends bid for Minnesota governor, citing ‘unconstitutional’ ICE surge

Chris Madel drops out of race and in video criticizes the ‘federal retribution on the citizens’ of Minnesota

The Guardian
In a call, Trump told Walz he’d look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota • Minnesota Reformer

During a call between Gov. Tim Walz and President Donald Trump Monday morning, Trump said he will look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and talk to Homeland Security about independent Minnesota investigations into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, according to a statement from Walz’s office. The call […]

Minnesota Reformer

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“White House press secretary…seemed unusually defensive”

“avoided the kind of victim-blaming tirade that has become de rigueur for Donald Trump’s administration“

”called Pretti’s death a ‘tragedy’

“refused to endorse adviser Stephen Miller’s slander of Pretti”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/26/trump-analysis-white-house-alex-pretti-minnesota

White House avoids Minneapolis tirade as signs suggest Trump backing down

Karoline Leavitt seemed unusually defensive in discussing Alex Pretti’s killing – and refused to endorse Stephen Miller

The Guardian

They’re afraid. Hit them harder.

“For the past seven months, Bovino has been the public face of [ICE’s] traveling immigration crackdown”

“Bovino worked outside his agency’s chain of command and appeared to relish his role as a political actor”

“sudden demotion”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/greg-bovino-demoted-minneapolis-border-patrol/685770/

Archive link: https://archive.is/kvBDb

Greg Bovino Loses His Job

The Border Patrol chief has been ousted from his role as “commander at large,” and will return to El Centro.

The Atlantic
My latest calls included: “Fewer agents is not enough. More oversight is not enough. Demoting people is not enough. Destroy ICE and CBP. Wipe them out. Burn them, bury them, and salt the earth. Eradicate them like a cancer.”

Just to reiterate:

Trump admin are trying to give Senators an excuse, any excuse, not to block funding to DHS.

We need to make sure that doesn’t work. Don’t let up. Keep them all afraid.

Noem, who’s in danger of being sacked, is trying to throw Stephen Miller under the bus. Meanwhile Miller is on TV trying to throw DHS under the bus. Basically they’re shitting their pants and flinging it at each other.

It’s working. Punch them harder.

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/post/3mdgo4t4md22k

emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social)

Genuinely interesting. Kristi Noem is snitching that Stephen Miller is the one who made up the bullshit about Alex Pretti. It would be genuinely useful if Congress can get her to admit that he has been dictating ALL OF THIS just like he dictated the murderboats. https://www.axios.com/2026/01/27/trump-stephen-miller-massacre-minnesota-shooting

Bluesky Social

@inthehands

let them fight lol

@samiamsam

Yes. Shake the jar and make them fight!

@inthehands

"Basically they’re shitting their pants and flinging it at each other."

Last rat overboard wins

@inthehands An eyewall replacement cycle of the suck hurricane

@inthehands in a normal world they'd both have been "under the bus" months ago.

As a European observer, the whole situation with the fascist leadership in the US is very scary

@inthehands Ah, yes, the Führerprinzip defense. Didn't work at Nuremberg, didn't work for Eichmann. They really are speed running the Third Reich.

@inthehands Starting to sound like the melee in "Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest":

"The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike,
The bosun brained with a marlinspike..."

@inthehands
#YouShouldBeAfraid is a hashtag to adopt, from Cory Doctorow's (@pluralistic) "Radicalized - A Short Story About Healthcare and Desperation"

It's well worth the read, (about 20-30 minutes at most)

https://prospect.org/2024/12/09/2024-12-09-radicalized-cory-doctorow-story-health-care/

Radicalized

A short story about health care, and desperation.

The American Prospect
@inthehands Will Homan really be much of a difference? I only reason Bovino was sacked, I fear: I produced way too many "unfortunate" pictures. His terror was total in line with the regime's doctrine.

@taschenorakel @inthehands

Exactly. This is a response to images with "bad optics" not a change in what they will do.

@inthehands

El Centro El Centro El Centro

Was Bovino the freak who took an entire attack squad of ICE goons up California a couple hundred miles to Bakersfield (think it was) to harass Hispanic farm laborers out in the fields, completely out of the blue, a year ago or so?

Thought I'd heard of him before...

So Bovino's not "retiring" he's returning to his original post / field of operations

"On Jan. 7 [2025], the day after Congress certified Trump’s election victory, Bovino sent 65 of his agents into Kern County, six hours north of the border, to conduct a raid that has shaken immigrant communities and agricultural businesses across the state, and has set the stage for a legal battle over how the government carries out mass deportations."

Here: https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/04/border-patrol-records-kern-county/

Read that: exactly the same modus operandi and exactly the same wording he and Noem and the rest of them use right now

Border Patrol said it targeted known criminals in Kern County. But it had no record on 77 of 78 arrestees

Border Patrol said it had a list of targets for its high-profile January raid, but it had a record for just one of the 78 people it arrested.

CalMatters

@inthehands 😆🤣 Bovino, "commander-at-*large*"?!?!

I don't *want* to make a short joke. I really shouldn't. I'm trying not to.

But I just can't *be the bigger man*. 🤣🤣🤣

@inthehands yeah they are just gonna modulate down the overt nazi shit a tad.

bovino is probably going to become a permanent public fixture on the right.

people gonna say he wasnt fired, too

@rubixhelix

Yeah I doubt he'll retire

That's just a cover story to get attention off him for a while

These are *all* pathological liars

cc @inthehands

@FinchHaven @rubixhelix @inthehands

Or, he'll retire to the private sector

@Maxfieldripken @FinchHaven @rubixhelix
Eventually he’ll retire to hell, where I hear ICE melts

@inthehands I hope he's evicted upon his return to El Centro, or slapped with ridiculously high HOA/property tax fees.

Better yet, I hope someone has burned down his house. Let him be humbled by the homelessness he fought so hard to brutalize.

Fuck him forever. I hope he doesn't have to be on planet Earth for much longer.

@inthehands
Bovino belongs in prison, not heading off into a cushy retirement gig.
@inthehands I hope this is true!

@inthehands

Anyone else see his white power salute?

@inthehands Ernst Röhm called from 1934, he wants a word…

@inthehands Yup. They are looking for an exit strategy where they can minimally save face and claim some sort of "win" because they are obsessed with form over substance -- The important part of which is that they are looking for an exit.

That's pretty much it. They know they can't sustain how things are going, and they aren't getting anything out of trying. TACO. If you stand up to the bully, they eventually give up.

@wrosecrans @inthehands very important to not give them any space to claim victory