IMO, this from @pbump perfectly captures the Greenland obsession. Especially the final sentence: "He wanted it. It was an achievement. It was something that would mark him in the history books. It was something that people he didn’t particularly like didn’t particularly want him to have, so obtaining it would be both a public and a private triumph"
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-davos-speech-greenland-carney-nobel-prize
From October 2024 to September 2025, Russians received a record number of asylum denials in the United States, and on January 14, 2026, the Trump administration suspended the issuance of immigrant visas to Russians altogether. Under President Donald Trump, the process of crossing the U.S.–Mexico border became significantly more difficult. People have waited for months for permission to enter U.S. territory before spending long periods in immigration detention facilities — sometimes more than a year. One of those people is 30-year-old Russian national Polina Guseva. Before receiving political asylum and reaching Los Angeles, she spent a year and a half in two U.S. detention centers. Meduza spoke with her about what life was like in jail, how she managed to win her court cases, and how she started a handwritten Russian-language newspaper for inmates called Vestnik Yebatoria (roughly “The Fuckatorium Herald) in one of the detention centers.
#KavanaughStop "Martinez explains he was in the holding cell for roughly 90 minutes at the port and had offered to show more proof of his identification - and even discussed the fact he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for seven years with agents, but that didn't seem to work initially"
Secret memo "says ICE officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205 if they have a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals or a district judge or magistrate judge"
https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant. This change reverses previous guidance and raises concerns about constitutional protections against illegal searches. The memo, signed by ICE’s acting director, states that administrative warrants are sufficient for forced entry if there’s a final order of removal. This policy could face legal challenges and criticism from advocacy groups. Whistleblower Aid, representing two government officials, describes the directive as seemingly unconstitutional and a significant shift in arrest powers. The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress.
'The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel. But it has been shown only to “select DHS officials” who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it … Although the memo was issued in May, David Kligerman, senior vice president and special counsel at Whistleblower Aid, said it took time for its clients to find a “safe and legal path to disclose it to lawmakers"'
https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant. This change reverses previous guidance and raises concerns about constitutional protections against illegal searches. The memo, signed by ICE’s acting director, states that administrative warrants are sufficient for forced entry if there’s a final order of removal. This policy could face legal challenges and criticism from advocacy groups. Whistleblower Aid, representing two government officials, describes the directive as seemingly unconstitutional and a significant shift in arrest powers. The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress.
"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"
Billionaire fugitive Roger Ver was facing federal criminal charges until he sought the services of a select club of President Donald Trump’s former personal attorneys who have easy access to top Justice Department appointees.
Economist with a comprehensive takedown of the Trump admin's various Greenland arguments
"Patel had his first director’s call with the heads of all the field offices. He had no agenda, no organized thoughts, no strategy or leadership philosophy or priorities to share. I specifically remember him saying at one point, “I don’t read.” He explained he didn’t read briefing materials"
"Federal judges in Minnesota have several times in recent weeks rejected arrest warrants for people protesting a surge of immigration officers in that state, finding that federal agents do not have sufficient evidence that protesters assaulted officers or committed other crimes, according to two people briefed on the discussions"
https://www.ms.now/news/minnesota-judges-continue-to-reject-arrest-warrants-in-ice-protests
Newly unsealed court documents show the Trump administration did not have evidence that Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was supporting terrorist activity when she was arrested and her visa was revoked, and the action was taken because of an opinion article she wrote that contained criticisms of Israel.
NYT confirms DHS initial account of Alex Pretti's murder was, predictably, a complete lie
The wink nudge fascist references and the gaslighting denials are quite obviously both part of the same plan
"In recent months a number of DHS statements about violent actions by officers have proven to be misleading or entirely false. Federal authorities have blocked local police from investigating suspected instances of excessive use of force. With this latest shooting, federal agents apparently tried to order the local police to leave the scene"
RE: https://mstdn.social/@Bellingcat/115957672014548440
Bellingcat on the Pretti murder with unsurprising conclusions
https://mastodon.social/@Bellingcat@mstdn.social/115957672158979926
Real "best people" energy in the table at the end of this story on the DHS goons attempts to prosecute resistance in Chicago: 1 jury acquittal at trial, 3 no bills (grand jury declined to indict), 11 dismissed by government, zero convictions so far
Marimar Martinez is blocked from releasing evidence in her case by what's known as a "protective order." Though standard, her attorney says it's “become an albatross” around her neck and “keeps the entire country in the dark."
One more for the "We're respected again!" files: 44% of Europeans now believe that Trump behaves like a dictator and an absolute majority (51%) calls him an “enemy” of Europe. For 64% of respondents, U.S. foreign policy is defined by “recolonization” and “predation.”
https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/01/23/eurobazooka-geopolitique-trump-groenland/
La nouvelle vague de notre grande enquête d’opinion européenne révèle une rupture dans la perception des États-Unis pour les Européens : l’hypothèse d’un affrontement avec Washington est désormais clairement et majoritairement exprimée. Jean-Yves Dormagen présente les résultats du nouvel Eurobazooka.
Who could have predicted that a foreign policy based on unpredictable, exploitive thuggishness would lead to this? (me, for one*)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/world/asia/trump-xi-starmer-carney.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IlA.LoWu.mWudP2o1LCaV&smid=url-share
"Americans express the least amount of confidence in Trump to act ethically in office. Just 21% are extremely or very confident he does this, while 60% express little or no confidence … While overall confidence in Trump’s ethics in office was already relatively low last February (29%), it has declined 8 percentage points since. And nearly all of that drop has come among Republicans" (Dems were single digit already)
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release. But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain"
Nurses in Minneapolis doubted federal immigration officers' claims about a Mexican immigrant's severe injuries. ICE agents said Alberto Castañeda Mondragón ran headfirst into a wall while handcuffed. But hospital staff found his injuries inconsistent with that account. The seemingly implausible explanation from ICE is just one example of recent encounters that have undermined the agency’s credibility at Minneapolis hospitals and contributed to mounting friction between medical staff and immigration officers. Workers at the Hennepin County facility say ICE officers have restrained patients in defiance of hospital rules and stayed at their sides for days. The agents have also lingered around the campus and pressed people for proof of citizenship.
Any other US administration would be deeply embarrassed by this
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/world/europe/denmark-military-march-us-troops.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IlA.TPrW.99DjbzckUfwo
"a journalist for Voice of America Persian told a foreign policy commentator that the network's management could not allow any critique of the president"
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5683246/kari-lake-trump-voa-pnn-iran-firewall-propaganda
Shot: Supreme Court Justice Brett, establishing the #KavanaughStop doctrine "If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter"
Chaser: "When Maria did not immediately respond, the agents shattered her car window, forcibly removed her from the vehicle and threw her to the ground, causing numerous injuries"
A home care worker and union worker was pulled from her car and injured by federal agents Thursday according to a statement by SEIU 503. To comment on this story, use the form at the end of the report.
There's plenty of 🤡 in the admin's failed ethics complaint against Boasberg, but one of the wildest is that the core of the complaint was supposed to be supported by "attachment A", which DOJ neglected to attach, and when the D.C. Circuit told them, DOJ just ignored it
https://mastodon.social/@stevevladeck.[email protected]/115991490645102097
Possibly they realized it wouldn't help their case: "The primary theory of the complaint is that the judge made an improper statement at the Judicial Conference on March 11 about the risk that the Administration would not comply with federal judicial rulings" which judge Sutton explains wouldn't be misconduct if true (and anyone who isn't a Trump sycophant knows is an entirely reasonably concern)
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/internet/judicial_complaints/files/2025/06-25-90173%28Chad.MO.pdf
According to Propublica, the CBP goons who murdered Alex Pretti were Jesus "Jesse" Ochoa (43) and Raymundo Gutierrez (35), both of South Texas
Justice Department officials are expected to meet Monday to discuss how to reenergize probes that are considered a top priority for President Donald Trump — reviewing the actions of officials who investigated him, according to a source familiar with the plan.
One for The Best People files: "'The ODNI review was initially overseen by the Director’s Initiatives Group, or Dig … But Dig was dissolved late last year after it misidentified the person who placed pipe bombs outside Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the January 6 Capitol riot"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/tulsi-gabbard-2020-election-investigation-ed
'At one point, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino arrived, and I’m not sure who the hero was, but they said, “Fuck you, Bovino.” That made the agents very upset, so they told us all to turn around and face the wall'
A government lawyer who told a judge that her job “sucks” during a court hearing stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota has been removed from her Justice Department post. That's according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The person said Julie Le had been working for the Justice Department on a detail from another government agency, but the U.S. attorney in Minnesota ended her detail after her comments in court on Tuesday. A hearing transcript says Le told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell that she wishes he could hold her in contempt of court so she could get "a full 24 hours of sleep.”
Today from the party of "Let the market decide, government shouldn't pick winners and losers"
Remember that raid in Chicago that was supposedly about Tren de Aragua?
"new documents confirm in the government’s own words that what prompted the raid was more pedestrian: allegations that immigrants were squatting in the complex. And the landlord had given federal officials, who were already targeting immigrants in Chicago, the blessing to search the building"
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-raid-landlord-tren-de-aragua
The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “illegal aliens unlawfully occupying apartments.”
Story of the guy ICE claimed fractured his skull by running into wall* is every bit as horrific as you'd expect https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-hospital-ice-beating-assault-4e77742e0629fc7f127c0aa38b3d2a70
A Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken during his arrest by immigration officers last month in Minnesota says the beating was unprovoked. Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says federal agents began hitting him right after they pulled him from a vehicle. He was hospitalized with eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages. Officers claimed he ran into a wall, but medical staff immediately doubted that account. His case has sparked calls for accountability and transparency. Castañeda Mondragón, who entered the U.S. legally, faces a long recovery and uncertain future. He hopes to stay in the U.S. and support his family despite fears of another encounter with ICE.
"We're respected again" in one picture
The Best People files: Cleta Mitchell sidekick election denier "researcher" Kevin Moncla, who reportedly provided evidence for the Fulton county search warrant "In 2004 … pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor voyeurism charge and was subsequently ordered by a jury to pay $3.25 million in damages after secretly filming guests in his home bathroom"
https://www.propublica.org/article/kevin-moncla-election-researcher-fulton-county-georgia
Kevin Moncla has tried repeatedly to prove that the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, was tainted by fraud. While state election overseers have rejected his claims, his work may be fueling the federal government’s ongoing investigations.
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.
This administration seems bound and determined to convince the world that any "national security" justification the US claims is a hollow pretext to be created or bargained away on a whim
(not that previous administrations were immune to pretextual "national security" measures of course, but they generally put more effort into maintaining a veneer of plausibility)
🤡 🎬 "Noem was forced to switch planes due to a maintenance issue, but the blanket she used was not transferred to the second plane … In response, Lewandowski fired the pilot.
In another plot twist, the pilot was then reinstated after no one else was available to fly the pair home"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbies-alleged-lover-fired-her-pilot-for-absurd-reason/
I for one am shocked… "Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements"
(shocked that DHS would admit it)
JFC people, this should not be "reassuring" all that stuff about shared history and culture and how the US just wants to "help" Europe is just Vance's white supremacist screed in a cheap suit
https://www.rferl.org/a/rubio-warning-munich-speech-/33678260.html
At this year's Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed European leaders with affirmations of transatlantic ties -- calling America a "child of Europe" -- while urging reforms to address deindustrialization, migration, and sovereignty challenges.
"Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully"
The imminent exit of Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin from the agency is the latest sign of a reset in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy, which has fallen sharply out of favor with the American people.
The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discredit long-established science.
Reed Mideke
