politics

*Only a smattering of Republicans spoke out about clip in which Obamas’ faces were superimposed on bodies of apes*

…Our president insults and threatens countries that never posed any threat to us. There must have been some misunderstanding. We allow our government to kill innocent people and treat children inhumanely. This is not a reflection of our character. Journalists report on astoundingly brazen, breathtakingly massive corruption. We will not let this define us. Italians hear that ICE agents will be here and immediately start protesting. Please—let’s not rush to judgment…

President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.

Measuring America’s slide toward democratic erosion.

I could not stop thinking about how expensive it is for us to maintain these tiny towns, and how much better the outcomes would be and for how much less money, if instead of rebuilding their tiny town, we moved them all to cities.

I’m not sure what the phrase “fake outrage” would actually mean, but the outrage I feel seems pretty real to me.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/35133068

Archived copies of the article: * archive.today * web.archive.org

Newly released Department of Justice documents show that investigators reviewing surveillance footage from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s death observed an orange-colored shape moving up a staircase toward the isolated, locked tier where his cell was located at approximately 10:39 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019.

Cable news people call them “prison camps” or “Trump prison camps,” but look in any dictionary: prisons are where people convicted of crimes are held. As Merriam-Webster notes, a prison is:

*In wake of Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to ‘take over’ voting, senator Ruben Gallego urges citizens to take a stand and give the ‘ultimate response’*

Hey Mr President! I represent evangelicals, televangelists and scientology like Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, David Miscavige, etc.

From US news | The Guardian via this RSS feed

They were both 37 years old, murdered by federal agents in Minneapolis, less than three weeks apart. On January 7, Renee Good was sitting in her car when she was shot three times, including once in the head. On January 24, Alex Pretti was filming federal agents with his cell phone, exercising his First Amendment right to protest their presence peacefully. They shoved him to the ground and several of them beat him. An agent removed a handgun from Alex’s waistband, which he carried legally, and a few seconds after disarming him, 10 shots were fired in five seconds into his prone body on the ground.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/DcqXf

Look at that. The Guardians are living up to their namesake.

https://archive.ph/bcHa9

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20260205123043/https://www.npr.org/2026/02/05/nx-s1-5699413/poll-trump-ice-immigration-economy-approval

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42682442

The next presidential candidate must run on a platform for a 34th amendment that states that the name “Donald J Trump” must be striken off and never used in the naming of any public buildings or public anything.

This is what Polymarket posted

[shareable 30-day gift article]

*Threat of stationing immigration agents around voting locations has become a concern as it can be a deterrent to legal residents of color who are concerned they may be harassed by federal agents*

*Trump has named several landmarks and initiatives after himself since he returned to office.*

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for her upcoming testimony before the House Oversight Committee to be made public in a congressional probe of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

*Proposal, delayed past Jan. 30 target, goes further than the 9–2 approach Gov. Abigail Spanberger has supported as lawmakers press ahead despite court fight.*

After days of speculation over exactly what Donald Trump meant when he called on Republicans to “take over” American elections, the commander in chief has clarified that he will accept the 2026 midterm results — but only if they are “honest.”

*Shifting explanations of Gabbard’s presence at election center intensifies scrutiny of role she played in operation*

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.

The winning message for a Democrat:

https://archive.ph/iAejM

Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said Thursday that she had refused to sit for a requested interview with the Department of Justice for its investigation over a video in which she and five other Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. troops not to follow illegal orders.

Back in November, both conservative and liberal justices expressed skepticism towards the administration’s arguments that the President has unilateral authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval.

Paywall removed https://archive.is/d8OQv

The Democratic leaders unveiled their official list of demands ahead of the deadline on Wednesday, calling for ending indiscriminate arrests, prohibiting masking, requiring ICE and CBP officer identification, protecting sensitive locations such as churches and schools, halting racial profiling, upholding use of force standards, preserving the ability of states and cities to prosecute DHS misconduct, and requiring the use of body cameras when interacting with the public. (Schumer and Jeffries immediately began watering down one of their clearest demands, suggesting in public comments that they might allow agents to wear masks in some circumstances.)

Party says it will not back funding bill without reforms on – among other things – masks, ID and judicial warrants

The policy change makes it easier for the president to discipline or remove up to 50,000 employees, another push in the administration’s campaign to reshape the federal work force.

In almost every instance, President Donald Trump’s administration blamed the injured and dead for the shooting within hours of the incident, raising questions about whether federal officials can fairly and objectively investigate their own. Legal experts and advocates for immigrants say this apparent lack of accountability demands that local authorities step up and exercise their power to investigate and prosecute federal agents who break state laws — from battery to murder.

For anyone who wants a truly progressive Democratic Party, Gavin Newsom is bad news.

Unsurprisingly, there has been little indication the American progressive left perceives Newsom as deserving anything but disdain. Recent weeks have only bolstered the sense that committing to the abolition of ICE is a prerequisite for any remotely moral candidate in 2028. If Newsom fails to become that candidate, it will not be because he appeared too left-wing, but because he lacked the guts or the inclination to be anything except what he manifestly is: a preening political operator, beholden to a status quo that no longer exists.

“In Congress, where a fight over funding for CBP and ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is playing out, [Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan] Omar has stood with other progressives in recent votes. The bill signed by Trump on Tuesday only funds DHS through the middle of the month, though Republicans gave ICE an extra $75 billion in last year’s budget package.”

https://archive.is/Cy6hk

Grindr boy claims that mistreating immigrants is okay by the Bible.

Fucking finally. He’s also got that one in France too.

Virginia’s then-Governor Glenn Youngkin rushed to assist President Trump’s deportation agenda last year, ordering the state agencies under his control to join ICE’s 287(g) program, which gave them the power to make civil immigration arrests. He also pushed local sheriffs and police chiefs to join the program and help round up immigrants.

A year into President Trump’s second term, his threats, retreats, twists and turns appear to be wearing on allies and adversaries.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) on Wednesday announced he will not seek reelection, ending his congressional career after more than a decade and adding to the ranks of Republicans declining to run for another term.

These votes demonstrate that the Democratic Party functions not as an opposition but as an enabler of the Trump administration. Its priority is to ensure the uninterrupted funding of the US military while diverting popular opposition with calls for meaningless cosmetic changes to the administration’s efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship.

Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain.

Last week was the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision enshrining the idea that money in politics is not corruption, but constitutionally protected speech. States and cities across the US are battling the rotten legacy of that decision.

(…) Yet this diagnosis is also crucially incomplete, in ways that distort our search for solutions. When we understand the problem in epistemic terms, we naturally seek epistemic answers: better fact-checking, more deliberation, better education, greater media balance. We aim to develop the “civic” and “epistemic virtues” of unbiased, fair-minded citizens. And indeed, such projects are surely worth pursuing. The epistemic failures they aim to address have deeper roots in our political psychology, however—and overcoming them requires grappling with those roots more directly.

About 2,000 personnel will be left in Minnesota, where President Trump’s immigration crackdown has generated outrage.

Federal agencies are delaying approvals for renewable energy projects on both federal land and private property at a time when electricity demand is going up.

The next phase of ICE’s big ramp-up: a nationwide network of vast detention facilities. But guess what? Even parts of Red America are saying no.

President Trump’s extraordinary comments were the latest iteration of his unsubstantiated claims that U.S. elections are rigged as Republicans face potentially big losses this fall.

*Dismantling rules will make children vulnerable to chronic diseases ‘make America healthy again’ wants to eradicate*

*DNC’s Local Listeners initiative will target one million ‘infrequent’ voters in battleground districts*

*Bills mandate ICE cooperation, school status checks and criminalize information release, testing constitutional lines*

Michelle Goldberg Feb. 3, 2026

Wonder how Indiana’s law would comport with the Constitution’s full faith and credit clause (basically how gay marriage came about) when a transgender person born outside of Indiana but has updated their birth certificate relocates to Indiana. Birth certification is a power reserved to the states under the 10th Amendment. So, SCOTUS can’t set an interviening rule about how birth certificates are to be written if a dispute arises between the states on this.

Letitia James, the state’s top law official, said staff members from her office would serve as “neutral witnesses” amid outrage over President Trump’s deportation campaign.

These attempts at meme-based relevance go hand-in-hand with all the unsuccessful pivots and impersonations that people in the Trump orbit have tried to look cool, culturally relevant or even, God help us, badass: Katie Miller’s excruciatingly dull fascist wine mom podcast, say, or Pete Hegseth’s American flag-lined suit, camo ties, and ongoing impression of Slim Pickens‘ atomic bomb-riding cowboy character in Dr. Strangelove. There’s also JD Vance pretending he enjoys the Internet jokes about him having sex with a couch. All of these gambits try—and fail—to serve the same purpose: to make these people look cool, funny, or with it while they advance a profoundly unpopular agenda.

With the deadline to file for reelection a little over a month away, two of Utah’s Republican members of Congress are asking a federal court to block the use of new U.S. House districts that could significantly boost Democrats’ chances of winning a Salt Lake City area seat in November.