Private Prisons Making Bank

It seems like most of the time when I catch news stories from National Public Radio, they are regurgitating some Trump regime press release. I generally don't listen to the national part of Morning Edition anymore for that reason. 

Today, though, I happened to catch this worthwhile story from Weekend Edition Saturday, which reported on recent earnings calls by the private prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group. Big surprise! They are doing gang-busters business from the federal government and DHS. Thank you Congress for all of that money!

I came in as the reporter was saying that the (illegal) use of ankle monitors on Haitians who've had Temporary Protected Status revoked means lots more business for the companies. 

Then I heard that CoreCivic has sold four prison buildings to DHS for $307,000 per bed, and will still be paid to operate the prisons, I'm sure at some exorbitant rate. (GEO Group also has plans to sell prisons to the feds.)

Then I heard about the ways members of the Trump regime, including Trump himself, have personal financial interests in these companies.

So good job, NPR, for once.  

Death Squads on Our Streets

As news comes out today that DHS (ICE, ERO, whoever) has killed a third person — this time in Florida, following killings in Texas and Maine — I can't keep avoiding posting about it. 

They're death squads. It has to be said. 

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford.

And now this person in St. Augustine.

And that's not even mentioning the killings in Memphis by National Guard and other militarized units — who should not be there either!

These are posts from BlueSky, in chronological order, starting from the days after Araujo was killed in Houston. Everything below the line is quoted from the attributed account.

___

ICE may have moved off the front page, but another man is dead after an encounter with agents, and the administration is still defending detention without bond. This is why we keep watching, even when the headlines move on. 
Joyce White Vance

Lorenzo put 3 kids thru college with a blue collar job. Worked dawn to dusk, building homes. Loved his wife of 30 yrs and John Deere. Lived here longer than I've been alive. It doesn't make a life more valuable. But so many immigrants detained, deported, dying bear the trappings of "real America" we mythologize.
Nicole Foy

Someone I know had a good take on what we're seeing with ICE now in Massachusetts. It's not necessarily a surge, but rather this is likely a new normal as we see the effects of DHS funding and recruitment. I think that's probably right and reinforces the need to dismantle these organizations. The reality is that DHS has received so much money and built up so much infrastructure that unless Democrats tear it apart, ICE and CBP will just keep abducting people and running concentration camps. Once a bureaucracy is entrenched and well-funded it will keep harming people until it's dismantled.
Gravel Influencer

ICE claims that Araujo drove into one of their SUVs with his van and then tried to run over an agent. There were no marks on the van and KHOU11's Jeremy Rogalski found surveillance footage showing ICE chasing Araujo and cutting him off. Renee Good all over again.
Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule.bsky.social

Houston, you need to lock in right fucking now. The federal government is claiming they put armed officers on your streets without body cameras, they're saying they can shoot you in the street without providing video footage and your mayor is lying to you, claiming the city cant even investigate it.
Jen Rice

If you believe a word that ICE says, then you’re either a gullible, checked-out fool, or someone predisposed to taking the word of violent racists. Best to correct yourself either way.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social

Masked government agents are literally murdering people in the streets, but hey, the stock market is up!
Patrick Chovanec

ICE shot and killed a man in Houston with no criminal record who was not even their target. They pushed him off the road. And now he is gone forever. ICE is a domestic terrorist organization. We need to abolish ICE now and stop Trump’s murderous thugs.
Sen. Ed Markey

It's fucked up that ICE runs around in unmarked cars randomly pulling guns on people and then when those same people react fearfully they use it as a justification for murdering them. Yet another reminder that just because ICE changed tactics, they never stopped being lawless thugs inflicting violence with impunity
Gravel Influencer

With two people dead in Memphis in four days and one the same week in Houston, that's four people federal agents have shot and killed over just nine days.

July 5: Tyrin Johnson
July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
July 8: Alfonso Ivy
July 13: Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero
unraveled @unraveledpress.com

news of a little girl in bluey pajamas witnessing ICE murder her dad happening concurrently with another discourse about "civility" towards those in power who...  enable/condone/want a little girl in bluey pajamas witnessing ICE murder her dad. makes you wonder what civility even means, ever meant
Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social

After multiple murders by ICE/CBP, Democrats refused to provide additional $$ for them without reforms and oversight. Republicans were opposed to reform and unilaterally provided more $$ through reconciliation. Now ICE has enough to run at 4x capacity through 2029 — with LESS oversight than before. This is the result.
Bobby Kogan

When you say ICE shot and killed the wrong person there’s an inference that it would have been okay if they shot and killed the right person, just saying
Jesse Hawken

The safest communities are the ones with the most resources. Not the ones with the most ICE agents shooting people. Terror is not public safety.
Ruth Zakarin

Johan Sebastien Guerrero had a social security number. He had legal authorization to work here - therefore, he is by definition not “an illegal alien.” In addition, DHS isn’t even claiming he “weaponized his vehicle,” they’re arguing he fled. ICE is now straightforwardly admitting to murder.
Hunter Dunn @hunterisntdunn.bsky.social


conifergirl.bsky.social

They aren't claiming the officer [in Maine] feared for his life, but "feared for public safety" when Guerrero attempted to flee. But he was not the target of the warrant. Which means they had no reason to think he was dangerous. Fleeing an immigration stop does not make you a threat to public safety. Moreover, for the umpteenth time, unless you're dealing with a mass killing in which a driver is actively trying to mow people down — which was not the case here -- shooting into a moving vehicle *increases* the threat to public safety. Because killing the driver doesn't stop the vehicle.
Radley Balko

The news should be covering ICE like a serial killer on the loose
Kevin M. Kruse

They say they shot Guerrero because they "feared for public safety". But Guerrero *was* part of the public they claim to defend. *They* were the real threat to public safety. These undisciplined racist sociopaths with guns and impunity are the threat, not hard working immigrants.
Bruce Wilson

Took me a while to find this [article from 2014], but it's clear that they're still utilizing these long-ingrained and specifically trained Border Patrol tactics of surrounding vehicles like they did Renee Good's in Minnesota and now Johan Sebastian Guerrero's in Maine —regardless of whether the person is a target. I want media to stop faithfully publishing the lies about victims weaponizing their vehicles and I want them required to cite this Border Patrol tactic that they've been training since at LEAST 2014 every time it happens regardless of whether they actually kill anyone. Every time they surround a car. 
Indigiqueer Hummingbird @riotousmuse.bsky.social

News organizations should periodically stop and look in the mirror and ask themselves “Have we internalized copspeak to the point that our headlines indistinguishable from police department email subject lines?”


Hamilton Nolan

Mainstream media’s use of the passive tense to describe ICE or police murdering someone is effectively running cover for the perpetrator of the crime.
Hunter Dunn

So, speaking of journalists just repeating copaganda... The St. Augustine "encounter" is that ICE agents were chasing him and he was hit by a truck. It is understandable to run when people roll up on you in an unmarked vehicle and pull their guns.
Gravel Influencer

We’re not going to be able to “just go back to normal” in 2029. At this point, abolishing ICE, followed by free, fair trials for treason for ICE agents and their collaborators is the bare minimum. We must do whatever it takes to make sure nothing like ICE can ever exist again:


Hunter Dunn @hunterisntdunn.bsky.social

Today is Bastille Day, something to think about as you read more stories of citizens murdered with impunity by government agents.
Bob Alberti @a1batross.bsky.social

a decade ago there was an entire movement dedicated to confronting the militarization of state power against its citizens. Not only did you not listen... our political actors increased police budgets across the entire country. Now military forces are killing White moms and nurses.
Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com

Skulking, lawless goons, empowered by a fascistic Republican Party, are destroying life in America. I say this in the micro and macro sense. Where there could be joy, there is panic. Where there could be family, there is loss. Where we could embrace in community, we bond in trauma. Enough.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social

Another Man Is Dead

ICE lies. That's all that needs to be said. 

 

No Rights for Some, Rights for Others — for Now

More to hate from the Supreme Court today.

Trans people don't have equal protection under the law. And even though the majority upheld the obvious meaning of the 14th Amendment in the birthright citizenship case (Trump v. Barbara), it was essentially a 5–4 decision, because Kavanaugh's statement shows his decision was not based on that.

Here's a head start on the last half of May BlueSky report. Note that these are in chronological order, the usual reverse-chronological.

Everything below the line is quoted from the attributed post.

____ 

These are the posts I noted so far about the anti-trans ruling:

The Supreme Court today addressed one of the most pressing threats to the nation today: banning this high school sophomore from playing school sports with her friends:


Parker Molloy

One thing (among many) that makes me nuts about this – is that they fail to understand sports as a life-affirming thing you do with your friends that you will never be a professional at, and only see sports as a competition in which everyone gets ranked. It's a sick worldview in multiple ways."If a trans woman plays sports she will injure the dainty women". Dude, I played Pop Warner with a guy who got held back twice and was 6ft tall with a mustache. It never went to the Supreme Court. The scariest OL in our league was a girl. These are kids amateur sports.
wesinjapan

*nodding solemnly with full comprehension* yes, I see. there’s a special kind of kid who can’t play sports or go to the bathroom
Tricia Lockwood

The ban is heinous for what it does to transgender athletes. But if you think cisgender girls and young women won’t be caught up in the fallout, too, you are woefully ignorant:


Nancy Armour 

Minnesota Republicans suggested *internal* and external genital inspections for 6-year-olds, so states controlled by Republicans will probably pursue that.
Erin Maye Quade

It’s really important to install an entire federal discrimination system so somebody’s cis daughter can finish 14th at her swim meet.
Kashana

And these are the ones about the birthright citizenship case, particularly its narrow margin:

5-4 for what it explicitly says in the constitution is incredible. They were this close to undoing the civil war entirely.
Adam Serwer

Among other things, a 5-4 ruling on birthright citizenship is an invitation to try again.
Moira Donegan

Very funny listening to NPR doing serious analysis of the dissents to the birthright case as if it's not all just Calvinball where the conservative justices compete to find the most obscure references from 17th century English common law to make their arguments
Gravel Influencer

The birthright citizenship ruling should be a wake up call to any Democrat who is still on the fence about court reform. We are essentially one seat change away from the Court undoing Reconstruction by fiat.
Ned Resnikoff

With this ruling, the birthright issue is not going away. The right hasn't really begun *organizing* around getting rid of the citizenship clause. Like Roe, this will be their fight for a generation. And if the Democrats just say "we won" and ignore it, like Roe, the Republicans will eventually win.
ElieNYC

About Trump v. Barbara: Do not give the Court ... credit for reading and upholding the Constitution. It's a travesty that this is not a unanimous decision... it's also a travesty that the Court let this question percolate for a year, giving credence to a crank theory of citizenship.
Melissa Murray @profmmurray.bsky.social

alito quite literally sounds like the unreconstructed opponents of the 14th amendment, right down to the notion that his citizenship is degraded by the fact that it is equal with that of someone from a lower station than him.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net

The Court can't go on like this. The Constitution as plainly as possible says people who were born here have an unequivocal right to citizenship. Four people whose ONLY job is to read the Constitution for the rest of their lives just tried to overturn it because they're tired of brown people. Pack it in.
Ben Collins

Alito's use of the term "birth tourism" is as sure a sign as any that his brain has been fried by X, Fox News, and other rightwing media.
Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social

Can't wait for the 'founders surely foresaw AR-15s (but not citizenship)' ruling that's sure to follow.
Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social

people got mad at me yesterday when i said the democrats were not ready to take court reform seriously. 5-4 for non-racial citizenship is not a win, it's a reprieve
Adam Serwer

In a sane world (an alt reality) today's dissents would sufficient to warrant Thomas, Gorsuch and Alito's impeachment and removal from office. If you defy the plain words, meaning, intent, history, precedent of a black letter constitutional injunction u are abusing your power and should be removed.
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social

I think a lot of people underestimate how complicated life could get if your birth certificate wasn't accepted as prima facie evidence of US citizenship, absent some new federal bureaucracy that vetted and registered qualified births.
Patrick Chovanec

I'm far from the first person to point this out, but declaring birthright citizenship void means that the vast majority of Americans have no provable citizenship at all. Which I imagine is a feature for the fascist Republicans since it puts everyone at the government's mercy.
The Infinitely Prolonged @wowbaggert.bsky.social

People, for the love of God, please stop treating birthright as some kind of sweeping victory. It was 5-4 on the constitutional issue. The dissent laid out a fucking ROADMAP for what Trump should do next. The court always gives Trump multiple bites at the apple WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT?
ElieNYC

Very interesting to me that Alito [in his dissent] can be like "but you don't understand, there are now aeroplanes that can deposit birth tourists by the score in this country, that didn't happen back around the Civil War!" now and then is like "I'm sorry I'm not allowed to consider if gun lethality has changed."
Courtney Milan

One short thread took a different tack, which I find reassuring in a non-reassuring way:

The Supreme Court is not just a broken institution, it has been a vehicle for keeping this country in line with conservatism for the vast majority of the last 250 years. Real change will not come until we create new systems and institutions to protect our rights. Today’s decisions went as expected — disappointing but not worst case scenarios. The Court will always maintain a motivation to keep the country in line with a conservative status quo, this oscillates now and then but always returns further to the right. We will not be liberated by this Court or any court invented by this current system. We need to lean into the imagination of what else can we create. If we know the system will continue to work against us, it is what we do for ourselves that matters.
phoenix @phoenix-rights.bsky.social

Fifteen People Charged in Minnesota

Quoting Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley:

Instead of arresting the murderers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the FBI was out today targeting our neighbors for standing up to ICE.

This is an act of political repression meant to intimidate and terrorize us for keeping our communities safe from violent federal agents this winter.

Trump sent masked secret police to terrorize our community and occupy our city. Across the world, Minneapolis residents are seen as heroes for the ways we resisted fascism. Our collective bravery and solidarity exposed the true costs of the Trump administration’s fascist playbook.

Now, with the tide of public opinion working against Trump, they are turning to legal retaliation to deflect from their massive failure to improve quality of life for working class people. The retaliatory tactics this administration is using today are frightening – but they are a sign of weakness.

In Minneapolis we are proud that everyday people on the ground took action to stand with our immigrant neighbors. Observation of law enforcement is not a crime. Protecting our neighbors against unconstitutional violence is not a crime. Standing up for and loving our neighbors is not a crime.

To everyone who has observed, responded to, and organized around ICE and federal agents’ illegal and violent actions: know that we are all with you and in this struggle together. We did not stand for ICE's occupation and we will not stand for blatant legal intimidation.

The U.S. Attorney and the rest of the feds at today's press conference don't care that two people are dead at the hands of their employees. They know who those killers are, and where they are. Instead, they're arresting people who were trying to stop this country's march into fascism. 

June 14

It was one year ago today that a right-wing zealot shot and killed the former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband, after shooting and severely wounding a member of the State Senate and his wife — both in their homes in the middle of the night while he pretended to be a cop. He had a list of dozens of other elected Democrats and abortion advocates in his fake cop car, along with their addresses. 

When he pleaded guilty to his crimes in federal court last week, he admitted that he followed Melissa Hortman into her house, after initially wounding her, to shoot her directly in the head, killing her. 

Today, on that first anniversary, our Dear Leader is having a party, pretending that it's in honor of the 250th anniversary of this country. But it's really because it's his 80th birthday, and also it's probably not a bad think that it's a wink and nod to the ugliest part of his base that it coincides with the first anniversary of Vance Boelter's campaign of murder. 

These are the BlueSky posts I have accumulated about Trump's celebration of self over the past four days. Everything below the line is in chronological order, and is quoted from the attributed account.

___

It seems overnight the White House has been replaced by a Monster Energy Drink branded UFC cage:


Kate Klonick

I remember when “Obama watches too much basketball” was a criticism that was lobbed from the both sides of the aisle.
@chadstanton.blacksky.app

All the people crying that we need  “regular sports guy” Dems are the same people who told Obama—an absolute regular sports guy—to tone it down.
@rahulastrohl.bsky.social

The thing for me about the UFC fight is not just that it's happening and the cost, but that Trump is planning it while he continually fails to end an absolutely disastrous war. Just another weekend in the Trump White House that would have been a Presidency-ending scandal for Obama.
Gravel Influencer

Some serious Hunger Games energy right here:


Patrick Chovanec

"It's a republic, not a democracy" say the people cheering for gladiatorial combat in the capital city in a mixture of patriotic fervor and celebration of the ruler's birthday.
Jacob T. Levy

The promotion for Trump's UFC cage fight says “The most historic sporting event of all time.” The NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup and the World Cup are all going on right now. This is maybe the fourth biggest sporting event of the weekend.
Kevin M. Kruse

The perfect name for this time of oligarchs: “the Re-Gilded Age.” [Prompted by Trump's regilding of Arts of War sculptures near the Lincoln Memorial.]
Sherrilyn Ifill

I object to the stuff this administration has done to the White House because it’s ours, and not theirs to destroy. But I’m having a visceral and personal reaction to [the activities] at the Lincoln Memorial. They’re trying to usurp the rights of citizens and make us all gawking spectators to their carnival.
Anjali Dayal

Remembering a multi-day conservative freakout because Lizzo briefly played a founding father’s flute
Patrick Monahan @pattymo.com

Trump used the Armed Forces Full Honor Cordon — soldiers who escort fallen heroes and heads of state — to usher UFC fighters past Abraham Lincoln’s statue like they’re celebrities on a red carpet.
Jennifer C @thejenniwren.teamlh.social

the real political correctness is that you can’t go on the news and say that this is hick shit:


Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social

It’s funny because when kids ride dirt bikes in the city it’s taken as proof we need a totalitarian police state. 
@chadstanton.blacksky.app

Donald Trump's birthday is a great time to remember that Hillary Clinton won by a larger margin in 2016 than he won by in 2024.
Dean Baker

Salah Sarsour: A Political Prisoner

He isn't the first and he won't be the last, but Salah Sarsour is a political prisoner of the Trump regime, and even worse, they're trying to kill him.

Sarsour, 53, is a Palestinian-American who is president of the largest mosque in Wisconsin. He has been in the U.S. since 1993, where he is a permanent resident with citizen children and grandchildren. According to this AP story, his Type 2 diabetes is not being handled at all properly and he has lost 30 pounds. At the Indiana jail where he's being held, he's being told to eat pork products and being deprived of religious freedom in multiple other ways. 

Wisconsin Public Radio reported on his detainment back in April, when it seemed as though this might be a short-term thing, but obviously, that was not to be. 

From the AP story: 

An investigation by KFF Health News and the AP found that hundreds of detainees in at least 33 states have filed federal lawsuits with similar allegations of medical neglect. Those lawsuits include other detainees who say they were denied medication or had treatment delayed for conditions including cancer, high blood pressure, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, HIV, diabetes, infections, depression and more. 

As with everything the Trump regime does, this is being carried out in our names. 

A New Clinic, Medical Censorship

There were two medical stories on the same page of today's Star Tribune, both local, though one with a national focus. One good news, one bad news. 

At the top (page 3 within the local section), the headline is "U expands community clinic in S. Minneapolis." It tells about the new clinic building now under construction at Community-University Health Care Center, which is located on Franklin Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood in the heart of the Native American community. 

CUHCC has been there since 1966, providing health care to people regardless of ability to pay. Last year it served 12,000 patients who, according to the story, speak more than 50 languages. In addition to the clinic's staff, medical students and residents from the University of Minnesota can be found working with patients there. 

The new building is being funded by the University and its foundation. So overall, a good news story, despite the parts that referred to operating funding streams that have been or may be affected by federal policy changes (Medicaid cuts, the Minnesota legislature's decision to stop allowing undocumented people to access MinnesotaCare).

In contrast, at the bottom half of the page was a story that could only happen during the Trump regime. The headline is a bit vague: "U professor ousted from conference." Well, that could be almost anything —  maybe it was for a good reason.

But no. 

This was the national conference of the American Diabetes Association, and the U of M professor, a pediatrician who is co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, was physically forced to leave the conference because he "violated the event's code of conduct, which requires professional and respectful behavior."

What was the violation? 

He was helping to pass out an editorial from one the ADA's own flagship medical journals. Of course, the editorial criticizes the Trump regime for cutting NIH staff, grants, and "destroying what generations have built." 

The lead author of the editorial (who is editor of the ADA journal as well) was also removed from the conference. He had been scheduled to present and to lead another session. Three other people were removed.

The Star Tribune story quotes the U of M professor as saying he was "chest-bumped by a police officer several times" and cites video that shows him being shoved by a cop.

These are the times we live in: a medical organization lets the federal government say who can attend its conference. It kicks out people who want conference-goers to know what the organization's own publication says. 

This is a gift link to a Washington Post story about the ADA conference with more details, which make it even clearer that this was censorship. 

And that's Only One Thing

From a Washington Post story today: "Ballroom donors won $50 billion in contracts after giving to the Trump ballroom project, watchdog group finds."

Georgia State University political scientist Jeff Lazarus noted on BlueSky that $50 billion in contracts is 555,000% larger than Teapot Dome, "the worst scandal in American history prior to Watergate, [which] involved $9 million changing hands. That’s adjusted for inflation."

I can't even comprehend 555,000%. Sometimes the level of depravity hits you all over again. 

A separate Washington Post story reported that DOGE wanted to declare 2.7 million people dead, so that immigrants would be "so miserable that they self-deported or went to Social Security offices for help, where they could be arrested." This is according to a whistleblower. (Gift link https://wapo.st/4uOlIJt.)

That exact plan didn't happen as DOGE intended, but many other bad things have happened to our immigrant neighbors, as we know. 

Currently mass "asylum" hearings are happening at Trump's deportation courts all over the country. The Star Tribune reported today that they have begun happening here in our local Fort Snelling courtrooms, with up to 73 cases being heard on the same docket. 80% of the people in one judge's list had no representation. That sure is the way to have your case heard fairly. 

Meanwhile, in New Jersey's Delaney Hall, there are people who are begging to "self-deport" [terrible term] because the conditions are so bad, who are not being allowed to do so. 

And reports of ICE smash-and-grabbing people out of vehicles on the streets here in the Twin Cities and in Chicago are ramping up once again.

How quaint is this idea, that there would be outrage over the equivalent of $9 million worth of corruption? 

A Moment of Silence that Speaks Volumes

At the Minnesota state Republican convention, currently underway, they held a moment of silence. 

Was it for the elementary-age children who died in the Annunciation School shooting in Minneapolis last summer? No.

Was it for the member of the Minnesota Legislature and her husband who were murdered last spring? No.

Was it for the state resident, serving in the U.S. military, who was killed in Iran in the first days of the war there? No.

You can't even guess who it was for. 

.

.

.

.

.

It was for Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd six years ago this week, who is alive and I assume well, and serving his sentence for the crimes he committed. 

They all stood there in silence, honoring a convicted murderer whose actions were so reprehensible that even some cops denounced them. (The fact that it is only some cops is part of why we are where we are at now.)

Which reminds me: I was reviewing my posts from the week after Chauvin murdered George Floyd, and I went back to my post from the day before the murder. That was May 25, 2020. 

It's a very strange thing to read now, given all that has happened since January 6, 2021:

A thought from Joyce Alene, a former U.S. Attorney and current law professor:

"I never thought I’d live in a country where I’d have to seriously worry about the President pervasively cheating to steal an election or refusing to participate in a smooth transition of power if he lost."

I've thought about the transfer of power on Inauguration Day sometimes and wondered what it would be like if the sitting president didn't relinquish power, marveling at how easily our leaders of different parties turned over control from one to the other.

I wasn't taking it for granted because I did notice it. But at the same time, I was assuming it was how things worked in this country.

We'll see if it continues. 

Republicans in Minnesota held a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin.

Asylum Has a Purpose, and It's Not for White South Africans

Steven Thal, a local immigration attorney, wrote in today's Star Tribune about his experience over 43 years representing people with asylum claims, and what has changed during the second Trump regime. (Gift link: Immigrants vs. the deportation machine: This is America today.) He particularly emphasized the fact that domestic violence and gang violence are no longer considered grounds for asylum. Since 2025, sex or gender is not considered a "particular social group."

On top of that, Thal pointed to Trump's appointment of judges whose purpose is to carry out deportation, rather than fairly hear cases of asylum. 100 immigration judges have been fired or "pushed out," replaced by 140 sworn to uphold the Trump method:

These new appointees, termed “deportation judges” by the Department of Justice, are characterized by a lack of immigration law experience and by a focus on enforcement.

Rates of asylum-granting nationally, he says, have declined from 42% during the Biden administration to 7% (by February 2026). The woman's case Thal describes in the first half of his essay is one that any rational person would think should meet asylum grounds. But no. 

His analysis fits perfectly with an infographic the Star Tribune ran a few days ago, comparing asylum cases in one month in Minnesota, 2024 vs. 2026:


The approval rate under Biden was a not-stellar 13%. Under Trump, it is 0.2%.

It was obvious this would happen when we heard news about the firing of immigration judges, knowing their replacements would be dedicated to the Trump/Miller ideology. But it is still hard seeing it come to fruition. 

And now they want to have people applying for green cards return to their home countries to apply. It's nonsensical obstructionism. 
__

When I posted this, I meant to include a link to this MinnPost story on Minnesota asylum cases, which also ran on Tuesday. As in Thal's commentary, the particular case it focuses on is clearly one that deserves asylum. And check out this graph that accompanies the article:

Minnesota clearly had a preexisting and long-term lower rate of approved asylum cases. Is it from bias against Somalis, or what? I wonder what the reason is. 
 

The Racist White South Tries to Rise Again

We are in a new bad old age, post-Louisiana v. Callais, with Southern Republican elected officials calling for elimination of districts that have elected Black representatives in Mississippi and South Carolina (Mississippi Free Press). We even have one of those officials going on the record to impugn a Black Congress member by saying his term in office has been a "reign of terror." 

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-MS — who chaired the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack — has conducted a reign of terror. Uh huh. Right. Just by being a Black Democrat, I guess.

This kind of Klanish statement made me remember some of what I was taught about the Reconstruction period of American history. It's a vague recollection, but I know I either read in a textbook or was told in class that the Black men who were elected to Congress after the Civil War were not qualified to be there because they were not educated or worthy of being there. I think we were shown cartoons from the era that were very insulting.

I don't think this information was given to us as the point of view of "one side." It was presented as fact. 

When in truth, this assertion is part of what is called the Dunning School point of view about Reconstruction, which permeated academic historiography of the period in the early 20th century and affected mainstream schooling for much longer. 

The Civil Rights movement and the decades since have barely begun to change the antiblackness that underlies our culture, and now here we are, with elected officials using words right out of a night rider's manual. 

According to the Mississippi Free Press article, the only good possibility in the Bennie Thompson story is that by redrawing to eliminate his district in a state with such a high percentage of Black residents, Mississippi Republicans could put more than one of their own currently safe seats into play. 

Wouldn't that be something. 

Threats of War Crimes Drown Out War Crimes

This morning, before news of Trump's vile Easter morning tweet broke, the big story was recovery of the second U.S. pilot in Iran. Between Trump's war-crime blast and the general news of the rescue, I think this part will be lost:

Basically, anyone within a little under two miles of the pilot was killed by a drone. 

The report says "military-aged males," but that means 12-year-old boys and up. And that's if we can believe them about only seeing males as threats. I doubt they will tell us how many people that was.

Within two miles of the pilot. 
 

One More Thing

Posted by John Gramlich of the Pew Research Center, reporting the gist of a Politico story: 

89% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators

23% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators

This is one of the many things about the Trump regime I wouldn't have believed was possible.

It makes me remember this short clip from the Rachel Maddow Show on Monday (only viewable on BlueSky).

She begins, talking about the past No Kings Day events as a preface to the one scheduled this weekend. Then she lists off some of the unbelievable things Trump has inflicted on this country just since the last event in October — not quite six months ago. 

As bad as Maddow's list is, it's extremely incomplete (for instance, there's no mention of Trump's corrupt self-dealing, or RFK's actions!). It also doesn't mention this withholding of disaster aid to his "enemy" states. 

There are just so many impeachable offenses, it's not possible to include them all. He and his cronies have flooded the zone with shit, as they intended. Just like his AI fighter jet video showed.

Billion with a B

So Trump is asking for $200 billion dollars on top of whatever the regime is already spending to bomb the hell out of Iran for no clear purpose, against all the accumulated strategic wisdom of the past 47 years and counter to the successful negotiations his own people were conducting (though they were likely faking). 

Billion is a hard number to wrap the human mind around. Someone on BlueSky this morning said the U.S. war on Iran was costing us $1.3 million per minute. When I do the math on $2 billion a day (1,440 minutes in a day divided into $2 billion per day), it comes out closer to $1.4 per minute. So yeah. That's not far off. 

$200 billion will last only 100 days at that rate of consumption. And as we all have to assume, $2 billion is only covering the most obvious and direct costs. 

As Jacob T. Levy said on BlueSky,

Is $200 billion a lot to fight a war that’s already been decisively, comprehensively, bigly won? It seems like a lot.

As soon as the regime's $200 billion ask was reported, reaction was swift, countering with — as it should — all the other ways that money could be spent:

Remember when DOGE was destroying foreign aid because it was supposedly too expensive? The entire US foreign aid budget in 2024 was $62 billion.  
Max Boot

Like ten years of annual federal transit spending
bikepedantic

They haven't even given a reason for the war, and are asking for an amount of money that would be like funding the whole EPA for 22 years.
Costa Samaras

$200B, the Pentagon's insane ask for the illegal Iran war, is comparable to all planned spending on energy and climate over *10 years* in Biden's signature bill, which Trumpists almost completely repealed last summer.
Kevin J. Kircher

$200b would buy 100 million ebikes and reduce American gasoline consumption by like a third.
David Weiskopf @dave.bzky.team

GOP and Trump said we didn't have the money to extend ACA health care subsidies- and now millions have no health care coverage and many more are facing crushing costs. So hundreds of billions of dollars to bomb Iran but nothing to help Americans pay for health care.
Nathan Newman

Trump wants $1,600 per household to pay for his "excursion" in Iran. That's equal to 800 Minnesota frauds.
Dean Baker

I guess we can think of this $200 billion (800 Minnesota frauds) as the cost of Trump's decision to nix Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran. And it will likely get higher.
Dean Baker

It would take anywhere from $20–$80 billion to end homelessness in America.
@mauratwit.bsky.social

Meanwhile, news has also come out that the U.S. debt has reached new astronomical heights, as it always does when Republicans are in the White House. 

Because Republicans are the ones who are good at handling the economy and run the government like it's a business.
 

The Cost of Trump's War

Over the course of the first 15 days of March 2026, there were continuing reports of how much the U.S. was spending on the war in Iran. I extracted them out of yesterday's BlueSky round-up to post them together so I could see how they escalated:

Preliminary Pentagon cost estimate of the war in Iran is $1 BILLION a day. So far.
Leah McElrath

My university received a few years ago the promise of the largest single gift to a public university in U.S. history. It was equivalent to 12 hours of bombing Iran.
Anise K. Strong

The Pentagon calculated it was spending $1 billion a day on Trump and Netanyahu’s war. The truth? It was $3 billion…and that’s just for munitions. Plus they’ve alarmed everyone by burning through scarce munitions in a matter of days.
Mark Chadbourn

The Pentagon used $5.6 billion in munitions in the first days of its assault on Iran, according to officials. The Trump administration is also expected to request a supplemental defense budget of potentially tens of billions of dollars, officials said. 
The Washington Post

That’s more than half the annual budget of the National Science Foundation.
David Ho

First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says (NYT). The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion. 
David Ho

As usual, I would say that we should not believe any of the numbers put out by the Trump regime, but these dollar figures at least give us something react to. They seem to have settled on $2 billion a day. 

We know that these figures only include direct costs like munitions: not the costs of the military personnel or ships that are in use. For sure these amounts do not include the build-up that was underway before they started flinging missiles at Iran.

The Pentagon, in general, is unauditable, so no one will ever know what any of this really costs. The Intercept has government sources who say the total cost will be somewhere between $60 and $250 billion, depending on duration. 

Those are only direct financial costs to the U.S., of course. Nothing about the cost of human lives in Iran or elsewhere, and the general economic effect from this misbegotten "excursion" undertaken so Trump could be seen as a war president. 

The SAVE Act Is Voter Suppression

I plan to move some time in the five or ten years. When I do, I will have to re-register to vote for the first time in decades. Currently, under Minnesota law, I could do that on Election Day, and I could use my driver's license (if it has an up-to-date address) or a utility bill with my current address as proof of residency, or I could have a voter from the same precinct vouch for me as a resident. When I first came to Minnesota 40 years ago for grad school, I voted in the 1986 elections with same-day registration because one of my housemates vouched for me. 

If the Republicans' SAVE Act passes, I will also have to prove I am a citizen. I'm lucky that I have a current passport, so that will not be hard for me to do. I also have the same name I was born with, though I'm not sure I have an official copy of my birth certificate. (I think the copy stored in my safe is an official one, but does it have a seal?)

MAGA people, like some of my relatives, take the party line that the SAVE Act will only affect people who have to register or re-register because they move, not people who stay in the same place. So... not to worry, no big deal, they say.

But who moves more frequently? Lower income people, of course. Younger people. Renters especially. The oldest of us also move frequently as we go from our long-time homes as we downsize or move to our kids' homes or various types of care situations, too. My parents moved four times between 2006 and 2019, for instance. 

This AP story is one of many that explains how the SAVE Act creates a burden on legitimate voters. 

A similar effort was tried in Kansas a decade ago and turned into a debacle that eventually was blocked by the courts after more than 30,000 eligible citizens were prevented from registering....

A 2025 University of Maryland study estimates that 21.3 million Americans who are eligible to vote do not have or have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans and 14% of people unaffiliated with either major party.

Expired passports cannot be used as proof of citizenship for some reason. Why not, if the only supposed point of the act is to prove citizenship?

One part of the act that has gotten the most attention is the requirement for additional documentation when a birth certificate name doesn't match a person's current name. That's the case for 80% of married women. The AP article does not mention, however, what kind of documentation the SAVE Act requires to prove a person's name was legally changed. Is a marriage certificate enough? It's unclear whether they would be consistently accepted and even if so, the longer you've been married, it seems the less likely you would be to know where yours is. 

(Personally, I thought about legally changing my middle name at one point. All of this makes me glad I never got around to it.)

The SAVE Act would also disrupt or end online, mail-in, and "motor-voter" registration. Updating registrations would have to be done in person, also. Voter registration drives would have to be eliminated, since those rely on mail-in registration. (Source) 

According to the Brennan Center:

The bills would leave it up to local officials to decide whether a voter who lacks one of the specified documents has done enough to prove citizenship. Officials who make an honest mistake could face civil and criminal penalties. An election official could even be punished for registering an eligible American citizen, just for failing to collect all the right paperwork at the right time.

And of course, there's the kicker, as reported by AP:

Notably, the SAVE Act does not provide any money to help states and local governments implement the changes or promote them to voters.

It's obvious what the SAVE Act is intended to save: The Republican Party from being wiped out by the voters. Rules about changing election laws should be fully bipartisan, not forced by bare majorities of one party.

Double Punishment, Ethnic Cleansing

There are so many outrages of the Trump regime's racist anti-immigrant purge, it's hard to pick one to talk about. But this story from today's Star Tribune (gift link) exemplifies an aspect that doesn't get enough attention.

I think it's better known here, but not so much anywhere that hasn't been targeted by Stephen Miller's Department of "Homeland Security." Maybe there have been similar stories in L.A., Chicago, and Charlotte, but I haven't heard theirs, just as they probably haven't heard ours. National media have not paid much if any attention to this.

There are immigrants in Minnesota who came here as young children, committed a crime when they were young adults, were convicted, served their time, and have since been productive members of society. They're 10, 20, 30 years out of jail or prison. They're parents. They have jobs. 

And now ICE has detained them. Taken them away from their families, friends, and coworkers who rely on them. Ripped them out of the economic fabric they are part of. Stopped them from paying taxes, for god's sake. 

For what reason? No good reason. Just racism. To fill a quota written down somewhere in Washington, D.C. So some PR flak can say "our brave ICE agents" have detained a violent criminal (who a now a 50-something-year-old public works engineer) for something he did when he was 18, even though he hasn't reoffended since. Or that they detained a drug dealer — really a chef who didn't commit a violent crime even at the time of his felony, and whose conviction is 20 years old. 

These men served their time. The idea is that you are not to be punished twice in this country, as I understand it. 

Both of these men have young kids, and a wife or partner. According to the story, the government wants to deport them to Laos, which neither of them remembers living in. Neither speaks Lao, nor has family there. 

There have been numerous other cases like this in the Twin Cities and in Wisconsin, sometimes for crimes as minor as marijuana possession. These are just the two most recent. 

You can't call it anything but attempted ethnic cleansing.

Abolish ICE and DHS

Of course I hope that Department of Homeland Security will stop its occupation and ethnic cleansing in Minnesota. But I don't want them to just move on from here to some other state and city, which seems like the only likelihood, given the funding structure as it stands now. I mean... what else are they going to do with all that money they've been given by the Republicans' big bogus bill?

They can keep buying human warehouses, of course. That should take a chunk of change. 

But who will they be putting into those warehouses? There aren't that many "worst of the worst" immigrants in this country. And if they deport those people, who do they find to replace them with? 

So while they continue the PARRIS program, which is intent on deporting vetted refugees, try to discontinue temporary protected status, and are ramping up plans to denaturalize citizens (!), nothing they say should be taken seriously.

This is a government of white supremacy and ethnic cleansing. As someone I read pointed out, the 100 million "illegal" immigrants that some on the right — probably Stephen Miller — have thrown around is a fantasy.

But that number does just about equal how many Black and other people of color there are in this country.

Status Report

Another long day in this federal occupation. Today they carried out a high-speed chase (80 mph!) on a narrow street through a busy commercial corridor in Saint Paul, which ended in a multi-car wreck and several injuries. 

For a while, people thought the person they had been pursuing was dead because EMS took him to the ambulance completely covered in a sheet, but it turned out either he or ICE wanted him covered to obscure his identity. It seems doubtful whether we'll ever get a true story of how the chase came about in the first place. Such high-speed chases are prohibited by local police department rules. 

Things are not better here. Countless people are still too afraid to leave their homes, businesses are closed or empty of customers, and abductions are on-going. 

This photo is by Laura Mitchell, shared on BlueSky.