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Health insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age
#antiScience #BigGovt #BigPharma #corruption #health #incompetence #medicalScience #mindControlHealth insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age.
For example, pediatricians in the 3-million-person Health Net network receive a $2,500 bonus for each baby receiving 25 vaccine doses by 2.5 years of age.
A paralegal at my firm quickly found 27 additional examples of insurers and providers from across the country offering such bribes. See list below.
It is amazing that even pediatricians need to be bribed to inject these products.
How do you think this affects how pediatricians treat parents during “well-check” visits?
EXAMPLES: Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/hospital-p4p/2025/20250109%20-%20FINAL%202025%20Hospital_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdfEmpire; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/ob-p4p/2025/20250110%20-%20FINAL_2025_OB_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/p4p—urgent-care/20251215%20-%20Final_2026%20Urgent%20Care%20Guide.pdf; Partnership HealthPlan of California- https://partnershiphp.org/Providers/Quality/Documents/QIP%202025/2026PCPQIPMeasureSpecifications.pdf#:~:text=Incentives%20are%20%0Abased%20on%20meeting%20specific%20performance%20thresholds%20in%20measures%20that%20address%20the%20above%20areas; Passport by Molina Healthcare- https://molinamarketplace.com/members/nv/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/ky/en-us/Medicaid/2026VaccineVABFlyer_R.ashx; Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO)- https://eocco.com/news/Current/Childhood-Immunization-Incentive-Program; Central California Alliance for Health- https://thealliance.health/wp-content/uploads/2026-Care-Based-Incentive-CBI-workbook.pdf; California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)- https://dhcs.ca.gov/services/Documents/CY-2025-Quality-Withhold-and-Incentive-Methodology-Document.pdf; Blue Shield of California- https://blueshieldca.com/content/dam/bsca/en/provider/docs/2023/June/PRV_Primary-Care-Fee-For-Service-Plus-Program-Overview.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/Flu-Incentive-Flyer_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Provider%20Forms/PCP-Incentive-Program.pdf; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Healthy-Child-Immunization-Incentive.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/2026-Molina-Member-Rewards-Flyer_Child_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; New Jersey Department of Health – https://nj.gov/health/cd/documents/imm_requirements/hot_shots_welcome_packet.pdf; Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey / New Jersey Department of Health- https://eastamwelltownship.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/1227?fileID=20313; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Healthy Blue)- https://healthybluenc.com/medicaid/extras/healthy-rewards; AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina- https://amerihealthcaritasnc.com/member/benefits/carecard; Carolina Complete Health- https://carolinacompletehealth.com/members/medicaid/benefits-services/healthy-rewards-program.html; Aetna Better Health of Illinois- https://aetnabetterhealth.com/illinois-medicaid/rewards-program.html; APhA Foundation/American Pharmacists Association- https://aphafoundation.org/post/apha-foundation-announces-2025-2026-incentive-grant-recipients; Kern Health Systems- https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmykpsih/image/upload/kern-site-353/media/011c263f1fc54936a1daad22bc376243/p4p_2026-binder_final-12026.pdf; Oklahoma Complete Health- https://oklahomacompletehealth.com/providers/quality-improvement/participation-in-qi-.html#:~:text=Childhood%20Immunization%20Status%20%28PDF%29%0A%0AImmunizations%20for%20Adolescents%20%28PDF%29; Setra Health Plans- https://sentarahealthplans.com/en/members/medicaid/earning-your-medicaid-member-incentives#:~:text=The%20Healthy%20Incentives%20Program%20rewards%20you%20with%20up%20to%20%2450%20in%20gift%20cards%20per%20year%20for%20completing%20certain%20wellness%20exams%20and%20services; AmeriHealth Caritas- https://p1.amerihealthcaritasdc.com/content/dam/amerihealth-caritas/acdc/pdf/provider/forms/2025/2025-provider-incentive-cpt-code-campaign-child-immunization-status.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf; Health Net (Health Net of California, Inc. / Health Net Community Solutions, Inc.)-https://providerlibrary.healthnetcalifornia.com/news/26-367-earn–2-500-for-closing-cis-10-immunization-care-gaps–my.html; Peach State Health Pla- https://pshpgeorgia.com/content/dam/centene/peachstate/pdfs/2026%20Medicaid%20P4P%20Incentive%20PPT_FINAL_R.pdf
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Health insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age — Aaron Siri
Health insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age.
For example, pediatricians in the 3-million-person Health Net network receive a $2,500 bonus for each baby receiving 25 vaccine doses by 2.5 years of age.
A paralegal at my firm quickly found 27 additional examples of insurers and providers from across the country offering such bribes. See list below.
It is amazing that even pediatricians need to be bribed to inject these products.
How do you think this affects how pediatricians treat parents during “well-check” visits?
EXAMPLES: Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/hospital-p4p/2025/20250109%20-%20FINAL%202025%20Hospital_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdfEmpire; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/ob-p4p/2025/20250110%20-%20FINAL_2025_OB_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/p4p—urgent-care/20251215%20-%20Final_2026%20Urgent%20Care%20Guide.pdf; Partnership HealthPlan of California- https://partnershiphp.org/Providers/Quality/Documents/QIP%202025/2026PCPQIPMeasureSpecifications.pdf#:~:text=Incentives%20are%20%0Abased%20on%20meeting%20specific%20performance%20thresholds%20in%20measures%20that%20address%20the%20above%20areas; Passport by Molina Healthcare- https://molinamarketplace.com/members/nv/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/ky/en-us/Medicaid/2026VaccineVABFlyer_R.ashx; Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO)- https://eocco.com/news/Current/Childhood-Immunization-Incentive-Program; Central California Alliance for Health- https://thealliance.health/wp-content/uploads/2026-Care-Based-Incentive-CBI-workbook.pdf; California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)- https://dhcs.ca.gov/services/Documents/CY-2025-Quality-Withhold-and-Incentive-Methodology-Document.pdf; Blue Shield of California- https://blueshieldca.com/content/dam/bsca/en/provider/docs/2023/June/PRV_Primary-Care-Fee-For-Service-Plus-Program-Overview.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/Flu-Incentive-Flyer_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Provider%20Forms/PCP-Incentive-Program.pdf; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Healthy-Child-Immunization-Incentive.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/2026-Molina-Member-Rewards-Flyer_Child_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; New Jersey Department of Health – https://nj.gov/health/cd/documents/imm_requirements/hot_shots_welcome_packet.pdf; Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey / New Jersey Department of Health- https://eastamwelltownship.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/1227?fileID=20313; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Healthy Blue)- https://healthybluenc.com/medicaid/extras/healthy-rewards; AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina- https://amerihealthcaritasnc.com/member/benefits/carecard; Carolina Complete Health- https://carolinacompletehealth.com/members/medicaid/benefits-services/healthy-rewards-program.html; Aetna Better Health of Illinois- https://aetnabetterhealth.com/illinois-medicaid/rewards-program.html; APhA Foundation/American Pharmacists Association- https://aphafoundation.org/post/apha-foundation-announces-2025-2026-incentive-grant-recipients; Kern Health Systems- https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmykpsih/image/upload/kern-site-353/media/011c263f1fc54936a1daad22bc376243/p4p_2026-binder_final-12026.pdf; Oklahoma Complete Health- https://oklahomacompletehealth.com/providers/quality-improvement/participation-in-qi-.html#:~:text=Childhood%20Immunization%20Status%20%28PDF%29%0A%0AImmunizations%20for%20Adolescents%20%28PDF%29; Setra Health Plans- https://sentarahealthplans.com/en/members/medicaid/earning-your-medicaid-member-incentives#:~:text=The%20Healthy%20Incentives%20Program%20rewards%20you%20with%20up%20to%20%2450%20in%20gift%20cards%20per%20year%20for%20completing%20certain%20wellness%20exams%20and%20services; AmeriHealth Caritas- https://p1.amerihealthcaritasdc.com/content/dam/amerihealth-caritas/acdc/pdf/provider/forms/2025/2025-provider-incentive-cpt-code-campaign-child-immunization-status.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf; Health Net (Health Net of California, Inc. / Health Net Community Solutions, Inc.)-https://providerlibrary.healthnetcalifornia.com/news/26-367-earn–2-500-for-closing-cis-10-immunization-care-gaps–my.html; Peach State Health Pla- https://pshpgeorgia.com/content/dam/centene/peachstate/pdfs/2026%20Medicaid%20P4P%20Incentive%20PPT_FINAL_R.pdf
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UPDATE: A typical rebuttal of the claim that health insurers are bribing doctors to vax as many children as possible is that insurers are acting in the children’s best interest; and this is solidly proved because mass vaxxing is also in the insurers best interest. The claim is that by vaccinating as many children as they can, insurers are keeping them healthy while also saving money themselves as insurers will be required to pay fewer claims for healthier children. This rebuttal is completely false and based on a misunderstanding of how insurance works. Insurers make more money the sicker their customers are. Here’s why that is so. Under Obamacare, insurers are given 20% of covered medical expenses to manage their part of the system. In any one year, insurers do try to minimize their payouts. And this is where the misunderstanding or deliberate fraud in the rebuttal lies. In any one year, insurers always minimize payouts on established policies. But over more than one year, insurers always make more money the more medical costs go up. Under Obamacare 20% of $100 dollars of medical expenses is $20. If costs go up 10x, 20% of $1,000 is $200. The amount of work for insurers to manage those costs is the same. So, it is always in insurers’ best interests for medical costs go up over the years and not down. ABN
#abn #antiScience #BigGovt #BigPharma #corruption #health #incompetence #medicalScience #mindControl -
Health insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age
#antiScience #BigGovt #BigPharma #corruption #health #incompetence #medicalScience #mindControlHealth insurers and organizations literally bribe pediatricians to give your baby 25 vaccine doses before 3 years of age.
For example, pediatricians in the 3-million-person Health Net network receive a $2,500 bonus for each baby receiving 25 vaccine doses by 2.5 years of age.
A paralegal at my firm quickly found 27 additional examples of insurers and providers from across the country offering such bribes. See list below.
It is amazing that even pediatricians need to be bribed to inject these products.
How do you think this affects how pediatricians treat parents during “well-check” visits?
EXAMPLES: Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/hospital-p4p/2025/20250109%20-%20FINAL%202025%20Hospital_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdfEmpire; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Health Plan (IEHP)-https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/ob-p4p/2025/20250110%20-%20FINAL_2025_OB_P4P_Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/global-quality-program/2026/20260413%20-%20Final%202026%20Global%20Quality%20P4P%20PCP%20Program%20Guide.pdf; Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)- https://providerservices.iehp.org/content/dam/provider-services-rd/en/documents/providers/p4p–prop-56–gemt/p4p—urgent-care/20251215%20-%20Final_2026%20Urgent%20Care%20Guide.pdf; Partnership HealthPlan of California- https://partnershiphp.org/Providers/Quality/Documents/QIP%202025/2026PCPQIPMeasureSpecifications.pdf#:~:text=Incentives%20are%20%0Abased%20on%20meeting%20specific%20performance%20thresholds%20in%20measures%20that%20address%20the%20above%20areas; Passport by Molina Healthcare- https://molinamarketplace.com/members/nv/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/ky/en-us/Medicaid/2026VaccineVABFlyer_R.ashx; Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO)- https://eocco.com/news/Current/Childhood-Immunization-Incentive-Program; Central California Alliance for Health- https://thealliance.health/wp-content/uploads/2026-Care-Based-Incentive-CBI-workbook.pdf; California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)- https://dhcs.ca.gov/services/Documents/CY-2025-Quality-Withhold-and-Incentive-Methodology-Document.pdf; Blue Shield of California- https://blueshieldca.com/content/dam/bsca/en/provider/docs/2023/June/PRV_Primary-Care-Fee-For-Service-Plus-Program-Overview.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/Flu-Incentive-Flyer_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Provider%20Forms/PCP-Incentive-Program.pdf; McLaren Health Plan- https://mclarenhealthplan.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/HealthPlan/documents/Healthy-Child-Immunization-Incentive.pdf; Molina Healthcare (Apple Health / Medicaid)- https://molinahealthcare.com/members/wa/en-us/-/media/Molina/PublicWebsite/PDF/members/wa/en-us/Medicaid/Member-Rewards-Program/2026-Molina-Member-Rewards-Flyer_Child_EN_FNL_R_508c.ashx; New Jersey Department of Health – https://nj.gov/health/cd/documents/imm_requirements/hot_shots_welcome_packet.pdf; Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey / New Jersey Department of Health- https://eastamwelltownship.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/1227?fileID=20313; Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Healthy Blue)- https://healthybluenc.com/medicaid/extras/healthy-rewards; AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina- https://amerihealthcaritasnc.com/member/benefits/carecard; Carolina Complete Health- https://carolinacompletehealth.com/members/medicaid/benefits-services/healthy-rewards-program.html; Aetna Better Health of Illinois- https://aetnabetterhealth.com/illinois-medicaid/rewards-program.html; APhA Foundation/American Pharmacists Association- https://aphafoundation.org/post/apha-foundation-announces-2025-2026-incentive-grant-recipients; Kern Health Systems- https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmykpsih/image/upload/kern-site-353/media/011c263f1fc54936a1daad22bc376243/p4p_2026-binder_final-12026.pdf; Oklahoma Complete Health- https://oklahomacompletehealth.com/providers/quality-improvement/participation-in-qi-.html#:~:text=Childhood%20Immunization%20Status%20%28PDF%29%0A%0AImmunizations%20for%20Adolescents%20%28PDF%29; Setra Health Plans- https://sentarahealthplans.com/en/members/medicaid/earning-your-medicaid-member-incentives#:~:text=The%20Healthy%20Incentives%20Program%20rewards%20you%20with%20up%20to%20%2450%20in%20gift%20cards%20per%20year%20for%20completing%20certain%20wellness%20exams%20and%20services; AmeriHealth Caritas- https://p1.amerihealthcaritasdc.com/content/dam/amerihealth-caritas/acdc/pdf/provider/forms/2025/2025-provider-incentive-cpt-code-campaign-child-immunization-status.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf; Health Net (Health Net of California, Inc. / Health Net Community Solutions, Inc.)-https://providerlibrary.healthnetcalifornia.com/news/26-367-earn–2-500-for-closing-cis-10-immunization-care-gaps–my.html; Peach State Health Pla- https://pshpgeorgia.com/content/dam/centene/peachstate/pdfs/2026%20Medicaid%20P4P%20Incentive%20PPT_FINAL_R.pdf
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All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
All Time Low, Mayday Parade & Taylor Acorn – Sporthall, Hamburg Germany
For this review we traveled to Hamburg in Germany for the first time to see Pop Punk band All Time Low, on their tour with support from Taylor Acorn and Mayday Parade, to promote their new album Everyone’s Talking.
We drove down to London Heathrow Airport and caught our flight Friday night where we arrived at a snowy Hamburg. After a good night’s rest we got up and explored Hamburg visiting the Speicherstadt which is the world’s largest warehouse complex and a UNESCO site, followed by a trip to Miniatur Wunderland which holds the largest model railway system in the world.
After a day of exploring it was time to hop onto the metro and make our way to the Sporthall for the gig. We got off the metro and followed the crowd to the venue, once inside we headed to the merch where they had a great selection for each band, Rex bought herself an All Time Low sweatshirt, we were a little disappointed their wernt any signed vinyl to add to our collection. We made our way to the bar to get drinks and a currywurst, we got served very fast and the drinks were served in All Time Low cups which was a nice touch.
We made our way to the arena to see the first support of the night Taylor Acorn, a pop punk artist from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, who replaced The Paradox and Four Year Strong on the line up. We last saw her play when she supported Noahfinnce in Birmingham 2 years ago, you can read about that show here.
Taylor AcornTaylor opened up with ‘Poster Child’ and ‘I Think I’m In Love’ in front of a big crowd, she sounded amazing and a lot better than the last time we saw her when she was ill.
Taylor put on a great show with her high energy performance as she dances around and rocks out a lot which really gets the crowd warmed up. She played 8 songs during her set finishing with our favourites ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Psycho’, we really hope to see her play live again.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u3HTlrmGMP9jQv17o6UCz?si=ysfreiUbRmezhPuXKmGjnQ
Mayday Parade
Once her set was finished we managed to grab a drink and another currywurst very easily and got down in time for the start of Mayday Parade a pop punk band from Tallahassee, Florida.Mayday parade opened up with ‘Under My Seater’, ‘Jersey’ and ‘I’d Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About’ which got the crowd bouncing and continued the energy left by Taylor Acorn.
The pace slowed down a little bit when Derek Sanders (Lead Vocalist) brought out an acoustic guitar and performed ‘Piece of Your Heart’ he then went onto say, “With the world being fucked up, just a reminder to be nice to each other regardless of race, religion, gender etc” which got a massive cheer from the crowd.They finished their 10 song set performing ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Jamie All Over’ which got the biggest reaction from the crowd as everyone was bouncing and moshing too.
https://open.spotify.com/track/05qCCJQJiOwvPQBb7akf1R?si=53tvp0aWSHmBfr-gAvxouQ
After another short break it was time for the headliners All Time Low who are a pop punk band from Towson, Maryland, we last saw these play at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas which you can read about here.
All Time LowBefore they came out, ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by Electric Light Orchestra played on the speakers which got everyone singing and dancing, once All Time Low got onto stage they received a massive cheer from the crowd as they opened up with big hits ‘SUCKERPUNCH’ and the classic ‘Weightless’ where we had our first crowd surfer.
They played ‘PMA’ and one of our favourites ‘Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), this was followed by Alex (Vocals & Guitar) & Jack (Lead Guitar), joking and messing around which continued throughout the show.
All Time Low performed ‘Remembering Sunday’ where Taylor Acorn came out to perform with them, which was a nice surprise, this followed by a live debut of ‘Everyone’s Taking’ which we thoroughly enjoyed.
All Time Low and Taylor AcornThey spoke about how grateful they were for everyone coming out to see them play as they had to upgrade the venue numerous times due to ticket demand which surprised them and thanked everyone for the support. They continued the show performing ‘Hate This Song’ which is a song they did with I Prevail and finished with ‘Monsters’ before leaving the stage.
For their encore they performed ‘The Weather’ with Derek Sanders, followed by two of their biggest hits ‘Lost in Stereo’ and ‘Dear Maria Count Me In’ where confetti cannons went off and completed their 22 song set with a bang!
We really enjoyed the show as we got treated to 40 songs throughout the night even though we would’ve loved to have heard ‘Kids In The Dark’. We followed the crowd out and got the metro back to the hotel, where we got a good night’s sleep so we could explore more of Hamburg the next day before we flew home. The next day we climbed the tower of St Michael’s Church to see amazing views on a snowy Hamburg,l followed by a chocolate experience at Chocoversum which we highly recommend.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0JJP0IS4w0fJx01EcrfkDe?si=M0fTr-y7QwSBGHyNNp76Ww
All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them.
St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️
#AllTimeLow #Blog #Blogging #liveMusic #MaydayParade #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TaylorAcorn #Writing -
In the end, it wasn't even necessary to wait for the country to enter a recession for Americans to change their voting preferences to the Democratic Party...
"Several high-profile state and local elections on Tuesday marked the first major litmus test of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term—and Democrats won big. From gubernatorial races to mayoral elections, Democrats swept their Republican opponents by campaigning on an anti-Trump platform.
The results were stark. In the first round of elections since Trump took office in January, Democrats won nearly all seats up for grabs. Most notably, Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani swept the New York City mayoral vote, becoming the Big Apple’s first Muslim mayor. His win delivers a major setback for Trump, who personally endorsed Mamdani’s main rival, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, and had threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City if Mamdani won.
Among Democrats’ other major wins, Mikie Sherrill was elected governor of New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger won the race for governor of Virginia, and Pennsylvania voted to retain three liberal state Supreme Court justices. Even races further down the ballot turned blue. In Virginia, 13 seats in the state House of Delegates flipped in favor of Democrats, while Democratic candidates Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones were elected lieutenant governor and attorney general, respectively. Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Pittsburgh all elected Democratic mayors. And Democrats ousted two Republicans in a statewide election for the Georgia Public Service Commission."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/us-elections-democrats-mamdani-trump-cuomo/
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Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up for the first time about her shocking arrest and 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility. She recalls the generous and compassionate women who helped her through this harrowing ordeal.
"On a Tuesday in March, I had spent most of my day working on my dissertation proposal and started to feel exhausted and hungry. It was the holy month of Ramadan, and I was fasting. Once finished, I quickly got ready to attend an iftar dinner, throwing on my hoodie, sweatpants, and a jersey headscarf—definitely not a day for being fancy. I was looking forward to taking a short walk and catching up with friends at the interfaith center, when I was suddenly surrounded and grabbed by a swarm of masked individuals, who handcuffed me and shoved me into an unmarked car.
Suddenly, I was thrust into a nightmare. Thousands of questions crept up in the hours that passed. It felt like an eternity as my shackled body was jostled from one location to another. Who were these people? Had I been a good enough person if today was my final day? I was relieved to have finished filing my taxes, but I couldn’t shake the thought of a book I needed to return to the library. I regretted not calling my grandparents and friends that day. My mom had heard my scream on the phone when they were taking me. She didn’t know where I was, and I could only imagine how many times she tried to reach me from oceans away, or who my father had attempted to contact. As my body shook with fear, I found myself drowning in thoughts. I began my final prayers, communicating with God that I had tried my best every day.
I was shuttled from Somerville to another city in Massachusetts, then to New Hampshire and Vermont, followed by Georgia and Louisiana. I experienced countless changes in agents, cars, planes, and handcuffs. In Vermont, I was required to take a DNA test for the first time. I hadn’t yet been permitted to contact my parents, friends, or lawyer. I asked numerous questions, but I received few answers; those I did get were inconsistent with each other.
Throughout, I was disoriented, hungry, and nauseous. In Georgia, after suffering a severe asthma attack without my primary inhaler and having a hard cry, I was feeling completely hopeless. In Louisiana, I found myself in a cramped, cagelike bus, waiting for hours. I watched as countless people arrived from a nearby plane, all shackled—hands, feet, and waists. Some were taken inside a building, while others were loaded onto a bus, where I was left behind. I asked for water but was given none. I sat with others in uncomfortable seats, all of us feeling the weight of our situations, and me intensely feeling the strain on my body, which was about to collapse.
(. . .)
It wasn’t until late afternoon on March 26 that we arrived at a 'detention center,' roughly 24 hours since I had been grabbed off the street. While waiting to be processed alongside dozens of other women in a stark white cell, I felt utterly exhausted, lying on the hard floor from time to time. As someone who learned English later in life, the lines between prison and detention centers blurred in my mind. I had a lot of questions: Who are the people staying here? How many are there? What are the living conditions like? What kinds of offenses have brought them here? How long have they been here?
The cramped room was filled with women, some lying on the cold floor, others looking scared or simply sad, all in desperate need of food and water. The bathrooms were just curtained stalls. The room itself was frustratingly bright, with hard, uncomfortable benches that added to the tension of the situation. Later in the night, we were finally given some dinner. My request for halal or vegetarian food was rejected.
Still, despite these awful circumstances, I clung to my belief in humanity. I took a moment to collect my thoughts. I then began engaging in conversations with the women around me. Over the 14 hours I spent in processing, I connected with many of them. Through a sometimes-challenging language barrier, we talked—about how we’d gotten there, where we’d been, and what was waiting for us on the inside. I discovered that another woman there also had asthma, as she carried her inhaler. I learned that several women were separated from their children.
I soon learned the color coding used in the detention center. Orange indicated 'low crime,' meaning those individuals were asylum seekers, their 'crime' being the act of legally seeking asylum or crossing the border without authorization. Women kept asking me, 'Did you cross the border?' I answered: 'I hadn’t.' 'I had a ticket.' 'I had F-1 visa one day before.' 'I am a doctoral student.’' The red uniforms denoted more serious offenses. I came to understand that this facility serves as an immigration detention center where asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants—people escaping conflict, war, oppression, and violence—are taken and find themselves stuck for months or years. I was given orange. I wondered which border I had crossed without my knowledge.
Around 6 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, having gone two nights without sleep and little food, I was finally processed in the for-profit ICE prison. My request for a space for my morning prayer was rejected by an intake officer. Instead, I was directed to the medical center for my first evaluation, which primarily consisted of me listing my health issues to the nurse and trying to remember the names of the medications I was taking. I spent hours waiting there under extremely loud TV sounds. Later, when I was directed to where I was to stay in the afternoon, I was bewildered to find 23 other women crowded into a small cell. They greeted me with warmth and smiles, which only added to my confusion. The questions I initially had about who they were and why they were there continued to fade. I opened the plastic bag of 'essentials' that the officers had given us, which contained two to three changes of clothes, flip-flops, a small bottle of shampoo, a comb, one thin blanket and sheet, toothpaste, a cheap toothbrush, and a handbook.
Always the student, I wanted to dive into the handbook, but it was written in Spanish. I asked a few of the other women if they had an English version; they did, and they were eager to help me understand everything. I read the handbook and instructions multiple times, but some parts were confusing.They walked me through the setup of the phone, which felt outdated and challenging to operate. They showed me how to use the old tablets in the room, explained how to set up my account, and guided me through the commissary process—the weekly food ordering system that often failed to deliver—along with a few other limited features. After that, utterly miserable and drained, I turned my attention to the blue metal bunk bed."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/rumeysa-ozturk-what-i-witnessed-inside-an-ice-womens-prison
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Lazy Caturday Reads: Trump’s Immigration Policy and ICE as Secret Police
By Shawn Braley
Good Afternoon!!
As usual, there’s quite a bit happening the news today, but I’m going to focus on immigration. Trump’s war on Los Angeles is still going on, even though there hasn’t been much reporting about it lately. LA is apparently a test case for what the Trump wants to do in other blue states. Public outrage is building over the violent and un-American behavior of ICE agents, but will it be enough to save our democracy?
The Latest from battleground Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times: ‘A good day’: Detained U.S. citizen said agents bragged after arresting dozens at Home Depot.
A 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was tackled to the ground and arrested after filming federal agents at Home Depot on Thursday said he was held for more than an hour near Dodger Stadium, where agents boasted about how many immigrants they arrested.
“How many bodies did you guys grab today?” he said one agent asked.
“Oh, we grabbed 31,“ the other replied.
“That was a good day today,” the first agent responded.
The two high-fived, as he sat on the asphalt under the sun, Job Garcia said.
Garcia was released on Friday from a downtown federal detention center. No apparent criminal charges have yet to be filed. He is one of several U.S citizens arrested during enforcement operations in recent days. Department of Homeland Security officials say some have illegally interfered with agents’ jobs….
Garcia said he was shaken by what he heard while he was detained.
“They call them ‘bodies,’ they reduce them to bodies,” he said. “My blood was boiling.”
Here’s what happened:
Garcia, a photographer and doctoral student Claremont Graduate University, had been picking up a delivery at Home Depot when someone approached the customer desk and said something was unfolding outside.
“La migra, La migra,” he heard as he walked out. He quickly grabbed his phone and followed agents around the parking lot, telling them they were “f— useless” until he came to a group of them forming a half-circle around a box truck.
A Border Patrol agent radioed someone and then slammed his baton against the passenger window, his video shows. Glass shattered. He unlocked the door as people shouted.
In the video, a stunned man can be seen texting behind the wheel. He had apparently refused to open his door.
It’s unclear from the footage what happened next, but Garcia said an agent lunged toward him and pushed him.
“My first reaction was to like push his hand off,” he recalled. Then, he said, the agent grabbed his left arm, twisted it behind his back and threw his phone.
The agent brought him to the ground and three other agents jumped in, Garcia said
“Get the f— down sir” and “give me your f— hand. You want it, you got it, sir, you f— got it. You want to go to jail, fine. You got it,” an agent can be heard saying in the video.
“You wanted it, you got it,” the man yelled.
An agent handcuffed him so hard “that there was no circulation running to my fingers,” Garcia said.
Pinned down, Garcia had difficulty breathing.
“That moment, I thought I could probably die here,” he said.
There’s more at the LA Times link.
Yesterday, JD Vance traveled to Los Angles to stir up more trouble.
The New York Times: Vance Blames L.A. Violence on California Democrats and Disparages Padilla.
Eight days ago, Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference and handcuffed by federal agents after he interrupted Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.
In the Kitchen, by Natalya Bagaskaya
At the same building on Friday, Vice President JD Vance disparaged Mr. Padilla for engaging in “political theater” and called him by the wrong name.
“Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t the theater,” Mr. Vance said during a news conference in response to a reporter. “I think everybody realizes that’s what this is. It’s pure political theater.”
Mr. Vance’s spokeswoman later said that he misspoke when he said the senator’s name.
The vice president spent much of his news conference blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles for the violence caused by some protesters in the city and the obstruction of immigration enforcement. Mr. Vance, who shook the hands of about 20 Marines who were at the federal building, alternated between attacks on California Democrats and praise for law enforcement.
“Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, they decided to go to war against the people trying to keep our community safe,” Mr. Vance said. “That’s a disgrace. That’s a terrible commentary on their qualities as leaders.”
The Hill: Vance reference to Alex Padilla as ‘Jose’ during LA presser sparks Dem backlash.
Several California Democrats slammed Vice President Vance after he referred to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) as “Jose” during a Friday presser in Los Angeles.
“I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,” Vance said, referring to Padilla’s forcible removal from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference last week.
“I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater,” he continued.
Democrats railed against Vance for misnaming the state’s first Latino senator, who the vice president served alongside before his successful White House bid.
“Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in a Friday post on the social media platform X.
NBC Los Angeles: ‘How dare you.’ Mayor Bass blasts VP Vance for his comments during LA visit.
Mayor Karen Bass took aim at JD Vance Friday for the comments he made during his visit to Los Angeles, accusing the vice president of “spewing lies” and disrespecting Sen. Alex Padilla….
“The vice president of the United States spent three or four hours in LA before holding a press conference and spewing lies and utter nonsense in an attempt to provoke division and conflict in our city,” said Bass. “This is consistent with the provocation from Washington that began two weeks ago, when our city was calm and many and millions of Angelenos were going about working and contributing to our city.”
The mayor also criticized Vance for referring to Sen. Alex Padilla as “Jose Padilla,” someone he served with before serving as vice president….
The mayor emphasized that the protests, which Vance criticized harshly, were mostly peaceful, and that the city has streets have been quiet since they lifted the curfew.
“Even when there was vandalism at its height, you were talking about a couple of hundred people who were not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests,” said Bass. “Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any disruption took place took place in about two square miles in our city. The most – over 100 people were arrested. We are a city of 3.8 million people.”
The Trump administration’s immigration policies
We all know who’s really in charge, don’t we? The Wall Street Journal: Stephen Miller’s Fingerprints Are on Everything in Trump’s Second Term.
Stephen Miller wanted to keep the planes in the air—and that is where they stayed.
When a federal judge in March told the Trump administration to turn around flights of deported migrants headed to El Salvador, senior officials hastily convened a Saturday evening conference call to figure out what to do.
JIf they didn’t return the passengers, they would be defying a court order, some administration officials worried. Miller, who is President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, pushed for the planes to keep flying, which they ultimately did. The judge would later say that allowing officials to defy court judgments would make a “solemn mockery” of the Constitution.
Uninvited by Lucia Heffernan
The 39-year-old immigration hawk, who has been by Trump’s side since the 2016 campaign, has emerged as a singular figure in the second Trump administration, wielding more power than almost any other White House staffer in recent memory—and eager to circumvent legal limitations on his agenda.
He has his own staff of about 30 and a Secret Service detail, which White House officials said was because he had received death threats and serves as homeland security adviser. He has been responsible for the administration’s broadsides against universities, law firms and even museums. He has written or edited every executive order that Trump has signed…..
Some of Miller’s colleagues said they were alarmed by some of the legal maneuvers that Miller has proposed for executing the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, and Trump has gently ribbed him for being too “happy” about deportations.
A bit more:
Miller, who isn’t a lawyer, is the official who first suggested using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, which the Justice Department pursued. He also privately, then publicly, floated suspending habeas corpus, or the right for prisoners to challenge their detention in court, which the administration hasn’t tried. That prompted pushback from other senior White House and Justice Department officials.
His orders to increase arrests regardless of migrants’ criminal histories set off days of protests in Los Angeles. Miller coordinated the federal government’s response, giving orders to agencies including the Pentagon, when Trump sent in the Marines and the National Guard, according to officials familiar with the matter….
Several White House staffers said Miller always takes the most “extreme” view of any issue, and his positions have cost the administration in court. In Trump’s first 100 days back in office, courts issued nationwide injunctions in 25 cases against the federal government, compared with six in his entire first term and four during the Biden administration, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Several cases have already reached the Supreme Court, which has ruled against Trump on some immigration cases.
Austin Kocher at Substack: 56,397 People Now Detained by ICE, Possibly Highest in History.
According to the latest data published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday, the number of immigrants held in detention on June 15 reached 56,397.1 This might be the largest detained population on record. It is certainly the largest detained population since ICE began reporting detention data during the first Trump administration. The previous high was 55,654 in August 2019—and I have used that number as the benchmark high in the past to put ICE’s detention numbers in context….
The biggest growth in recent weeks has been the number of people in civil detention with nothing more than civil immigration violations on their record. The chart and table below focus only on people in detention as a result of ICE arrests. This number increased from 7,781 to 11,763. The increases for people with pending criminal charges or criminal convictions increased much less.
In fact, nearly a third of all people held in ICE detention now have no criminal history, up from 6 percent in January. The percent of immigrants held with criminal convictions has actually decreased from 62 percent to 37 percent. See the previous post in January for my prediction that this would take place and a detailed description explaining why….
To put the growth of detained people with no criminal histories in context, we can compare the current totals with the totals at the start of the Trump administration to visualize their relative growth over the past six months. There has been nearly a 14x growth in the number of people detained at any one time without criminal histories.
The majority of ICE detainees were arrested by ICE, rather than CBP—an indication that most of the immigration enforcement happening in the country right now is happening throughout the interior while the border is less active as a site of enforcement. That said, I encourage you to listen to my conversation with Reece Jones about the expansive enforcement geography of Border Patrol. They are not only operating at the border, but also in places across the country.
Go to the link to see charts and graphs.
Commentary on the authoritarian behavior of ICE
Heather Cox Richardson at Letter from an American: June 20, 2025.
Individuals in plain clothes with their faces covered and without badges or name tags are snatching people off the streets and taking them away. Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is housed within the Department of Homeland Security, claimed that such measures for anonymity are imperative because “ICE officers have seen a staggering 413 percent increase in assaults against them.” [….]
The Department of Homeland Security appears to be trying to convince Americans that their agents must cover their faces because their opponents, especially Democrats, are dangerous.
Bella et Miso, by L. Roche
On Tuesday, masked, plainclothes ICE agents assaulted and arrested New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s chief financial officer. Lander was accompanying an immigrant to a scheduled court hearing to try to protect him from arrest in one of ICE’s sweeps of those showing up for their court hearings. Lander asked the agents to produce an arrest warrant for the man they were arresting, and was himself arrested.
Homeland Security said it would charge him with impeding a federal officer and “assaulting law enforcement.” As Bump notes, a video of the incident shows that Lander “assaulted the officers in the sense that a bully might accuse you of having gotten in the way of his fist.” Lander was later released, and New York governor Kathy Hochul said the charges against him had been dropped.
The same pattern occurred last month, when federal prosecutors charged Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing and interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, broke the Department of Justice rule that it would not comment on ongoing investigations by posting that Baraka had “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Ten days later, Habba quietly dropped the case and announced another one, this time against U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), charging her with “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” during Baraka’s arrest….
…the point of these arrests is almost certainly not an attempt to see justice done. They continue the longstanding Republican policy of seeding the media with a false narrative of bad behavior by their opponents—voter fraud, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, and so on—in order to convince voters that their opponents are dangerous to America.
Read the whole thing at the link.
Garrett Graff at Doomsday Scenario: ICE believes it will never face accountability again. The Trump administration is letting an unaccountable secret police form at the heart of our democracy.
Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE.
Social media is filled with disturbing videos of masked ICE officers — or, I should say, people suspected of being or self-identifying as ICE officers, since for the most part they’re not wearing any identifiable police insignia — manhandling people, including the comptroller of New York, US citizens, suspected aliens, and even journalists alike. In recent days, ICE has also begun resisting congressional oversight efforts — oversight that clearly and legally it needs to provide. In fact, yesterday ICE announced a new “policy” that says it doesn’t have to provide congress access to its facilities that Congress itself wrote into law. (It goes without saying that you can’t create a “policy” that negates an actual bona fide law—and it’s worth explaining that the reason Congress created this very explicit law allowing ICE oversight is because of its past struggles in doing that exact thing! It’s not like there’s much ambiguity or “open to interpretation” here.)
ICE in just a few weeks has transformed itself into the closest thing that the US has ever had to a “secret police,” with more seemingly culturally in common with the Klan nightriders of Reconstruction than their federal agency brethren like the FBI or ATF.
Graff’s point of view:
What really worries me about ICE’s collective actions nationwide, though, is bigger than any single raid or social media post — what worries me is that what we’re witnessing nationwide are not the actions of an agency that believes it will ever be subject to meaningful oversight or legal authority ever again.
Cat, by Rahanin Ratanapahol
This is not an agency that is treating members of Congress as if it will ever be held to account by the men and women who control its budget.
This is not an agency that believes that any of its actions on the streets will be subject to meaningful review by judicial authorities — or that any of its actions will be litigated in the courts.
This is not an agency that believes that any of its actions will be subject to meaningful review by the DHS inspector general, either for policy violations or criminal use-of-force abuses, nor reviewed by US attorneys or federal prosecutors at any level.
This is not an agency leadership that believes that anyone in government — at the Justice Department, the White House, or DHS — currently cares about public perception, misconduct, or violations of civil rights and civil liberties.
And this is not an agency that believes that Democrats will ever be back in charge.
That’s what should terrify us.
It does terrify me. Please go read the rest at Doomsday Scenario.
On Trump’s progress toward authoritarianism
Greg Sargent at The New Republic: Trump’s Threat to Unleash Troops in Cities Just Got Darker and Scarier.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump scored a temporary victory after an appeals court ruled that he can continue deploying the National Guard as part of his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV response to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. The decision accepted Trump’s premise that conditions in L.A. permit him to take control of the guard—but it rejected his claim that such decisions should be entirely unreviewable by courts.
That latter part of the ruling is important. It’s potentially something of an obstacle to his ongoing effort to assume quasi-dictatorial powers for himself—for now, anyway.
Trump apparently processed only the first part. He posted the following, in a reference to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s suing to block Trump from taking over his state’s guard (emphasis added):
The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.
In short, Trump seized on this mixed ruling to threaten to send in the National Guard anywhere in the United States if and when he decrees it “necessary.” The scare quotes are mine, because on many fronts, Trump is testing how far he can get by inventing ways to claim such actions are “necessary,” a power he and his advisers see as boundless.
All of which highlights a deeper conundrum here: What can the courts—and the rest of us—do in the face of a president whose bad faith and willingness to concoct pretexts for abusing his powers basically have no bottom?
Head over to TNR to read the rest.
Xochitl Gonzalez at The Atlantic (gift link): Brad Lander’s Stand. Defending liberty is a messy business.
As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. They arrested him anyway.
The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the one where Donald Trump was convicted last year of 34 felony crimes for falsifying business records. His supporters painted the criminal-justice process as a politically motivated witch hunt. But none of them seems to mind now that masked ICE agents are lurking behind corners in the halls of justice to snatch up undocumented migrants who show up for their hearings. This was not the first time Lander had accompanied someone to the courthouse, and it wouldn’t be his last.
Sharyn bursic, Lady on Couch with Cat
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Lander had been “arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” The whole thing is on video, so anyone can see that there was no assault. Lander is about as mild-mannered a politician as they come. Matt Welch, a libertarian blogger and no fan of Lander, wrote on X that the only things Lander had ever assaulted were “Coney Island hot dogs and school-zone speed limits.” He’s the kind of old-fashioned elected official who doesn’t much exist anymore, the kind you see at public-library events or can call when your kid’s day care is shut down and know he’ll actually do something about it. A different kind of politician would have milked the attention for all it was worth. But if Brad Lander were a different kind of politician, he might be first and not third in the polls. “I did not come today expecting to be arrested,” he told reporters after being released. “But I really think I failed today, because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.”
More link him, please.
People who are used to living in a democracy tend to find it unsettling when elected officials are arrested, or thrown to the ground and handcuffed for asking questions at press conferences. They don’t like to see elected officials indicted for trying to intervene in the arrest of other elected officials. And they find it traumatizing when, as has been happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere, they see law-abiding neighbors and co-workers they’ve known for years grabbed and deported.
The question now is what Americans are going to do about it.
Los Angeles has offered one model of response. Although Trump campaigned on finding and deporting undocumented criminals, in order to hit aggressive quotas, ICE has changed its tactics and started barging into workplaces. Citizens have reported being detained simply because they look Hispanic. Residents of one Latino neighborhood recorded ICE officers driving in an armored vehicle. Many residents felt that the raids were an invasion by the president’s personal storm troopers, and marched into the streets in response.
The first groups of protesters were organized by unions, but soon, other Angelenos—of many ages and backgrounds—joined them. Most of the protesters were peaceful, chanting and marching and performing mariachi around federal buildings in downtown L.A. But others were not. They defaced buildings with graffiti and summoned Waymos, the driverless taxis, in order to set them on fire.
Of course right-wingers reacted predictably, blaming Democrats. But what explains the reactions from some Democrats and journalists?
I would have thought that the reaction to the protests from anyone outside the MAGAverse would have been pretty uniform. Democrats have been warning Americans for years about Trump’s descent into authoritarianism. Now it is happening—the deportations, the arrests, the president’s face on banners across government buildings, the tank parade. “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said. And yet, so many Democratic leaders, public intellectuals, and members of the media seemed distinctly uneasy about the protests. Yes, they seem to say, ICE has been acting illegally, but what about the Waymos?
In The Washington Post, David Ignatius fretted about protesters waving Mexican flags and wondered if the “activists” were actually working for Trump. Democratic leaders were “worried the confrontation elevates a losing issue for the party,” The New York Times reported. Politico raised a more cynical question: “Which Party Should Be More Worried About the Politics of the LA Protests?”
Many Democrats denounced vandalism while supporting the right to protest. But the Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was harsh in his criticism of the protesters, lamenting that the random acts of violence and property damage by a few bad actors would cause Democrats to lose the “moral high ground.”
There is a time for politicians to fine-tune a message for maximum appeal. But this is a case of actual public outrage against the trampling of inalienable rights. This is not a fight for the moral high ground; this is a fight against authoritarianism.
Use the gift link to read the entire article.
That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?
#authoritarianism #BradLander #Democrats #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #JDVance #LosAngles #RasBaraka #SenAlexPadilla
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Lazy Caturday Reads: Trump’s Immigration Policy and ICE as Secret Police
By Shawn Braley
Good Afternoon!!
As usual, there’s quite a bit happening the news today, but I’m going to focus on immigration. Trump’s war on Los Angeles is still going on, even though there hasn’t been much reporting about it lately. LA is apparently a test case for what the Trump wants to do in other blue states. Public outrage is building over the violent and un-American behavior of ICE agents, but will it be enough to save our democracy?
The Latest from battleground Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times: ‘A good day’: Detained U.S. citizen said agents bragged after arresting dozens at Home Depot.
A 37-year-old U.S. citizen who was tackled to the ground and arrested after filming federal agents at Home Depot on Thursday said he was held for more than an hour near Dodger Stadium, where agents boasted about how many immigrants they arrested.
“How many bodies did you guys grab today?” he said one agent asked.
“Oh, we grabbed 31,“ the other replied.
“That was a good day today,” the first agent responded.
The two high-fived, as he sat on the asphalt under the sun, Job Garcia said.
Garcia was released on Friday from a downtown federal detention center. No apparent criminal charges have yet to be filed. He is one of several U.S citizens arrested during enforcement operations in recent days. Department of Homeland Security officials say some have illegally interfered with agents’ jobs….
Garcia said he was shaken by what he heard while he was detained.
“They call them ‘bodies,’ they reduce them to bodies,” he said. “My blood was boiling.”
Here’s what happened:
Garcia, a photographer and doctoral student Claremont Graduate University, had been picking up a delivery at Home Depot when someone approached the customer desk and said something was unfolding outside.
“La migra, La migra,” he heard as he walked out. He quickly grabbed his phone and followed agents around the parking lot, telling them they were “f— useless” until he came to a group of them forming a half-circle around a box truck.
A Border Patrol agent radioed someone and then slammed his baton against the passenger window, his video shows. Glass shattered. He unlocked the door as people shouted.
In the video, a stunned man can be seen texting behind the wheel. He had apparently refused to open his door.
It’s unclear from the footage what happened next, but Garcia said an agent lunged toward him and pushed him.
“My first reaction was to like push his hand off,” he recalled. Then, he said, the agent grabbed his left arm, twisted it behind his back and threw his phone.
The agent brought him to the ground and three other agents jumped in, Garcia said
“Get the f— down sir” and “give me your f— hand. You want it, you got it, sir, you f— got it. You want to go to jail, fine. You got it,” an agent can be heard saying in the video.
“You wanted it, you got it,” the man yelled.
An agent handcuffed him so hard “that there was no circulation running to my fingers,” Garcia said.
Pinned down, Garcia had difficulty breathing.
“That moment, I thought I could probably die here,” he said.
There’s more at the LA Times link.
Yesterday, JD Vance traveled to Los Angles to stir up more trouble.
The New York Times: Vance Blames L.A. Violence on California Democrats and Disparages Padilla.
Eight days ago, Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference and handcuffed by federal agents after he interrupted Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.
In the Kitchen, by Natalya Bagaskaya
At the same building on Friday, Vice President JD Vance disparaged Mr. Padilla for engaging in “political theater” and called him by the wrong name.
“Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t the theater,” Mr. Vance said during a news conference in response to a reporter. “I think everybody realizes that’s what this is. It’s pure political theater.”
Mr. Vance’s spokeswoman later said that he misspoke when he said the senator’s name.
The vice president spent much of his news conference blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles for the violence caused by some protesters in the city and the obstruction of immigration enforcement. Mr. Vance, who shook the hands of about 20 Marines who were at the federal building, alternated between attacks on California Democrats and praise for law enforcement.
“Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, they decided to go to war against the people trying to keep our community safe,” Mr. Vance said. “That’s a disgrace. That’s a terrible commentary on their qualities as leaders.”
The Hill: Vance reference to Alex Padilla as ‘Jose’ during LA presser sparks Dem backlash.
Several California Democrats slammed Vice President Vance after he referred to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) as “Jose” during a Friday presser in Los Angeles.
“I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,” Vance said, referring to Padilla’s forcible removal from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference last week.
“I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater,” he continued.
Democrats railed against Vance for misnaming the state’s first Latino senator, who the vice president served alongside before his successful White House bid.
“Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in a Friday post on the social media platform X.
NBC Los Angeles: ‘How dare you.’ Mayor Bass blasts VP Vance for his comments during LA visit.
Mayor Karen Bass took aim at JD Vance Friday for the comments he made during his visit to Los Angeles, accusing the vice president of “spewing lies” and disrespecting Sen. Alex Padilla….
“The vice president of the United States spent three or four hours in LA before holding a press conference and spewing lies and utter nonsense in an attempt to provoke division and conflict in our city,” said Bass. “This is consistent with the provocation from Washington that began two weeks ago, when our city was calm and many and millions of Angelenos were going about working and contributing to our city.”
The mayor also criticized Vance for referring to Sen. Alex Padilla as “Jose Padilla,” someone he served with before serving as vice president….
The mayor emphasized that the protests, which Vance criticized harshly, were mostly peaceful, and that the city has streets have been quiet since they lifted the curfew.
“Even when there was vandalism at its height, you were talking about a couple of hundred people who were not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests,” said Bass. “Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any disruption took place took place in about two square miles in our city. The most – over 100 people were arrested. We are a city of 3.8 million people.”
The Trump administration’s immigration policies
We all know who’s really in charge, don’t we? The Wall Street Journal: Stephen Miller’s Fingerprints Are on Everything in Trump’s Second Term.
Stephen Miller wanted to keep the planes in the air—and that is where they stayed.
When a federal judge in March told the Trump administration to turn around flights of deported migrants headed to El Salvador, senior officials hastily convened a Saturday evening conference call to figure out what to do.
JIf they didn’t return the passengers, they would be defying a court order, some administration officials worried. Miller, who is President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, pushed for the planes to keep flying, which they ultimately did. The judge would later say that allowing officials to defy court judgments would make a “solemn mockery” of the Constitution.
Uninvited by Lucia Heffernan
The 39-year-old immigration hawk, who has been by Trump’s side since the 2016 campaign, has emerged as a singular figure in the second Trump administration, wielding more power than almost any other White House staffer in recent memory—and eager to circumvent legal limitations on his agenda.
He has his own staff of about 30 and a Secret Service detail, which White House officials said was because he had received death threats and serves as homeland security adviser. He has been responsible for the administration’s broadsides against universities, law firms and even museums. He has written or edited every executive order that Trump has signed…..
Some of Miller’s colleagues said they were alarmed by some of the legal maneuvers that Miller has proposed for executing the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, and Trump has gently ribbed him for being too “happy” about deportations.
A bit more:
Miller, who isn’t a lawyer, is the official who first suggested using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, which the Justice Department pursued. He also privately, then publicly, floated suspending habeas corpus, or the right for prisoners to challenge their detention in court, which the administration hasn’t tried. That prompted pushback from other senior White House and Justice Department officials.
His orders to increase arrests regardless of migrants’ criminal histories set off days of protests in Los Angeles. Miller coordinated the federal government’s response, giving orders to agencies including the Pentagon, when Trump sent in the Marines and the National Guard, according to officials familiar with the matter….
Several White House staffers said Miller always takes the most “extreme” view of any issue, and his positions have cost the administration in court. In Trump’s first 100 days back in office, courts issued nationwide injunctions in 25 cases against the federal government, compared with six in his entire first term and four during the Biden administration, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Several cases have already reached the Supreme Court, which has ruled against Trump on some immigration cases.
Austin Kocher at Substack: 56,397 People Now Detained by ICE, Possibly Highest in History.
According to the latest data published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday, the number of immigrants held in detention on June 15 reached 56,397.1 This might be the largest detained population on record. It is certainly the largest detained population since ICE began reporting detention data during the first Trump administration. The previous high was 55,654 in August 2019—and I have used that number as the benchmark high in the past to put ICE’s detention numbers in context….
The biggest growth in recent weeks has been the number of people in civil detention with nothing more than civil immigration violations on their record. The chart and table below focus only on people in detention as a result of ICE arrests. This number increased from 7,781 to 11,763. The increases for people with pending criminal charges or criminal convictions increased much less.
In fact, nearly a third of all people held in ICE detention now have no criminal history, up from 6 percent in January. The percent of immigrants held with criminal convictions has actually decreased from 62 percent to 37 percent. See the previous post in January for my prediction that this would take place and a detailed description explaining why….
To put the growth of detained people with no criminal histories in context, we can compare the current totals with the totals at the start of the Trump administration to visualize their relative growth over the past six months. There has been nearly a 14x growth in the number of people detained at any one time without criminal histories.
The majority of ICE detainees were arrested by ICE, rather than CBP—an indication that most of the immigration enforcement happening in the country right now is happening throughout the interior while the border is less active as a site of enforcement. That said, I encourage you to listen to my conversation with Reece Jones about the expansive enforcement geography of Border Patrol. They are not only operating at the border, but also in places across the country.
Go to the link to see charts and graphs.
Commentary on the authoritarian behavior of ICE
Heather Cox Richardson at Letter from an American: June 20, 2025.
Individuals in plain clothes with their faces covered and without badges or name tags are snatching people off the streets and taking them away. Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is housed within the Department of Homeland Security, claimed that such measures for anonymity are imperative because “ICE officers have seen a staggering 413 percent increase in assaults against them.” [….]
The Department of Homeland Security appears to be trying to convince Americans that their agents must cover their faces because their opponents, especially Democrats, are dangerous.
Bella et Miso, by L. Roche
On Tuesday, masked, plainclothes ICE agents assaulted and arrested New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s chief financial officer. Lander was accompanying an immigrant to a scheduled court hearing to try to protect him from arrest in one of ICE’s sweeps of those showing up for their court hearings. Lander asked the agents to produce an arrest warrant for the man they were arresting, and was himself arrested.
Homeland Security said it would charge him with impeding a federal officer and “assaulting law enforcement.” As Bump notes, a video of the incident shows that Lander “assaulted the officers in the sense that a bully might accuse you of having gotten in the way of his fist.” Lander was later released, and New York governor Kathy Hochul said the charges against him had been dropped.
The same pattern occurred last month, when federal prosecutors charged Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing and interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, broke the Department of Justice rule that it would not comment on ongoing investigations by posting that Baraka had “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Ten days later, Habba quietly dropped the case and announced another one, this time against U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), charging her with “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” during Baraka’s arrest….
…the point of these arrests is almost certainly not an attempt to see justice done. They continue the longstanding Republican policy of seeding the media with a false narrative of bad behavior by their opponents—voter fraud, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, and so on—in order to convince voters that their opponents are dangerous to America.
Read the whole thing at the link.
Garrett Graff at Doomsday Scenario: ICE believes it will never face accountability again. The Trump administration is letting an unaccountable secret police form at the heart of our democracy.
Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE.
Social media is filled with disturbing videos of masked ICE officers — or, I should say, people suspected of being or self-identifying as ICE officers, since for the most part they’re not wearing any identifiable police insignia — manhandling people, including the comptroller of New York, US citizens, suspected aliens, and even journalists alike. In recent days, ICE has also begun resisting congressional oversight efforts — oversight that clearly and legally it needs to provide. In fact, yesterday ICE announced a new “policy” that says it doesn’t have to provide congress access to its facilities that Congress itself wrote into law. (It goes without saying that you can’t create a “policy” that negates an actual bona fide law—and it’s worth explaining that the reason Congress created this very explicit law allowing ICE oversight is because of its past struggles in doing that exact thing! It’s not like there’s much ambiguity or “open to interpretation” here.)
ICE in just a few weeks has transformed itself into the closest thing that the US has ever had to a “secret police,” with more seemingly culturally in common with the Klan nightriders of Reconstruction than their federal agency brethren like the FBI or ATF.
Graff’s point of view:
What really worries me about ICE’s collective actions nationwide, though, is bigger than any single raid or social media post — what worries me is that what we’re witnessing nationwide are not the actions of an agency that believes it will ever be subject to meaningful oversight or legal authority ever again.
Cat, by Rahanin Ratanapahol
This is not an agency that is treating members of Congress as if it will ever be held to account by the men and women who control its budget.
This is not an agency that believes that any of its actions on the streets will be subject to meaningful review by judicial authorities — or that any of its actions will be litigated in the courts.
This is not an agency that believes that any of its actions will be subject to meaningful review by the DHS inspector general, either for policy violations or criminal use-of-force abuses, nor reviewed by US attorneys or federal prosecutors at any level.
This is not an agency leadership that believes that anyone in government — at the Justice Department, the White House, or DHS — currently cares about public perception, misconduct, or violations of civil rights and civil liberties.
And this is not an agency that believes that Democrats will ever be back in charge.
That’s what should terrify us.
It does terrify me. Please go read the rest at Doomsday Scenario.
On Trump’s progress toward authoritarianism
Greg Sargent at The New Republic: Trump’s Threat to Unleash Troops in Cities Just Got Darker and Scarier.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump scored a temporary victory after an appeals court ruled that he can continue deploying the National Guard as part of his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV response to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. The decision accepted Trump’s premise that conditions in L.A. permit him to take control of the guard—but it rejected his claim that such decisions should be entirely unreviewable by courts.
That latter part of the ruling is important. It’s potentially something of an obstacle to his ongoing effort to assume quasi-dictatorial powers for himself—for now, anyway.
Trump apparently processed only the first part. He posted the following, in a reference to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s suing to block Trump from taking over his state’s guard (emphasis added):
The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.
In short, Trump seized on this mixed ruling to threaten to send in the National Guard anywhere in the United States if and when he decrees it “necessary.” The scare quotes are mine, because on many fronts, Trump is testing how far he can get by inventing ways to claim such actions are “necessary,” a power he and his advisers see as boundless.
All of which highlights a deeper conundrum here: What can the courts—and the rest of us—do in the face of a president whose bad faith and willingness to concoct pretexts for abusing his powers basically have no bottom?
Head over to TNR to read the rest.
Xochitl Gonzalez at The Atlantic (gift link): Brad Lander’s Stand. Defending liberty is a messy business.
As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. They arrested him anyway.
The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the one where Donald Trump was convicted last year of 34 felony crimes for falsifying business records. His supporters painted the criminal-justice process as a politically motivated witch hunt. But none of them seems to mind now that masked ICE agents are lurking behind corners in the halls of justice to snatch up undocumented migrants who show up for their hearings. This was not the first time Lander had accompanied someone to the courthouse, and it wouldn’t be his last.
Sharyn bursic, Lady on Couch with Cat
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Lander had been “arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” The whole thing is on video, so anyone can see that there was no assault. Lander is about as mild-mannered a politician as they come. Matt Welch, a libertarian blogger and no fan of Lander, wrote on X that the only things Lander had ever assaulted were “Coney Island hot dogs and school-zone speed limits.” He’s the kind of old-fashioned elected official who doesn’t much exist anymore, the kind you see at public-library events or can call when your kid’s day care is shut down and know he’ll actually do something about it. A different kind of politician would have milked the attention for all it was worth. But if Brad Lander were a different kind of politician, he might be first and not third in the polls. “I did not come today expecting to be arrested,” he told reporters after being released. “But I really think I failed today, because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.”
More link him, please.
People who are used to living in a democracy tend to find it unsettling when elected officials are arrested, or thrown to the ground and handcuffed for asking questions at press conferences. They don’t like to see elected officials indicted for trying to intervene in the arrest of other elected officials. And they find it traumatizing when, as has been happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere, they see law-abiding neighbors and co-workers they’ve known for years grabbed and deported.
The question now is what Americans are going to do about it.
Los Angeles has offered one model of response. Although Trump campaigned on finding and deporting undocumented criminals, in order to hit aggressive quotas, ICE has changed its tactics and started barging into workplaces. Citizens have reported being detained simply because they look Hispanic. Residents of one Latino neighborhood recorded ICE officers driving in an armored vehicle. Many residents felt that the raids were an invasion by the president’s personal storm troopers, and marched into the streets in response.
The first groups of protesters were organized by unions, but soon, other Angelenos—of many ages and backgrounds—joined them. Most of the protesters were peaceful, chanting and marching and performing mariachi around federal buildings in downtown L.A. But others were not. They defaced buildings with graffiti and summoned Waymos, the driverless taxis, in order to set them on fire.
Of course right-wingers reacted predictably, blaming Democrats. But what explains the reactions from some Democrats and journalists?
I would have thought that the reaction to the protests from anyone outside the MAGAverse would have been pretty uniform. Democrats have been warning Americans for years about Trump’s descent into authoritarianism. Now it is happening—the deportations, the arrests, the president’s face on banners across government buildings, the tank parade. “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said. And yet, so many Democratic leaders, public intellectuals, and members of the media seemed distinctly uneasy about the protests. Yes, they seem to say, ICE has been acting illegally, but what about the Waymos?
In The Washington Post, David Ignatius fretted about protesters waving Mexican flags and wondered if the “activists” were actually working for Trump. Democratic leaders were “worried the confrontation elevates a losing issue for the party,” The New York Times reported. Politico raised a more cynical question: “Which Party Should Be More Worried About the Politics of the LA Protests?”
Many Democrats denounced vandalism while supporting the right to protest. But the Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was harsh in his criticism of the protesters, lamenting that the random acts of violence and property damage by a few bad actors would cause Democrats to lose the “moral high ground.”
There is a time for politicians to fine-tune a message for maximum appeal. But this is a case of actual public outrage against the trampling of inalienable rights. This is not a fight for the moral high ground; this is a fight against authoritarianism.
Use the gift link to read the entire article.
That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?
#authoritarianism #BradLander #Democrats #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #JDVance #LosAngles #RasBaraka #SenAlexPadilla
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TomWaitsAWeek | Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985, US)
Today’s spotlight is on number 315 on The List, and the second in our #TomWaitsAWeek feature. Fun fact: Rain Dogs album was the most repeated submission when we were first compiling The List, with something like 5+ people submitting it at the same time;[1] CliftonR was the first to get in their vote, so they get the attribution. I’m going to apologize right off that bat to those 5+ people and anyone else who knows how great this album is – while Rain Dogs absolutely deserves its own dedicated and lengthy spotlight, it essentially shares this one with the 4 albums that preceded it and the 3 that came after. For that matter, each album mentioned here deserves its own spotlight. Alas, more Waits is better than less, so let’s not wait any longer and dig in…
Yesterday’s listening schedule[2] for #TomWaitsAWeek included some huge shifts in Tom Waits’ sound and life. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) are perhaps not too far away from the preceding Small Change, albeit with amped up cinematic vibes, more strings, the first swapping of the piano for an electric guitar, and the first appearance (in “$29.00”) of what will become Waits’ signature drunk howl (thanks to satsuma for that phrase!). Foreign Affairs is also the first album that makes me picture the eyes closed/eyebrows raised/can’t lose face Waits often pulls while singing, though I’m sure it was there in the earlier albums (if not the recording, then definitely the live performances). Then, with Heartattack and Vine (1980), suddenly we are in electric guitar-based R&B territory, the sound seeming to move from a bar corner to a proper stage. But, perhaps most importantly, we catch a completely smitten Waits singing a seemingly non-Waits lyric – “sha-la-la-la-la-la”, in “Jersey Girl”. The girl? One Kathleen Brennan, who would impact Waits and his sound immensely, from one wonderful day forward.
Waits wrote Heartattack and Vine while taking a break from writing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981), on the set of which he re-met Brennan, who he had first met while filming Sylvester Stallone’s Paradise Alley (1978; Waits’ film debut). It apparently was love at second sight – the two were engaged within a week, and married the month before Heartattack was released.
Waits has apparently said of Brennan that he didn’t just marry a wife, but also a record collection. Brennan introduced Waits to a bunch of new music, perhaps the most influential to his own evolving sound being Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch (who made his own instruments). With the life changes and Brennan’s encouragement, Waits also changed managers and producers – to himself and Brennan – and used the opportunity to, essentially, reinvent himself. Thus we have the absolute masterpiece that is Swordfishtrombones (1983), the first of Waits’ experimental era – the first Waits’ album to not feature saxophone, the first to have marimba (and various eclectic instruments), and, really, the first to have music that finally seems to live in the same postal code as the vocals. It’s weird, it’s whacky, it’s what most now likely consider pure Waits. It should be in every record collection, and should have it’s own full blog (like, an entire blog, not just a blog post) dissecting every second of it. Also, it was released on my day of birth, which gives it extra bonus points from me.
Swordfishtrombones is the beginning of a loose trilogy of albums, the second of which is technically the subject of this spotlight (and our first album in today’s listening schedule): Rain Dogs. While continuing along the lines of Swordfishtrombones plus adding in the plethora of new influences and experiences that came with Waits’ and Brennan’s move to New York City (including Waits’ growing filmography), Rain Dogs also brings back in all the best things of the pre-Brennan albums (including some of that country rock twang from Closing Time, in “Blind Love”). It’s a ‘best of’ bag of Waits’ tricks, if you will, but notably less whisky-soaked. The result is a couple of surprisingly rather radio-friendly tunes (well, alternative radio, at any rate) including “Hang Down Your Head” (the first tune co-written with Brennan), as well as some cinema-friendly tunes, with songs from the album bookending the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986; which Waits also starred in). And, another super duper (not really) important thing that really stands out, to me at least: end-of-song FADE OUTS. Perhaps they were in previous Waits albums, but for some reason these are the first I recall, enough to point out, lol. Anyway, and again, it deserves more than the cursory glance here, so be sure to give it a few spins and gather your own thoughts about it. Whether it was the fade outs, the film cred, or just people knowing what’s what, it’s not hard to see why this album made and continues to make a number of lists, including the “official” 1001 list.
Following Rain Dogs, we get Franks Wild Years (1987), the last in the trilogy and thus another album in a similar vein. This album continues the story of one Frank, first seen in Swordfishtrombones‘ track of the same name (well, with the grammatically correct apostrophe), via songs first written (some co-written by Brennan) for a play. The real standout for me on this album – and, as far as I can remember, my first introduction to Waits – is the spectacular “Way Down in the Hole”, which was used/covered for The Wire‘s theme song. My advice? Get the entire trilogy and listen to all of them in a row, a few times over, as their own separate #TomWaitsAWeek. And then, for bonus marks, check out all the cover versions done for The Wire, if you haven’t already. For myself, I haven’t yet devoted enough time to Franks, so I’m planning on getting a lot more spins in soon.
The last two albums on our listening schedule today carry on the experimentation of the Sword/Rain/Franks trilogy, albeit with different vibes. On Bone Machine (1992), perhaps it’s because of the title but I can’t help but hear some Pixies vibes, also some Leonard Cohen vibes (“Black Wings”) – in other words, there’s a LOT of different stuff going on in this one. Again, it deserves it’s own spotlight, and more than a quick spin. And then, The Black Rider (1993) is another play-to-album collection of songs, the play in question co-written by none other than William S. Burroughs and directed by Robert Wilson (perhaps known by many as Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach). Waits will very soon again collaborate with Wilson on what becomes Alice and Blood Money (both 2002).
Alice is the third and last Waits album we have in The List, and is one of the albums in tomorrow’s listening schedule (along with Blood Money). Because I’m only human I won’t have its spotlight ready prior to listening, but we’ll meet back here on Friday to discuss it, and cap off our #TomWaitsAWeek.
Until then, I hope you don’t have to wait to listen to more Waits!
[1]Apologies for the wishy-washy data, but I only tracked the first time an album was submitted, so this is going off my shoddy memory of how many times I replied “already added!” to people. I do remember with certainty that SpaceAce was one of those people, btw.
[2]For those wanting to listen through the discography with us, here’s what is left in the schedule, of studio albums plus the Orphans box set (any live/soundtrack/etc. albums are extracurricular!): Wednesday – Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, The Black Rider; Thursday – Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone; Friday – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Bad as Me#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #experimental #experimentalRock #KathleenBrennan #ListenToThis #musicDiscovery #Musodon #TomWaits #TomWaitsAWeek
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TomWaitsAWeek | Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985, US)
Today’s spotlight is on number 315 on The List, and the second in our #TomWaitsAWeek feature. Fun fact: Rain Dogs album was the most repeated submission when we were first compiling The List, with something like 5+ people submitting it at the same time;[1] CliftonR was the first to get in their vote, so they get the attribution. I’m going to apologize right off that bat to those 5+ people and anyone else who knows how great this album is – while Rain Dogs absolutely deserves its own dedicated and lengthy spotlight, it essentially shares this one with the 4 albums that preceded it and the 3 that came after. For that matter, each album mentioned here deserves its own spotlight. Alas, more Waits is better than less, so let’s not wait any longer and dig in…
Yesterday’s listening schedule[2] for #TomWaitsAWeek included some huge shifts in Tom Waits’ sound and life. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) are perhaps not too far away from the preceding Small Change, albeit with amped up cinematic vibes, more strings, the first swapping of the piano for an electric guitar, and the first appearance (in “$29.00”) of what will become Waits’ signature drunk howl (thanks to satsuma for that phrase!). Foreign Affairs is also the first album that makes me picture the eyes closed/eyebrows raised/can’t lose face Waits often pulls while singing, though I’m sure it was there in the earlier albums (if not the recording, then definitely the live performances). Then, with Heartattack and Vine (1980), suddenly we are in electric guitar-based R&B territory, the sound seeming to move from a bar corner to a proper stage. But, perhaps most importantly, we catch a completely smitten Waits singing a seemingly non-Waits lyric – “sha-la-la-la-la-la”, in “Jersey Girl”. The girl? One Kathleen Brennan, who would impact Waits and his sound immensely, from one wonderful day forward.
Waits wrote Heartattack and Vine while taking a break from writing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981), on the set of which he re-met Brennan, who he had first met while filming Sylvester Stallone’s Paradise Alley (1978; Waits’ film debut). It apparently was love at second sight – the two were engaged within a week, and married the month before Heartattack was released.
Waits has apparently said of Brennan that he didn’t just marry a wife, but also a record collection. Brennan introduced Waits to a bunch of new music, perhaps the most influential to his own evolving sound being Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch (who made his own instruments). With the life changes and Brennan’s encouragement, Waits also changed managers and producers – to himself and Brennan – and used the opportunity to, essentially, reinvent himself. Thus we have the absolute masterpiece that is Swordfishtrombones (1983), the first of Waits’ experimental era – the first Waits’ album to not feature saxophone, the first to have marimba (and various eclectic instruments), and, really, the first to have music that finally seems to live in the same postal code as the vocals. It’s weird, it’s whacky, it’s what most now likely consider pure Waits. It should be in every record collection, and should have it’s own full blog (like, an entire blog, not just a blog post) dissecting every second of it. Also, it was released on my day of birth, which gives it extra bonus points from me.
Swordfishtrombones is the beginning of a loose trilogy of albums, the second of which is technically the subject of this spotlight (and our first album in today’s listening schedule): Rain Dogs. While continuing along the lines of Swordfishtrombones plus adding in the plethora of new influences and experiences that came with Waits’ and Brennan’s move to New York City (including Waits’ growing filmography), Rain Dogs also brings back in all the best things of the pre-Brennan albums (including some of that country rock twang from Closing Time, in “Blind Love”). It’s a ‘best of’ bag of Waits’ tricks, if you will, but notably less whisky-soaked. The result is a couple of surprisingly rather radio-friendly tunes (well, alternative radio, at any rate) including “Hang Down Your Head” (the first tune co-written with Brennan), as well as some cinema-friendly tunes, with songs from the album bookending the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986; which Waits also starred in). And, another super duper (not really) important thing that really stands out, to me at least: end-of-song FADE OUTS. Perhaps they were in previous Waits albums, but for some reason these are the first I recall, enough to point out, lol. Anyway, and again, it deserves more than the cursory glance here, so be sure to give it a few spins and gather your own thoughts about it. Whether it was the fade outs, the film cred, or just people knowing what’s what, it’s not hard to see why this album made and continues to make a number of lists, including the “official” 1001 list.
Following Rain Dogs, we get Franks Wild Years (1987), the last in the trilogy and thus another album in a similar vein. This album continues the story of one Frank, first seen in Swordfishtrombones‘ track of the same name (well, with the grammatically correct apostrophe), via songs first written (some co-written by Brennan) for a play. The real standout for me on this album – and, as far as I can remember, my first introduction to Waits – is the spectacular “Way Down in the Hole”, which was used/covered for The Wire‘s theme song. My advice? Get the entire trilogy and listen to all of them in a row, a few times over, as their own separate #TomWaitsAWeek. And then, for bonus marks, check out all the cover versions done for The Wire, if you haven’t already. For myself, I haven’t yet devoted enough time to Franks, so I’m planning on getting a lot more spins in soon.
The last two albums on our listening schedule today carry on the experimentation of the Sword/Rain/Franks trilogy, albeit with different vibes. On Bone Machine (1992), perhaps it’s because of the title but I can’t help but hear some Pixies vibes, also some Leonard Cohen vibes (“Black Wings”) – in other words, there’s a LOT of different stuff going on in this one. Again, it deserves it’s own spotlight, and more than a quick spin. And then, The Black Rider (1993) is another play-to-album collection of songs, the play in question co-written by none other than William S. Burroughs and directed by Robert Wilson (perhaps known by many as Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach). Waits will very soon again collaborate with Wilson on what becomes Alice and Blood Money (both 2002).
Alice is the third and last Waits album we have in The List, and is one of the albums in tomorrow’s listening schedule (along with Blood Money). Because I’m only human I won’t have its spotlight ready prior to listening, but we’ll meet back here on Friday to discuss it, and cap off our #TomWaitsAWeek.
Until then, I hope you don’t have to wait to listen to more Waits!
[1]Apologies for the wishy-washy data, but I only tracked the first time an album was submitted, so this is going off my shoddy memory of how many times I replied “already added!” to people. I do remember with certainty that SpaceAce was one of those people, btw.
[2]For those wanting to listen through the discography with us, here’s what is left in the schedule, of studio albums plus the Orphans box set (any live/soundtrack/etc. albums are extracurricular!): Wednesday – Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, The Black Rider; Thursday – Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone; Friday – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Bad as Me#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #experimental #experimentalRock #KathleenBrennan #ListenToThis #musicDiscovery #Musodon #TomWaits #TomWaitsAWeek
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TomWaitsAWeek | Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985, US)
Today’s spotlight is on number 315 on The List, and the second in our #TomWaitsAWeek feature. Fun fact: Rain Dogs album was the most repeated submission when we were first compiling The List, with something like 5+ people submitting it at the same time;1 CliftonR was the first to get in their vote, so they get the attribution. I’m going to apologize right off that bat to those 5+ people and anyone else who knows how great this album is – while Rain Dogs absolutely deserves its own dedicated and lengthy spotlight, it essentially shares this one with the 4 albums that preceded it and the 3 that came after. For that matter, each album mentioned here deserves its own spotlight. Alas, more Waits is better than less, so let’s not wait any longer and dig in…
Yesterday’s listening schedule2 for #TomWaitsAWeek included some huge shifts in Tom Waits’ sound and life. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) are perhaps not too far away from the preceding Small Change, albeit with amped up cinematic vibes, more strings, the first swapping of the piano for an electric guitar, and the first appearance (in “$29.00”) of what will become Waits’ signature drunk howl (thanks to satsuma for that phrase!). Foreign Affairs is also the first album that makes me picture the eyes closed/eyebrows raised/can’t lose face Waits often pulls while singing, though I’m sure it was there in the earlier albums (if not the recording, then definitely the live performances). Then, with Heartattack and Vine (1980), suddenly we are in electric guitar-based R&B territory, the sound seeming to move from a bar corner to a proper stage. But, perhaps most importantly, we catch a completely smitten Waits singing a seemingly non-Waits lyric – “sha-la-la-la-la-la”, in “Jersey Girl”. The girl? One Kathleen Brennan, who would impact Waits and his sound immensely, from one wonderful day forward.
Waits wrote Heartattack and Vine while taking a break from writing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981), on the set of which he re-met Brennan, who he had first met while filming Sylvester Stallone’s Paradise Alley (1978; Waits’ film debut). It apparently was love at second sight – the two were engaged within a week, and married the month before Heartattack was released.
Waits has apparently said of Brennan that he didn’t just marry a wife, but also a record collection. Brennan introduced Waits to a bunch of new music, perhaps the most influential to his own evolving sound being Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch (who made his own instruments). With the life changes and Brennan’s encouragement, Waits also changed managers and producers – to himself and Brennan – and used the opportunity to, essentially, reinvent himself. Thus we have the absolute masterpiece that is Swordfishtrombones (1983), the first of Waits’ experimental era – the first Waits’ album to not feature saxophone, the first to have marimba (and various eclectic instruments), and, really, the first to have music that finally seems to live in the same postal code as the vocals. It’s weird, it’s whacky, it’s what most now likely consider pure Waits. It should be in every record collection, and should have it’s own full blog (like, an entire blog, not just a blog post) dissecting every second of it. Also, it was released on my day of birth, which gives it extra bonus points from me.
Swordfishtrombones is the beginning of a loose trilogy of albums, the second of which is technically the subject of this spotlight (and our first album in today’s listening schedule): Rain Dogs. While continuing along the lines of Swordfishtrombones plus adding in the plethora of new influences and experiences that came with Waits’ and Brennan’s move to New York City (including Waits’ growing filmography), Rain Dogs also brings back in all the best things of the pre-Brennan albums (including some of that country rock twang from Closing Time, in “Blind Love”). It’s a ‘best of’ bag of Waits’ tricks, if you will, minus the whisky. The result is a couple of surprisingly rather radio-friendly tunes (well, alternative radio, at any rate) including “Hang Down Your Head” (the first tune co-written with Brennan), as well as some cinema-friendly tunes, with songs from the album bookending the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986; which Waits also starred in). And, another super duper (not really) important thing that really stands out, to me at least: end-of-song FADE OUTS. Perhaps they were in previous Waits albums, but for some reason these are the first I recall, enough to point out, lol. Anyway, and again, it deserves more than the cursory glance here, so be sure to give it a few spins and gather your own thoughts about it. Whether it was the fadeouts, the film cred, or just people knowing what’s what, it’s not hard to see why this album made and continues to make a number of lists, including the “official” 1001 list.
Following Rain Dogs, we get Franks Wild Years (1987), the last in the trilogy and thus another album in a similar vein. This album continues the story of one Frank, first seen in Swordfishtrombones‘ track of the same name (well, with the grammatically correct apostrophe), via songs first written (some co-written by Brennan) for a play. The real standout for me on this album – and, as far as I can remember, my first introduction to Waits – is the spectacular “Way Down in the Hole”, which was used/covered for The Wire‘s theme song. My advice? Get the entire trilogy and listen to all of them in a row, a few times over, as their own separate #TomWaitsAWeek. And then, for bonus marks, check out all the cover versions done for The Wire, if you haven’t already. For myself, I haven’t yet devoted enough time to this Franks, so I’m planning on getting a lot more spins in soon.
The last two albums on our listening schedule today carry on the experimentation of the Sword/Rain/Franks trilogy, albeit with different vibes. On Bone Machine (1992), perhaps it’s because of the title but I can’t help but hear some Pixies vibes, also some Leonard Cohen vibes (“Black Wings”) – in other words, there’s a LOT of different stuff going on in this one. Again, it deserves it’s own spotlight, and more than a quick spin. And then, The Black Rider (1993) is another play-to-album collection of songs, the play in question co-written by none other than William S. Burroughs and directed by Robert Wilson (perhaps known by many as Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach). Waits will very soon again collaborate with Wilson on what becomes two of the albums in tomorrow’s listening schedule, Alice and Blood Money (both 2002).
Alice is part of tomorrow’s listening schedule, and is the third Waits album we have in The List. Because I’m only human I won’t have its spotlight ready prior to listening, but we’ll meet back here on Friday to discuss it, and cap off our #TomWaitsAWeek.
Until then, I hope you don’t have to wait to listen to more Waits!
1Apologies for the wishy-washy data, but I only tracked the first time an album was submitted, so this is going off my shoddy memory of how many times I replied “already added!” to people. I do remember with certainty that SpaceAce was one of those people, btw.
2For those wanting to listen through the discography with us, here’s what is left in the schedule, of studio albums plus the Orphans box set (any live/soundtrack/etc. albums are extracurricular!): Wednesday – Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, The Black Rider; Thursday – Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone; Friday – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Bad as Me#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #experimental #experimentalRock #KathleenBrennan #ListenToThis #musicDiscovery #Musodon #TomWaits #TomWaitsAWeek
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TomWaitsAWeek | Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985, US)
Today’s spotlight is on number 315 on The List, and the second in our #TomWaitsAWeek feature. Fun fact: Rain Dogs album was the most repeated submission when we were first compiling The List, with something like 5+ people submitting it at the same time;[1] CliftonR was the first to get in their vote, so they get the attribution. I’m going to apologize right off that bat to those 5+ people and anyone else who knows how great this album is – while Rain Dogs absolutely deserves its own dedicated and lengthy spotlight, it essentially shares this one with the 4 albums that preceded it and the 3 that came after. For that matter, each album mentioned here deserves its own spotlight. Alas, more Waits is better than less, so let’s not wait any longer and dig in…
Yesterday’s listening schedule[2] for #TomWaitsAWeek included some huge shifts in Tom Waits’ sound and life. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) are perhaps not too far away from the preceding Small Change, albeit with amped up cinematic vibes, more strings, the first swapping of the piano for an electric guitar, and the first appearance (in “$29.00”) of what will become Waits’ signature drunk howl (thanks to satsuma for that phrase!). Foreign Affairs is also the first album that makes me picture the eyes closed/eyebrows raised/can’t lose face Waits often pulls while singing, though I’m sure it was there in the earlier albums (if not the recording, then definitely the live performances). Then, with Heartattack and Vine (1980), suddenly we are in electric guitar-based R&B territory, the sound seeming to move from a bar corner to a proper stage. But, perhaps most importantly, we catch a completely smitten Waits singing a seemingly non-Waits lyric – “sha-la-la-la-la-la”, in “Jersey Girl”. The girl? One Kathleen Brennan, who would impact Waits and his sound immensely, from one wonderful day forward.
Waits wrote Heartattack and Vine while taking a break from writing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981), on the set of which he re-met Brennan, who he had first met while filming Sylvester Stallone’s Paradise Alley (1978; Waits’ film debut). It apparently was love at second sight – the two were engaged within a week, and married the month before Heartattack was released.
Waits has apparently said of Brennan that he didn’t just marry a wife, but also a record collection. Brennan introduced Waits to a bunch of new music, perhaps the most influential to his own evolving sound being Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch (who made his own instruments). With the life changes and Brennan’s encouragement, Waits also changed managers and producers – to himself and Brennan – and used the opportunity to, essentially, reinvent himself. Thus we have the absolute masterpiece that is Swordfishtrombones (1983), the first of Waits’ experimental era – the first Waits’ album to not feature saxophone, the first to have marimba (and various eclectic instruments), and, really, the first to have music that finally seems to live in the same postal code as the vocals. It’s weird, it’s whacky, it’s what most now likely consider pure Waits. It should be in every record collection, and should have it’s own full blog (like, an entire blog, not just a blog post) dissecting every second of it. Also, it was released on my day of birth, which gives it extra bonus points from me.
Swordfishtrombones is the beginning of a loose trilogy of albums, the second of which is technically the subject of this spotlight (and our first album in today’s listening schedule): Rain Dogs. While continuing along the lines of Swordfishtrombones plus adding in the plethora of new influences and experiences that came with Waits’ and Brennan’s move to New York City (including Waits’ growing filmography), Rain Dogs also brings back in all the best things of the pre-Brennan albums (including some of that country rock twang from Closing Time, in “Blind Love”). It’s a ‘best of’ bag of Waits’ tricks, if you will, but notably less whisky-soaked. The result is a couple of surprisingly rather radio-friendly tunes (well, alternative radio, at any rate) including “Hang Down Your Head” (the first tune co-written with Brennan), as well as some cinema-friendly tunes, with songs from the album bookending the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986; which Waits also starred in). And, another super duper (not really) important thing that really stands out, to me at least: end-of-song FADE OUTS. Perhaps they were in previous Waits albums, but for some reason these are the first I recall, enough to point out, lol. Anyway, and again, it deserves more than the cursory glance here, so be sure to give it a few spins and gather your own thoughts about it. Whether it was the fade outs, the film cred, or just people knowing what’s what, it’s not hard to see why this album made and continues to make a number of lists, including the “official” 1001 list.
Following Rain Dogs, we get Franks Wild Years (1987), the last in the trilogy and thus another album in a similar vein. This album continues the story of one Frank, first seen in Swordfishtrombones‘ track of the same name (well, with the grammatically correct apostrophe), via songs first written (some co-written by Brennan) for a play. The real standout for me on this album – and, as far as I can remember, my first introduction to Waits – is the spectacular “Way Down in the Hole”, which was used/covered for The Wire‘s theme song. My advice? Get the entire trilogy and listen to all of them in a row, a few times over, as their own separate #TomWaitsAWeek. And then, for bonus marks, check out all the cover versions done for The Wire, if you haven’t already. For myself, I haven’t yet devoted enough time to Franks, so I’m planning on getting a lot more spins in soon.
The last two albums on our listening schedule today carry on the experimentation of the Sword/Rain/Franks trilogy, albeit with different vibes. On Bone Machine (1992), perhaps it’s because of the title but I can’t help but hear some Pixies vibes, also some Leonard Cohen vibes (“Black Wings”) – in other words, there’s a LOT of different stuff going on in this one. Again, it deserves it’s own spotlight, and more than a quick spin. And then, The Black Rider (1993) is another play-to-album collection of songs, the play in question co-written by none other than William S. Burroughs and directed by Robert Wilson (perhaps known by many as Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach). Waits will very soon again collaborate with Wilson on what becomes Alice and Blood Money (both 2002).
Alice is the third and last Waits album we have in The List, and is one of the albums in tomorrow’s listening schedule (along with Blood Money). Because I’m only human I won’t have its spotlight ready prior to listening, but we’ll meet back here on Friday to discuss it, and cap off our #TomWaitsAWeek.
Until then, I hope you don’t have to wait to listen to more Waits!
[1]Apologies for the wishy-washy data, but I only tracked the first time an album was submitted, so this is going off my shoddy memory of how many times I replied “already added!” to people. I do remember with certainty that SpaceAce was one of those people, btw.
[2]For those wanting to listen through the discography with us, here’s what is left in the schedule, of studio albums plus the Orphans box set (any live/soundtrack/etc. albums are extracurricular!): Wednesday – Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, The Black Rider; Thursday – Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone; Friday – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Bad as Me#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #experimental #experimentalRock #KathleenBrennan #ListenToThis #musicDiscovery #Musodon #TomWaits #TomWaitsAWeek
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TomWaitsAWeek | Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985, US)
Today’s spotlight is on number 315 on The List, and the second in our #TomWaitsAWeek feature. Fun fact: Rain Dogs album was the most repeated submission when we were first compiling The List, with something like 5+ people submitting it at the same time;1 CliftonR was the first to get in their vote, so they get the attribution. I’m going to apologize right off that bat to those 5+ people and anyone else who knows how great this album is – while Rain Dogs absolutely deserves its own dedicated and lengthy spotlight, it essentially shares this one with the 4 albums that preceded it and the 3 that came after. For that matter, each album mentioned here deserves its own spotlight. Alas, more Waits is better than less, so let’s not wait any longer and dig in…
Yesterday’s listening schedule2 for #TomWaitsAWeek included some huge shifts in Tom Waits’ sound and life. Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978) are perhaps not too far away from the preceding Small Change, albeit with amped up cinematic vibes, more strings, the first swapping of the piano for an electric guitar, and the first appearance (in “$29.00”) of what will become Waits’ signature drunk howl (thanks to satsuma for that phrase!). Foreign Affairs is also the first album that makes me picture the eyes closed/eyebrows raised/can’t lose face Waits often pulls while singing, though I’m sure it was there in the earlier albums (if not the recording, then definitely the live performances). Then, with Heartattack and Vine (1980), suddenly we are in electric guitar-based R&B territory, the sound seeming to move from a bar corner to a proper stage. But, perhaps most importantly, we catch a completely smitten Waits singing a seemingly non-Waits lyric – “sha-la-la-la-la-la”, in “Jersey Girl”. The girl? One Kathleen Brennan, who would impact Waits and his sound immensely, from one wonderful day forward.
Waits wrote Heartattack and Vine while taking a break from writing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1981), on the set of which he re-met Brennan, who he had first met while filming Sylvester Stallone’s Paradise Alley (1978; Waits’ film debut). It apparently was love at second sight – the two were engaged within a week, and married the month before Heartattack was released.
Waits has apparently said of Brennan that he didn’t just marry a wife, but also a record collection. Brennan introduced Waits to a bunch of new music, perhaps the most influential to his own evolving sound being Captain Beefheart and composer Harry Partch (who made his own instruments). With the life changes and Brennan’s encouragement, Waits also changed managers and producers – to himself and Brennan – and used the opportunity to, essentially, reinvent himself. Thus we have the absolute masterpiece that is Swordfishtrombones (1983), the first of Waits’ experimental era – the first Waits’ album to not feature saxophone, the first to have marimba (and various eclectic instruments), and, really, the first to have music that finally seems to live in the same postal code as the vocals. It’s weird, it’s whacky, it’s what most now likely consider pure Waits. It should be in every record collection, and should have it’s own full blog (like, an entire blog, not just a blog post) dissecting every second of it. Also, it was released on my day of birth, which gives it extra bonus points from me.
Swordfishtrombones is the beginning of a loose trilogy of albums, the second of which is technically the subject of this spotlight (and our first album in today’s listening schedule): Rain Dogs. While continuing along the lines of Swordfishtrombones plus adding in the plethora of new influences and experiences that came with Waits’ and Brennan’s move to New York City (including Waits’ growing filmography), Rain Dogs also brings back in all the best things of the pre-Brennan albums (including some of that country rock twang from Closing Time, in “Blind Love”). It’s a ‘best of’ bag of Waits’ tricks, if you will, minus the whisky. The result is a couple of surprisingly rather radio-friendly tunes (well, alternative radio, at any rate) including “Hang Down Your Head” (the first tune co-written with Brennan), as well as some cinema-friendly tunes, with songs from the album bookending the soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986; which Waits also starred in). And, another super duper (not really) important thing that really stands out, to me at least: end-of-song FADE OUTS. Perhaps they were in previous Waits albums, but for some reason these are the first I recall, enough to point out, lol. Anyway, and again, it deserves more than the cursory glance here, so be sure to give it a few spins and gather your own thoughts about it. Whether it was the fadeouts, the film cred, or just people knowing what’s what, it’s not hard to see why this album made and continues to make a number of lists, including the “official” 1001 list.
Following Rain Dogs, we get Franks Wild Years (1987), the last in the trilogy and thus another album in a similar vein. This album continues the story of one Frank, first seen in Swordfishtrombones‘ track of the same name (well, with the grammatically correct apostrophe), via songs first written (some co-written by Brennan) for a play. The real standout for me on this album – and, as far as I can remember, my first introduction to Waits – is the spectacular “Way Down in the Hole”, which was used/covered for The Wire‘s theme song. My advice? Get the entire trilogy and listen to all of them in a row, a few times over, as their own separate #TomWaitsAWeek. And then, for bonus marks, check out all the cover versions done for The Wire, if you haven’t already. For myself, I haven’t yet devoted enough time to this Franks, so I’m planning on getting a lot more spins in soon.
The last two albums on our listening schedule today carry on the experimentation of the Sword/Rain/Franks trilogy, albeit with different vibes. On Bone Machine (1992), perhaps it’s because of the title but I can’t help but hear some Pixies vibes, also some Leonard Cohen vibes (“Black Wings”) – in other words, there’s a LOT of different stuff going on in this one. Again, it deserves it’s own spotlight, and more than a quick spin. And then, The Black Rider (1993) is another play-to-album collection of songs, the play in question co-written by none other than William S. Burroughs and directed by Robert Wilson (perhaps known by many as Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach). Waits will very soon again collaborate with Wilson on what becomes two of the albums in tomorrow’s listening schedule, Alice and Blood Money (both 2002).
Alice is part of tomorrow’s listening schedule, and is the third Waits album we have in The List. Because I’m only human I won’t have its spotlight ready prior to listening, but we’ll meet back here on Friday to discuss it, and cap off our #TomWaitsAWeek.
Until then, I hope you don’t have to wait to listen to more Waits!
1Apologies for the wishy-washy data, but I only tracked the first time an album was submitted, so this is going off my shoddy memory of how many times I replied “already added!” to people. I do remember with certainty that SpaceAce was one of those people, btw.
2For those wanting to listen through the discography with us, here’s what is left in the schedule, of studio albums plus the Orphans box set (any live/soundtrack/etc. albums are extracurricular!): Wednesday – Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, The Black Rider; Thursday – Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone; Friday – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Bad as Me#1001OtherAlbums #1980s #experimental #experimentalRock #KathleenBrennan #ListenToThis #musicDiscovery #Musodon #TomWaits #TomWaitsAWeek
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November 4 – 10
My “weeknotes” capture events, thoughts, and other items from the past week, mostly focused on work. Learn more about the weeknotes concept here.
One Thought : A prayer for federal digital teams
Photo by Anna Lowe on Pexels.comOver the past 3 years I’ve enjoyed getting to know federal programs associated with digital services, like USDS and 18F. I’ve seen lots of presentations about federal digital work and watched digital expansions into many more agencies and services. I’ve also read Recoding America with my team and we’re finishing up Hack Your Bureaucracy this month. So federal digital service looks pretty attractive—they have the resources to go big and the work done at the federal level impacts millions or even hundreds of millions of people.
But it’s not attractive anymore.
Elections have consequences
Trump’s election and his promises to gut all manner of federal programs—and install oligarchic sycophants into leadership roles for the programs that survive the purge—is a huge threat to all the human-centered digital service progress made in the past decade. I strongly suspect anyone that wants to join forces with federal teams to make a digital difference won’t seriously consider federal opportunities now. It’s just too risky.
Under Trump’s first administration there was progress on digital fronts, perhaps because it flew under the radar—work was still getting ramped up. But now, the digitization and simplification of IRS tax returns could be specifically targeted (just to name one effort). After all, if you’re the CEO of Intuit or H&R Block and you want American tax returns back in your clutches, all you have to do is praise Trump on Fox News, have a few meetings with his henchmen, make a few strategic “donations,” and *poof* the digital work done by the IRS, Code for America and others will at least stop, and may be reversed.
But even if the attacks on digital services aren’t that clear and direct, one can assume federal teams will fall into a malaise at best.
For now, I worry for—indeed I pray for—the federal digital teams out there and all the federal workers below the political appointee level. They deserve praise for the advancements of the last few years, but they really need protection from the ill effects of the next few years. Sadly, I have no idea how that protection might work. Even collective bargaining structures may be unable to withstand the coming assault.
Go State. Go Local.
As for those of us in local government, I suspect we will be insulated from the worst effects—at least in larger population centers that trend blue. I’m betting most of the trickle-down damage we sill will materialize in block grants to the States getting restricted or eliminated, thereby cutting into direct-to-public services. While general funds might also see some losses, I’m betting the impacts will be more targeted. And I suspect most digital teams are funded from general accounts, not federal grants.
Additionally, under the better State governments (like Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc.) digital programs are likely to be sustained or even expanded. These progressive states understand the benefits human-centered digital services can offer. They’ve hired aggressively in the past few years and are doing career-defining work.
So if you’re in a federal digital program, look beyond DC and scan the local and State space for great opportunities. We need your experience, expertise, and drive for results.
There are tons of places to find great jobs for digital practitioners (and I hope to offer a brief index soon), but I would start with my favorite: Rebecca Heywood’s #PublicSectorJobBoard — it is hand-curated from a highly-connected and dedicated expert in the field.
Stay safe out there, federal friends. We need your leadership. We need your excellent examples and resources. But we also need you to put your oxygen mask on first, before you assist others.
Five Notes
- As election results rolled in this week, the little snippet in the screenshot above hit my phone and I was fascinated. I hadn’t thought about how young people do not have stable, predictable signatures. But of course they don’t! We all sign very few things with pens anymore, but if you’re Gen Z you’ve probably signed fewer things in your entire lifetime than I have in the past 5 years. Signatures as a form of identity verification only work in a society filled with people that were taught cursive in school (I was) and signed a lot of papers over the years (I have). We’re going to have to find another verification method.
- Leadership is something I study every week via podcasts and articles. But one thing I’ve never heard expressed—but say often myself—is this idea: “Everybody wants to go to the party, but nobody wants to throw the party.” Leadership is throwing the party. I’ve been thinking about this as we wrap up our Hack Your Bureaucracy book club in a couple weeks. It’s been a ton of work, as all guided book clubs are. I’m pleased with how it’s turned out, and I think the assembled team has gotten some good stuff from it and from the time spent together. What surprises me, however, is that I’m the only one hosting a book club. It’s work, but it’s not magic. Anyone could do it. I hope other leaders will emerge one day—not necessarily by leading book clubs. But by “throwing the party,” in whatever form that may take.
- Congratulations to the Colorado Digital Service, a truly innovative program out west celebrating it’s first 5 years with an impressive impact report.
- To close colleagues at the office, and to my wife, I privately predicted a Harris / Walz win. A big win. I was wrong. Sorry. So very, very sorry.
- Thank you to many friends across the pond—like Matt Jukes—for their concerns in the wake of our election. Commentators in the UK were surprised, like some of us were, by the results. It’s good to have friends abroad these days. The Germans know what’s at stake (of course they do), and also had a thought…
One Video
One of my favorite things: People with YouTube channels that are ridiculously, hilariously, and infectiously over-committed to their passions, to the point where you start wondering why your “passions” are such weak tea by comparison. The Algorithm™ found me this video and I am bought in, wholesale. I want this guy to praise my taste in cars sooooo bad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXqDk1-yYjs
Five Laughs
One Photo
This is a shot up Front Street in downtown Columbus, on election night, before the polls closed. The smart-looking Art Deco building is the LeVeque Tower, a 1927 skyscraper that was the tallest building in Columbus until the 1970s.https://digitalpolity.com/2024/11/10/2024-weeknote-45-take-a-deep-breath-hold-4-years/
#PublicSectorJobBoard #18F #CDS #Colorado #ColoradoDigitalService #columbus #digital #election #federal #funnies #germany #HackYourBureaucracy #impact #innovation #internet #jukesie #Leadership #LeVeque #LeVequeTower #MattJukes #NewJersey #Pennsylvania #recodingAmerica #signatures #USDS
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Leo the Cancer
WHAT LEONARD LEO wants you to know about Leonard Leo, first and foremost, is that he is a Knight of Malta.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta ( #SMOM ) is a lay Catholic order that claims descent from the Knights Hospitaller, founded in Jerusalem in 1099, at the end of the First Crusade.
It’s an extremely selective group. Of the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, only 13,000 are Knights of Malta—although most of them don’t go around bragging about it.Leo, I’m told, is very proud of this honor.
First, because it demonstrates just how radically Catholic his radical Catholicism runs.
And second, because it speaks to his importance.
SMOM membership is the sort of status symbol that eluded him, growing up middle-class in the suburbs of New Jersey, where his high school classmates derisively nicknamed him “Moneybags.”
His mother and step-father weren’t blue bloods. He wasn’t some wealthy boarding school kid. Poor guy had to make due with Cornell instead of Harvard or Yale. He was a nobody.But look at him now! Leonard Leo, 56, has made himself one of the most powerful figures in the United States.
He’s put five—count ‘em, five!—justices on the Supreme Court:
Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Sam Alito, and John Roberts.
A sixth, Clarence Thomas, is one of his closest friends.And, perhaps most impressively, he quietly led the 2016 crusade to deny Merrick Garland a hearing, when Barack Obama nominated the highly-regarded jurist to replace the late Antonin Scalia (another of Leo’s pals).
In the lower courts, he’s been even busier. He’s installed so many judges on so many courts, it makes you wonder if he really is the instrument of God’s will he believes himself to be.
I mean, there are only three branches of government. One of those three—arguably the most important one—is Leonard Leo’s domain.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/leo-the-cancer -
“This Day in Hockey History – January 7th”
So many historical events happened in "The National" on January 7th, I can not possibly mention all of them. Of course, as almost everyday he took the ice, “The Great One" made his mark known on this day, twice. Go figure. The Flyers and Kings made the list twice as well.
1928 – The Habs Howie Morenz notched his 100th career goal to begin his hat trick in a 9-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.
1933 – According to one source, the first nation wide hockey broadcast was aired by the CBC (radio) on this day. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1. Nineteen years later, the first airing of the iconic “Hockey Night in Canada” took place on October 11th, 1952. This was my Saturday night delight as a kid in the early 70s, while I anxiously awaited the end of the “Tommy Hunter Show" for the puck to drop.
1968 – “The Golden Jet", Bobby Hull scored twice against the Boston Bruins’ Gerry Cheevers, making him only the fourth player in league history to achieve 400 career goals. Chicago defeated Esposito and the Bruins by a score of 4-2. He was dubbed “The Golden Jet" in a 1966 article because of his blonde hair and “lightning” speed. The name had nothing to do with his time as a member of the WHL's Winnipeg Jets. Did you see what I did there Jet’s fans. Chirp chirp.
1976 – In the LA Kings’ 5-2 win over the KC Scouts on January 7th, Bob Nevin achieved the 700 career points milestone in what would be his final NHL season. He won the 1962 and ’63 Stanley Cup Championship with the Leafs in his 1128 game career, in which he also played for the NY Rangers and Minnesota North Stars. The Kansas City Scouts moved to briefly become the Colorado Rockies, coached by Don Cherry in 1979-80. They are now the New Jersey Devils.
1979 – My man and first goaltender idol, Bernie Parent achieved his 54th career shutout on January 7th in a 3-0 blanking of the LA Kings. It would prove to be the last career shutout in this, his final season. This 1984 Hall of Fame inductee won two Vezina Trophies and a Con Smythe as MVP for his efforts in the Philadelphia Flyers’ back to back Cup conquests. I was removed from the ice as a kid goaltenders because I wore my handpainted Bernie mask complete with Flyer logos on each side, just like Parent’s. After dawning a cage mask, I was allowed to return to mind the net.
1980 – The longest undefeated streak in the history of North American sports, met it’s demise on January 7th against the Minnesota North Stars, as they ended the Flyers 35 game run without a loss. Bill Barber’s opening goal would be the only for Philly as MN scored seven unanswered. One source only, cited the final score as 9-2. Sorry Hockey Writers but, the final was 7-1. I guess there goes my chances of ever getting an article published with that great hockey news source.
1981 – Wayne Gretzky had two goals on two assists in a 6-3 victory over Washington to reach 200 points in just his 117th NHL game.
1984 – Gretzky had his 25th career hat trick and seventh of the season, also capturing his 5th consecutive 50-goal season in the Oliers 5-3 win against the Hartford Whalers.
1987 – Beloved St. Louis Blue, Bernie Federko was the first player in franchise history to score 300 career goals on January 7th versus the Hartford Whalers.
1999 – In his second stint as a King, Luc Robitaille was the 27th NHL player in the history of the game to score 500 carrer goals. His two goals on this day helped LA to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2.
2002 - No hockey piece would be complete without mentioning the three time, twice consecutive Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Defenseman, Dan Boyle was acquired by the Bolts for Tampa’s 2003, 5th round draft pick. He helped the team win their first Cup before spending several years on the blue line for the San Jose Sharks.
2004 - Anyone that has ever partolled the paint at any level of the game, would be remiss not to mention Brian Boucher amazing underdog achievement. This backup and once third stringer, would snatch his fouth consecutive shutout on January 7th, 2004 in service to the Arizona Coyotes. This short lived tie of Bill Durnan's 1949 accomplishment would be eclipsed by Boucher two days later, when set a new record gathering in his fifth consecutive shutout win. That record still stands.
That’s what happened on this day in hockey history, January 7th, in the greatest game on the planet.
By OutOfExile_IDR
Image courtesy of:
https://vintagesportsitems.com/products/copy-of-goalie-mask-bernie-parent-philadelphia-blazers-wha-1Thanks to @spelled_with_a_k for the hashtag list compilation
#GoBolts #BernieParent #ShoutOut #BrianBoucher #HockeyLegends #NHLJets #GoHabsGo #Smashville #NJDevils #Isles #NoQuitInNY #GoSensGo #FueledByPhilly #LetsGoPens #SharksTerritory #SeaKraken #STLBlues #LeafsForever #Canucks #VGK #ALLCAPS #NHL #STLBlues
@hockey @TheHockeyWriters @nhl @bostonbruinsgameday Thanks to @stanstallman for his very kind and encouraging words when they were needed most.
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A Dive into “Sanctuary,” Re: DOJ Grand Jury Subpoenas – A DWD Editorial, with Perplexity…
Editor’s Note: I prepared this, via my Perplexity AI, for my own information; and, I feel sharing may help others understand the complexities and legal and factual aspects on these actions by Trump’s DOJ/Noem.
I will include my comments below interlaced in green. Perplexity is a powerful tool, and has fact-checked the information herein. It can make mistakes, as we know. Let me know if you see any. I started with a simple prompt, and then it was extended several levels. So you can see my research process for this matter. Images herein are public domain creations, unless otherwise noted.–DrWeb
To address the core of the current tension between state and federal authorities, here are the fact-checked answers regarding the “sanctuary” designation:
1. Who designates a “Sanctuary”?
There is no single “official” arbiter of the term, as it is largely a political and administrative label rather than a fixed legal category. However, the term is currently used by three main groups:
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
the Department of Justice maintains a formal “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List.” As of late 2025 and early 2026, the DOJ designates jurisdictions based on whether their policies “materially impede” federal immigration enforcement. - The Jurisdictions Themselves: Many states (like California and Illinois) and cities (like Chicago and San Francisco) have explicitly self-identified as “sanctuaries” through executive orders or public resolutions to signal a policy of welcoming immigrants.
- Third-Party Advocacy Groups: Organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies (which tracks them to criticize the policy) or the American Immigration Council (which tracks them to support it) maintain their own tallies based on different criteria, such as
the refusal to honor ICE detainers.
Currently listed “Sanctuary States” by the DOJ (2026):
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.Editor’s Note: As you can see a bit further below, we explored “why” these states are targeted.
2. Is “Sanctuary” written into Law?
The word “sanctuary” itself is rarely used in the text of the actual laws because it is legally imprecise. Instead, the “sanctuary” status is the result of specific legislative or administrative codes:
- State Statutes: Laws like the California Values Act (SB 54) or the Illinois TRUST Act do not necessarily name the state a “sanctuary” in the title but codify the policy by prohibiting state and local resources from being used to assist in federal immigration
enforcement. - City Ordinances: Many cities have “Welcoming City” ordinances. For example, San Francisco’s “City and County of Refuge” Ordinance (Chapter 12H of the Administrative Code) prohibits city employees from using city funds or resources to assist ICE.
- Why the “Loaded” Word is Avoided: Legislators generally prefer functional language (e.g., “Non-cooperation with federal civil detainers”) to withstand legal challenges. Using the word “sanctuary” in a bill can make it harder to defend in court as it implies
“nullification” of federal law, which is unconstitutional.
3. Official Legal Definition and Status
There is no legal definition of “sanctuary” in the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes. * The Federal Conflict: While federal law (8 U.S.C. § 1373) prohibits local governments from
restricting the sharing of information about immigration status with federal authorities, the Supreme Court has limited how much the federal government can “commandeer” local resources.- The Constitutional “Anti-Commandeering” Doctrine: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court (notably in Printz v. United States) has ruled that the federal government cannot force state or local officials to administer federal regulatory programs. This is the legal “shield” that sanctuary cities use: they argue that while
they cannot stop ICE from doing its job, they cannot be forced to do ICE’s job for them. - Legal Status: A jurisdiction’s status as a “sanctuary” is essentially a state of passive non-compliance. It is legal for a city to refuse to hold someone in jail for ICE without a judicial warrant, but it is illegal for a city to actively hide someone or physically block federal agents (which would be “obstruction of justice” or “harboring”).
This distinction is exactly what the current DOJ investigation in Minneapolis is testing: whether the actions of Minnesota officials crossed the line from “legal non-cooperation” (10th Amendment) into “active obstruction” of federal agents.
Perplexity Comment: “That is an astute observation for a blog post. If you look at the
political map, there is a near-perfect correlation between the jurisdictions on the U.S. Sanctuary Jurisdiction List and “Blue” (Democratic-led) areas.”The Case of Nevada…
However, there is one significant and very recent exception—Nevada—which provides a fascinating case study in how a “Purple” or “Red-led” state navigates this list.
The Political Alignment
Perplexity Comment: “You are essentially correct: the DOJ list is composed almost exclusively of Democratic-led states.”
- The “Blue” Block: States like California, New York, Illinois, and Washington have institutionalized non-cooperation through state law.
- The “Red” Absence: Conversely, many “Red” states (such as Florida, Texas, and Iowa) have passed “Anti-Sanctuary” laws that mandate cooperation with ICE, making it legally impossible for their cities to be designated as sanctuaries by the DOJ.
The Case of Nevada (The Exception)
Nevada’s story is particularly relevant to current events. Nevada was initially placed on the DOJ’s Sanctuary Jurisdiction List in August 2025 due to “Model Immigration Policies” passed by its legislature in 2021.
- The Removal: On September 29, 2025, Nevada became the first and only state to be removed from the list after Republican
Republican Governor Joe Lombardo struck a deal with the DOJ. - The Deal: To get off the list, the Governor committed the state to:
- Rejoining the federal 287(g) program (which allows local police to act as immigration agents).
- Using the National Guard for administrative support in immigration enforcement.
- Agreeing to “counter-balance” any sanctuary policies passed by the (Democratic-controlled) state legislature.
Why this matters…
The DOJ list isn’t just a list of “who is a sanctuary”—it has become a list of “who is in conflict with the current administration.”
The fact that the list is almost entirely “Blue” while a Republican Governor in a “Purple” state (Nevada) successfully negotiated his way off it suggests that the designation is being used as a tool for federal leverage. The DOJ uses the list to justify cutting federal funding, which jurisdictions then challenge in court—creating the legal “war” we are seeing play out in Minneapolis today.
The primary mechanism used by the federal government to exert financial pressure on “sanctuary” jurisdictions is the withholding of federal law enforcement grants. The legal theory is that these funds are conditional on a jurisdiction’s cooperation with federal
immigration authorities.The Mechanism: The Byrne JAG Program
The most significant grant at the center of this conflict is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program. Named after a fallen NYPD officer, this is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. It supports everything from body-worn cameras and mental health programs to drug task forces and court technology.
Under the current administration’s policy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved to withhold these funds from jurisdictions that refuse to:
- Allow federal agents access to local correctional facilities.
- Provide 48 hours’ notice to ICE before releasing an individual of interest.
- Comply with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, which prohibits local governments from restricting the sharing of information about immigration status.
Summary of Targeted Jurisdictions
As of early 2026, the following jurisdictions have had Byrne JAG and
other public safety grants restricted or placed in “hold” status by
the DOJ:- California: The state and several major cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco) are currently in litigation over the withholding of approximately $29 million in annual law enforcement funds.
- Illinois: Chicago and the state government have seen holds on funds specifically designated for community violence intervention programs.
- New York: New York City faces the potential loss of over $4 million in direct JAG funding, along with restrictions on “Stonegarden” grants used for border and port security.
- Minnesota: Following the events in Minneapolis, the DOJ recently announced a “review and freeze” of over $6 million in law enforcement assistance grants for the Twin Cities area, citing the active grand jury investigation into state obstruction.
- Washington State: Seattle and King County are currently challenging the DOJ’s denial of grant applications for local police training and equipment.
The Status of Nevada
In contrast to the states above, Nevada is not currently facing these grant withholdings. Following the September 2025 agreement between the Governor and the federal government, the DOJ released approximately $2.1 million in previously stalled public safety funds. This makes Nevada the primary example of a state that successfully avoided “sanctuary” financial penalties by formalizing a cooperation agreement.
Sourcing & Legal Context
The authority for these withholdings stems from Executive Order 14287 (2025), which directs the Attorney General to ensure that “federal law enforcement grants are not provided to jurisdictions that willfully violate federal law or impede federal law enforcement.”
However, this remains a volatile legal area. The 10th Amendment and the “Anti-Commandeering Doctrine” established by the Supreme Court (e.g., NFIB v. Sebelius) suggest the federal government cannot use “gun to the head” tactics to force states into new
programs. Most of these cases are currently winding through federal appellate courts, with jurisdictions arguing that the DOJ cannot add “extra-statutory” conditions to money already appropriated by Congress.MLA Bibliography (Top Sources)
On the Minneapolis Case and Renée Good:
“Killing of Renée Good.” Wikipedia, 20 Jan. 2026,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Renée_Good. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota. “Attorney General Ellison and Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul Sue to Halt ICE Surge into Minnesota.” State of Minnesota, 12 Jan. 2026, http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/01/12_ICE.asp.On the Sanctuary List and Nevada’s Removal:
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “DOJ Publishes List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions.” AILA Doc. No. 25080506, 5 Aug. 2025, http://www.aila.org/library/doj-publishes-list-of-sanctuary-jurisdictions.
Office of the Governor. “DOJ and State of Nevada Sign Immigration Enforcement Agreement; Nevada Removed from ‘Sanctuary State’ List.” State of Nevada, 26 Sept. 2025, http://gov.nv.gov/Newsroom/PRs/2025/2025-09-26_doj_and_nevada_sign_immigration_enforcement_agreement/.
Aldrete, Isabella. “Nevada, DOJ Sign Immigration Enforcement Memo That Will Take State Off ‘Sanctuary’ List.” The Nevada Independent, 26 Sept. 2025, http://thenevadaindependent.com.On Federal Grant Withholding:
U.S. Department of Justice. “Memorandum: Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives.” Office of the Attorney General, 5 Feb. 2025.
“Navigating the Grant Landscape Under a New Administration.” Grant News, 14 Jan. 2026, http://www.grantsoffice.com/Learn-from-Us/Grant- News.How Readers Can Verify This
If your readers want to “fact-check the AI,” you can encourage them to:
- Search Public Records: Direct them to the DOJ’s “News” or “Briefing Room” section using keywords like “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List” or “Byrne JAG compliance.”
- Verify the Nevada MOU: The specific Memorandum of Understanding signed by Governor Lombardo on September 26, 2025, is a public document available on the Nevada Governor’s official website.
- Cross-Reference Case Law: They can look up the “Anti- Commandeering Doctrine” and the Supreme Court case Printz v. United States to see the legal foundation for why “sanctuary” policies are constitutional.
- Check News Archives: For the Minneapolis shooting, searching for “Renée Nicole Good January 7 2026” will yield the primary source videos and local police reports that form the basis of the current DOJ investigation.
Fact-Check Summary: The “Sanctuary” Conflict
To ensure the integrity of this reporting, the following key points have been cross-referenced with 2025–2026 Department of Justice (DOJ) records and state legal filings.
- What is a “Sanctuary”? It is not a formal legal term found in the Constitution. It is a political label used by the DOJ to describe cities/states that limit voluntary cooperation with federal immigration agents.
- The Nevada Exception: In September 2025, Nevada became the first state to be removed from the federal Sanctuary Jurisdiction List after the Governor signed a cooperation agreement with the DOJ.
- The Federal “Leverage”: The federal government uses the Byrne JAG Grant (public safety funding) as a “carrot and stick” to encourage local police to assist ICE. Most “Blue” states are currently suing the DOJ to keep this funding without being forced to
change their local laws. - The Legal “Shield”: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government cannot force (or “commandeer”) local police to do the work of federal agents. This is the primary legal defense used by jurisdictions in the current
Minnesota investigation. - The Minneapolis Investigation (Jan 2026): The DOJ is currently investigating whether Minnesota officials committed obstruction during a January 7th ICE operation. This differs from “non-cooperation,” as obstruction involves actively interfering with a
federal agent’s duties.
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
-
A Dive into “Sanctuary,” Re: DOJ Grand Jury Subpoenas – A DWD Editorial, with Perplexity…
Editor’s Note: I prepared this, via my Perplexity AI, for my own information; and, I feel sharing may help others understand the complexities and legal and factual aspects on these actions by Trump’s DOJ/Noem.
I will include my comments below interlaced in green. Perplexity is a powerful tool, and has fact-checked the information herein. It can make mistakes, as we know. Let me know if you see any. I started with a simple prompt, and then it was extended several levels. So you can see my research process for this matter. Images herein are public domain creations, unless otherwise noted.–DrWeb
To address the core of the current tension between state and federal authorities, here are the fact-checked answers regarding the “sanctuary” designation:
1. Who designates a “Sanctuary”?
There is no single “official” arbiter of the term, as it is largely a political and administrative label rather than a fixed legal category. However, the term is currently used by three main groups:
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
the Department of Justice maintains a formal “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List.” As of late 2025 and early 2026, the DOJ designates jurisdictions based on whether their policies “materially impede” federal immigration enforcement. - The Jurisdictions Themselves: Many states (like California and Illinois) and cities (like Chicago and San Francisco) have explicitly self-identified as “sanctuaries” through executive orders or public resolutions to signal a policy of welcoming immigrants.
- Third-Party Advocacy Groups: Organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies (which tracks them to criticize the policy) or the American Immigration Council (which tracks them to support it) maintain their own tallies based on different criteria, such as
the refusal to honor ICE detainers.
Currently listed “Sanctuary States” by the DOJ (2026):
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.Editor’s Note: As you can see a bit further below, we explored “why” these states are targeted.
2. Is “Sanctuary” written into Law?
The word “sanctuary” itself is rarely used in the text of the actual laws because it is legally imprecise. Instead, the “sanctuary” status is the result of specific legislative or administrative codes:
- State Statutes: Laws like the California Values Act (SB 54) or the Illinois TRUST Act do not necessarily name the state a “sanctuary” in the title but codify the policy by prohibiting state and local resources from being used to assist in federal immigration
enforcement. - City Ordinances: Many cities have “Welcoming City” ordinances. For example, San Francisco’s “City and County of Refuge” Ordinance (Chapter 12H of the Administrative Code) prohibits city employees from using city funds or resources to assist ICE.
- Why the “Loaded” Word is Avoided: Legislators generally prefer functional language (e.g., “Non-cooperation with federal civil detainers”) to withstand legal challenges. Using the word “sanctuary” in a bill can make it harder to defend in court as it implies
“nullification” of federal law, which is unconstitutional.
3. Official Legal Definition and Status
There is no legal definition of “sanctuary” in the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes. * The Federal Conflict: While federal law (8 U.S.C. § 1373) prohibits local governments from
restricting the sharing of information about immigration status with federal authorities, the Supreme Court has limited how much the federal government can “commandeer” local resources.- The Constitutional “Anti-Commandeering” Doctrine: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court (notably in Printz v. United States) has ruled that the federal government cannot force state or local officials to administer federal regulatory programs. This is the legal “shield” that sanctuary cities use: they argue that while
they cannot stop ICE from doing its job, they cannot be forced to do ICE’s job for them. - Legal Status: A jurisdiction’s status as a “sanctuary” is essentially a state of passive non-compliance. It is legal for a city to refuse to hold someone in jail for ICE without a judicial warrant, but it is illegal for a city to actively hide someone or physically block federal agents (which would be “obstruction of justice” or “harboring”).
This distinction is exactly what the current DOJ investigation in Minneapolis is testing: whether the actions of Minnesota officials crossed the line from “legal non-cooperation” (10th Amendment) into “active obstruction” of federal agents.
Perplexity Comment: “That is an astute observation for a blog post. If you look at the
political map, there is a near-perfect correlation between the jurisdictions on the U.S. Sanctuary Jurisdiction List and “Blue” (Democratic-led) areas.”The Case of Nevada…
However, there is one significant and very recent exception—Nevada—which provides a fascinating case study in how a “Purple” or “Red-led” state navigates this list.
The Political Alignment
Perplexity Comment: “You are essentially correct: the DOJ list is composed almost exclusively of Democratic-led states.”
- The “Blue” Block: States like California, New York, Illinois, and Washington have institutionalized non-cooperation through state law.
- The “Red” Absence: Conversely, many “Red” states (such as Florida, Texas, and Iowa) have passed “Anti-Sanctuary” laws that mandate cooperation with ICE, making it legally impossible for their cities to be designated as sanctuaries by the DOJ.
The Case of Nevada (The Exception)
Nevada’s story is particularly relevant to current events. Nevada was initially placed on the DOJ’s Sanctuary Jurisdiction List in August 2025 due to “Model Immigration Policies” passed by its legislature in 2021.
- The Removal: On September 29, 2025, Nevada became the first and only state to be removed from the list after Republican
Republican Governor Joe Lombardo struck a deal with the DOJ. - The Deal: To get off the list, the Governor committed the state to:
- Rejoining the federal 287(g) program (which allows local police to act as immigration agents).
- Using the National Guard for administrative support in immigration enforcement.
- Agreeing to “counter-balance” any sanctuary policies passed by the (Democratic-controlled) state legislature.
Why this matters…
The DOJ list isn’t just a list of “who is a sanctuary”—it has become a list of “who is in conflict with the current administration.”
The fact that the list is almost entirely “Blue” while a Republican Governor in a “Purple” state (Nevada) successfully negotiated his way off it suggests that the designation is being used as a tool for federal leverage. The DOJ uses the list to justify cutting federal funding, which jurisdictions then challenge in court—creating the legal “war” we are seeing play out in Minneapolis today.
The primary mechanism used by the federal government to exert financial pressure on “sanctuary” jurisdictions is the withholding of federal law enforcement grants. The legal theory is that these funds are conditional on a jurisdiction’s cooperation with federal
immigration authorities.The Mechanism: The Byrne JAG Program
The most significant grant at the center of this conflict is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program. Named after a fallen NYPD officer, this is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. It supports everything from body-worn cameras and mental health programs to drug task forces and court technology.
Under the current administration’s policy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved to withhold these funds from jurisdictions that refuse to:
- Allow federal agents access to local correctional facilities.
- Provide 48 hours’ notice to ICE before releasing an individual of interest.
- Comply with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, which prohibits local governments from restricting the sharing of information about immigration status.
Summary of Targeted Jurisdictions
As of early 2026, the following jurisdictions have had Byrne JAG and
other public safety grants restricted or placed in “hold” status by
the DOJ:- California: The state and several major cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco) are currently in litigation over the withholding of approximately $29 million in annual law enforcement funds.
- Illinois: Chicago and the state government have seen holds on funds specifically designated for community violence intervention programs.
- New York: New York City faces the potential loss of over $4 million in direct JAG funding, along with restrictions on “Stonegarden” grants used for border and port security.
- Minnesota: Following the events in Minneapolis, the DOJ recently announced a “review and freeze” of over $6 million in law enforcement assistance grants for the Twin Cities area, citing the active grand jury investigation into state obstruction.
- Washington State: Seattle and King County are currently challenging the DOJ’s denial of grant applications for local police training and equipment.
The Status of Nevada
In contrast to the states above, Nevada is not currently facing these grant withholdings. Following the September 2025 agreement between the Governor and the federal government, the DOJ released approximately $2.1 million in previously stalled public safety funds. This makes Nevada the primary example of a state that successfully avoided “sanctuary” financial penalties by formalizing a cooperation agreement.
Sourcing & Legal Context
The authority for these withholdings stems from Executive Order 14287 (2025), which directs the Attorney General to ensure that “federal law enforcement grants are not provided to jurisdictions that willfully violate federal law or impede federal law enforcement.”
However, this remains a volatile legal area. The 10th Amendment and the “Anti-Commandeering Doctrine” established by the Supreme Court (e.g., NFIB v. Sebelius) suggest the federal government cannot use “gun to the head” tactics to force states into new
programs. Most of these cases are currently winding through federal appellate courts, with jurisdictions arguing that the DOJ cannot add “extra-statutory” conditions to money already appropriated by Congress.MLA Bibliography (Top Sources)
On the Minneapolis Case and Renée Good:
“Killing of Renée Good.” Wikipedia, 20 Jan. 2026,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Renée_Good. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota. “Attorney General Ellison and Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul Sue to Halt ICE Surge into Minnesota.” State of Minnesota, 12 Jan. 2026, http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/01/12_ICE.asp.On the Sanctuary List and Nevada’s Removal:
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “DOJ Publishes List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions.” AILA Doc. No. 25080506, 5 Aug. 2025, http://www.aila.org/library/doj-publishes-list-of-sanctuary-jurisdictions.
Office of the Governor. “DOJ and State of Nevada Sign Immigration Enforcement Agreement; Nevada Removed from ‘Sanctuary State’ List.” State of Nevada, 26 Sept. 2025, http://gov.nv.gov/Newsroom/PRs/2025/2025-09-26_doj_and_nevada_sign_immigration_enforcement_agreement/.
Aldrete, Isabella. “Nevada, DOJ Sign Immigration Enforcement Memo That Will Take State Off ‘Sanctuary’ List.” The Nevada Independent, 26 Sept. 2025, http://thenevadaindependent.com.On Federal Grant Withholding:
U.S. Department of Justice. “Memorandum: Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives.” Office of the Attorney General, 5 Feb. 2025.
“Navigating the Grant Landscape Under a New Administration.” Grant News, 14 Jan. 2026, http://www.grantsoffice.com/Learn-from-Us/Grant- News.How Readers Can Verify This
If your readers want to “fact-check the AI,” you can encourage them to:
- Search Public Records: Direct them to the DOJ’s “News” or “Briefing Room” section using keywords like “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List” or “Byrne JAG compliance.”
- Verify the Nevada MOU: The specific Memorandum of Understanding signed by Governor Lombardo on September 26, 2025, is a public document available on the Nevada Governor’s official website.
- Cross-Reference Case Law: They can look up the “Anti- Commandeering Doctrine” and the Supreme Court case Printz v. United States to see the legal foundation for why “sanctuary” policies are constitutional.
- Check News Archives: For the Minneapolis shooting, searching for “Renée Nicole Good January 7 2026” will yield the primary source videos and local police reports that form the basis of the current DOJ investigation.
Fact-Check Summary: The “Sanctuary” Conflict
To ensure the integrity of this reporting, the following key points have been cross-referenced with 2025–2026 Department of Justice (DOJ) records and state legal filings.
- What is a “Sanctuary”? It is not a formal legal term found in the Constitution. It is a political label used by the DOJ to describe cities/states that limit voluntary cooperation with federal immigration agents.
- The Nevada Exception: In September 2025, Nevada became the first state to be removed from the federal Sanctuary Jurisdiction List after the Governor signed a cooperation agreement with the DOJ.
- The Federal “Leverage”: The federal government uses the Byrne JAG Grant (public safety funding) as a “carrot and stick” to encourage local police to assist ICE. Most “Blue” states are currently suing the DOJ to keep this funding without being forced to
change their local laws. - The Legal “Shield”: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government cannot force (or “commandeer”) local police to do the work of federal agents. This is the primary legal defense used by jurisdictions in the current
Minnesota investigation. - The Minneapolis Investigation (Jan 2026): The DOJ is currently investigating whether Minnesota officials committed obstruction during a January 7th ICE operation. This differs from “non-cooperation,” as obstruction involves actively interfering with a
federal agent’s duties.
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
-
A Dive into “Sanctuary,” Re: DOJ Grand Jury Subpoenas – A DWD Editorial, with Perplexity…
Editor’s Note: I prepared this, via my Perplexity AI, for my own information; and, I feel sharing may help others understand the complexities and legal and factual aspects on these actions by Trump’s DOJ/Noem.
I will include my comments below interlaced in green. Perplexity is a powerful tool, and has fact-checked the information herein. It can make mistakes, as we know. Let me know if you see any. I started with a simple prompt, and then it was extended several levels. So you can see my research process for this matter. Images herein are public domain creations, unless otherwise noted.–DrWeb
To address the core of the current tension between state and federal authorities, here are the fact-checked answers regarding the “sanctuary” designation:
1. Who designates a “Sanctuary”?
There is no single “official” arbiter of the term, as it is largely a political and administrative label rather than a fixed legal category. However, the term is currently used by three main groups:
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
the Department of Justice maintains a formal “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List.” As of late 2025 and early 2026, the DOJ designates jurisdictions based on whether their policies “materially impede” federal immigration enforcement. - The Jurisdictions Themselves: Many states (like California and Illinois) and cities (like Chicago and San Francisco) have explicitly self-identified as “sanctuaries” through executive orders or public resolutions to signal a policy of welcoming immigrants.
- Third-Party Advocacy Groups: Organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies (which tracks them to criticize the policy) or the American Immigration Council (which tracks them to support it) maintain their own tallies based on different criteria, such as
the refusal to honor ICE detainers.
Currently listed “Sanctuary States” by the DOJ (2026):
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.Editor’s Note: As you can see a bit further below, we explored “why” these states are targeted.
2. Is “Sanctuary” written into Law?
The word “sanctuary” itself is rarely used in the text of the actual laws because it is legally imprecise. Instead, the “sanctuary” status is the result of specific legislative or administrative codes:
- State Statutes: Laws like the California Values Act (SB 54) or the Illinois TRUST Act do not necessarily name the state a “sanctuary” in the title but codify the policy by prohibiting state and local resources from being used to assist in federal immigration
enforcement. - City Ordinances: Many cities have “Welcoming City” ordinances. For example, San Francisco’s “City and County of Refuge” Ordinance (Chapter 12H of the Administrative Code) prohibits city employees from using city funds or resources to assist ICE.
- Why the “Loaded” Word is Avoided: Legislators generally prefer functional language (e.g., “Non-cooperation with federal civil detainers”) to withstand legal challenges. Using the word “sanctuary” in a bill can make it harder to defend in court as it implies
“nullification” of federal law, which is unconstitutional.
3. Official Legal Definition and Status
There is no legal definition of “sanctuary” in the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes. * The Federal Conflict: While federal law (8 U.S.C. § 1373) prohibits local governments from
restricting the sharing of information about immigration status with federal authorities, the Supreme Court has limited how much the federal government can “commandeer” local resources.- The Constitutional “Anti-Commandeering” Doctrine: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court (notably in Printz v. United States) has ruled that the federal government cannot force state or local officials to administer federal regulatory programs. This is the legal “shield” that sanctuary cities use: they argue that while
they cannot stop ICE from doing its job, they cannot be forced to do ICE’s job for them. - Legal Status: A jurisdiction’s status as a “sanctuary” is essentially a state of passive non-compliance. It is legal for a city to refuse to hold someone in jail for ICE without a judicial warrant, but it is illegal for a city to actively hide someone or physically block federal agents (which would be “obstruction of justice” or “harboring”).
This distinction is exactly what the current DOJ investigation in Minneapolis is testing: whether the actions of Minnesota officials crossed the line from “legal non-cooperation” (10th Amendment) into “active obstruction” of federal agents.
Perplexity Comment: “That is an astute observation for a blog post. If you look at the
political map, there is a near-perfect correlation between the jurisdictions on the U.S. Sanctuary Jurisdiction List and “Blue” (Democratic-led) areas.”The Case of Nevada…
However, there is one significant and very recent exception—Nevada—which provides a fascinating case study in how a “Purple” or “Red-led” state navigates this list.
The Political Alignment
Perplexity Comment: “You are essentially correct: the DOJ list is composed almost exclusively of Democratic-led states.”
- The “Blue” Block: States like California, New York, Illinois, and Washington have institutionalized non-cooperation through state law.
- The “Red” Absence: Conversely, many “Red” states (such as Florida, Texas, and Iowa) have passed “Anti-Sanctuary” laws that mandate cooperation with ICE, making it legally impossible for their cities to be designated as sanctuaries by the DOJ.
The Case of Nevada (The Exception)
Nevada’s story is particularly relevant to current events. Nevada was initially placed on the DOJ’s Sanctuary Jurisdiction List in August 2025 due to “Model Immigration Policies” passed by its legislature in 2021.
- The Removal: On September 29, 2025, Nevada became the first and only state to be removed from the list after Republican
Republican Governor Joe Lombardo struck a deal with the DOJ. - The Deal: To get off the list, the Governor committed the state to:
- Rejoining the federal 287(g) program (which allows local police to act as immigration agents).
- Using the National Guard for administrative support in immigration enforcement.
- Agreeing to “counter-balance” any sanctuary policies passed by the (Democratic-controlled) state legislature.
Why this matters…
The DOJ list isn’t just a list of “who is a sanctuary”—it has become a list of “who is in conflict with the current administration.”
The fact that the list is almost entirely “Blue” while a Republican Governor in a “Purple” state (Nevada) successfully negotiated his way off it suggests that the designation is being used as a tool for federal leverage. The DOJ uses the list to justify cutting federal funding, which jurisdictions then challenge in court—creating the legal “war” we are seeing play out in Minneapolis today.
The primary mechanism used by the federal government to exert financial pressure on “sanctuary” jurisdictions is the withholding of federal law enforcement grants. The legal theory is that these funds are conditional on a jurisdiction’s cooperation with federal
immigration authorities.The Mechanism: The Byrne JAG Program
The most significant grant at the center of this conflict is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program. Named after a fallen NYPD officer, this is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. It supports everything from body-worn cameras and mental health programs to drug task forces and court technology.
Under the current administration’s policy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved to withhold these funds from jurisdictions that refuse to:
- Allow federal agents access to local correctional facilities.
- Provide 48 hours’ notice to ICE before releasing an individual of interest.
- Comply with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, which prohibits local governments from restricting the sharing of information about immigration status.
Summary of Targeted Jurisdictions
As of early 2026, the following jurisdictions have had Byrne JAG and
other public safety grants restricted or placed in “hold” status by
the DOJ:- California: The state and several major cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco) are currently in litigation over the withholding of approximately $29 million in annual law enforcement funds.
- Illinois: Chicago and the state government have seen holds on funds specifically designated for community violence intervention programs.
- New York: New York City faces the potential loss of over $4 million in direct JAG funding, along with restrictions on “Stonegarden” grants used for border and port security.
- Minnesota: Following the events in Minneapolis, the DOJ recently announced a “review and freeze” of over $6 million in law enforcement assistance grants for the Twin Cities area, citing the active grand jury investigation into state obstruction.
- Washington State: Seattle and King County are currently challenging the DOJ’s denial of grant applications for local police training and equipment.
The Status of Nevada
In contrast to the states above, Nevada is not currently facing these grant withholdings. Following the September 2025 agreement between the Governor and the federal government, the DOJ released approximately $2.1 million in previously stalled public safety funds. This makes Nevada the primary example of a state that successfully avoided “sanctuary” financial penalties by formalizing a cooperation agreement.
Sourcing & Legal Context
The authority for these withholdings stems from Executive Order 14287 (2025), which directs the Attorney General to ensure that “federal law enforcement grants are not provided to jurisdictions that willfully violate federal law or impede federal law enforcement.”
However, this remains a volatile legal area. The 10th Amendment and the “Anti-Commandeering Doctrine” established by the Supreme Court (e.g., NFIB v. Sebelius) suggest the federal government cannot use “gun to the head” tactics to force states into new
programs. Most of these cases are currently winding through federal appellate courts, with jurisdictions arguing that the DOJ cannot add “extra-statutory” conditions to money already appropriated by Congress.MLA Bibliography (Top Sources)
On the Minneapolis Case and Renée Good:
“Killing of Renée Good.” Wikipedia, 20 Jan. 2026,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Renée_Good. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota. “Attorney General Ellison and Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul Sue to Halt ICE Surge into Minnesota.” State of Minnesota, 12 Jan. 2026, http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/01/12_ICE.asp.On the Sanctuary List and Nevada’s Removal:
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “DOJ Publishes List of Sanctuary Jurisdictions.” AILA Doc. No. 25080506, 5 Aug. 2025, http://www.aila.org/library/doj-publishes-list-of-sanctuary-jurisdictions.
Office of the Governor. “DOJ and State of Nevada Sign Immigration Enforcement Agreement; Nevada Removed from ‘Sanctuary State’ List.” State of Nevada, 26 Sept. 2025, http://gov.nv.gov/Newsroom/PRs/2025/2025-09-26_doj_and_nevada_sign_immigration_enforcement_agreement/.
Aldrete, Isabella. “Nevada, DOJ Sign Immigration Enforcement Memo That Will Take State Off ‘Sanctuary’ List.” The Nevada Independent, 26 Sept. 2025, http://thenevadaindependent.com.On Federal Grant Withholding:
U.S. Department of Justice. “Memorandum: Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives.” Office of the Attorney General, 5 Feb. 2025.
“Navigating the Grant Landscape Under a New Administration.” Grant News, 14 Jan. 2026, http://www.grantsoffice.com/Learn-from-Us/Grant- News.How Readers Can Verify This
If your readers want to “fact-check the AI,” you can encourage them to:
- Search Public Records: Direct them to the DOJ’s “News” or “Briefing Room” section using keywords like “Sanctuary Jurisdiction List” or “Byrne JAG compliance.”
- Verify the Nevada MOU: The specific Memorandum of Understanding signed by Governor Lombardo on September 26, 2025, is a public document available on the Nevada Governor’s official website.
- Cross-Reference Case Law: They can look up the “Anti- Commandeering Doctrine” and the Supreme Court case Printz v. United States to see the legal foundation for why “sanctuary” policies are constitutional.
- Check News Archives: For the Minneapolis shooting, searching for “Renée Nicole Good January 7 2026” will yield the primary source videos and local police reports that form the basis of the current DOJ investigation.
Fact-Check Summary: The “Sanctuary” Conflict
To ensure the integrity of this reporting, the following key points have been cross-referenced with 2025–2026 Department of Justice (DOJ) records and state legal filings.
- What is a “Sanctuary”? It is not a formal legal term found in the Constitution. It is a political label used by the DOJ to describe cities/states that limit voluntary cooperation with federal immigration agents.
- The Nevada Exception: In September 2025, Nevada became the first state to be removed from the federal Sanctuary Jurisdiction List after the Governor signed a cooperation agreement with the DOJ.
- The Federal “Leverage”: The federal government uses the Byrne JAG Grant (public safety funding) as a “carrot and stick” to encourage local police to assist ICE. Most “Blue” states are currently suing the DOJ to keep this funding without being forced to
change their local laws. - The Legal “Shield”: Under the 10th Amendment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government cannot force (or “commandeer”) local police to do the work of federal agents. This is the primary legal defense used by jurisdictions in the current
Minnesota investigation. - The Minneapolis Investigation (Jan 2026): The DOJ is currently investigating whether Minnesota officials committed obstruction during a January 7th ICE operation. This differs from “non-cooperation,” as obstruction involves actively interfering with a
federal agent’s duties.
- The Federal Government (DOJ/DHS): Under Executive Order 14287,
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In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times – Literary Hub
– The Keynote address at the American Librarian’s Association annual convention, June 28th, 2025
Sarah Weinman
Sarah Weinman is the author of three nonfiction books: The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent (Ecco, November 2025). She is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. Weinman writes the Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.
Sarah Weinman on the Awesome Responsibility of the Seekers and Keepers of Truth
By Sarah Weinman, November 3, 2025
Librarians are on the front lines of history and current events, when news and change arrive at a furious clip that only quickens every day.
And without libraries, my work would simply not exist.
I was a child who read books. There’s a picture of me, not quite a year old, in a blue sailor suit and a red ribbon tied around my neck, staring avidly at a picture book. I couldn’t have been reading yet—that wouldn’t happen until I was close to three, still plenty precocious—but the devotion was already there, the calling always present. I would always prefer reading to pretty much anything, whether it was practicing piano, doing homework, playing sports, and chores.
Books were everywhere as I grew up, and I know how fortunate I was. All around the house, because my parents and older brother were avid readers, too. In the sprawling home of my great-uncle, who spent many years as a sales representative for Harper & Row—before it was absorbed into HarperCollins, now my own publisher—and the duplex townhouses of my grandparents.
Going to the library was special, though. The elementary and high school ones, staffed by people who understood what books meant to kids because they’d never lost sight of what books meant to them. The local branch, a few minutes’ drive from my home, where I borrowed countless books at every age and had my first formative experience with microfilm—and no matter how many times I have used it, I still need to ask a librarian for help. The flagship location in my hometown, with its brutalist architecture, piles of newspapers threatening to burst out of the shelves, and the abundance of books in every genre—particularly crime fiction, my first and still greatest love.
The university one, where not only could I request any book I needed for research—for class, and also my own—but I discovered the almighty power of the Lexis-Nexis database. And, when I moved to New York more than two decades ago, the magisterial 42nd Street Public Library, those twin lions beckoning visitors to climb up the stairs and partake of its treasures.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood. I have come to know so many archive repositories, sifting through collections of authors, editors, and other luminaries as part of my research for three nonfiction books, several anthologies, and other journalism projects. Some of the institutions whose work I have benefited from enormously, visiting in person or requesting digital reproductions, include the Sterling Library at Yale University; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the New-York Historical; city and state archives in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, New York, and right here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood.
And it was at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in early 2016 that I experienced one of the most transcendent experiences of my working life. I’d arrived to look at a selection of letters by the book editor and translator Sophie Wilkins, and what I thought would be anodyne correspondence between an editor and her author—the convicted murderer Edgar Smith—turned out to be anything but, altering the scope and trajectory of the project that would become my second book, Scoundrel. The excitement I felt at reading what perhaps three others—Sophie, Edgar, and the librarian cataloging the material—that I could not express in public, but could convey in book form, was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Libraries and archives hold so much knowledge within their sacred confines. I will never lose sight of the awesome responsibility for those tasked with curating, maintaining, and presenting the information so that researchers and authors like me can make meaning of these documents. The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
This is as precarious a moment as I’ve experienced in my own lifetime. Book bans accelerating at a pace that beggars belief. The unjust firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. The onrush to embrace generative AI without considering the consequences. And just yesterday, a terrible Supreme Court ruling that threatens to upend what books are taught in schools and available in their libraries.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
Tags: Books, Carla Hayden, Children Reading, Current Events, Dangerous Times, History, Librarian, Librarian of Congress, Librarians, Literary Hub, News, Taught in Schools#Books #CarlaHayden #ChildrenReading #CurrentEvents #DangerousTimes #History #Librarian #LibrarianOfCongress #Librarians #LiteraryHub #News #TaughtInSchools
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In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times – Literary Hub
– The Keynote address at the American Librarian’s Association annual convention, June 28th, 2025
Sarah Weinman
Sarah Weinman is the author of three nonfiction books: The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent (Ecco, November 2025). She is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. Weinman writes the Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.
Sarah Weinman on the Awesome Responsibility of the Seekers and Keepers of Truth
By Sarah Weinman, November 3, 2025
Librarians are on the front lines of history and current events, when news and change arrive at a furious clip that only quickens every day.
And without libraries, my work would simply not exist.
I was a child who read books. There’s a picture of me, not quite a year old, in a blue sailor suit and a red ribbon tied around my neck, staring avidly at a picture book. I couldn’t have been reading yet—that wouldn’t happen until I was close to three, still plenty precocious—but the devotion was already there, the calling always present. I would always prefer reading to pretty much anything, whether it was practicing piano, doing homework, playing sports, and chores.
Books were everywhere as I grew up, and I know how fortunate I was. All around the house, because my parents and older brother were avid readers, too. In the sprawling home of my great-uncle, who spent many years as a sales representative for Harper & Row—before it was absorbed into HarperCollins, now my own publisher—and the duplex townhouses of my grandparents.
Going to the library was special, though. The elementary and high school ones, staffed by people who understood what books meant to kids because they’d never lost sight of what books meant to them. The local branch, a few minutes’ drive from my home, where I borrowed countless books at every age and had my first formative experience with microfilm—and no matter how many times I have used it, I still need to ask a librarian for help. The flagship location in my hometown, with its brutalist architecture, piles of newspapers threatening to burst out of the shelves, and the abundance of books in every genre—particularly crime fiction, my first and still greatest love.
The university one, where not only could I request any book I needed for research—for class, and also my own—but I discovered the almighty power of the Lexis-Nexis database. And, when I moved to New York more than two decades ago, the magisterial 42nd Street Public Library, those twin lions beckoning visitors to climb up the stairs and partake of its treasures.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood. I have come to know so many archive repositories, sifting through collections of authors, editors, and other luminaries as part of my research for three nonfiction books, several anthologies, and other journalism projects. Some of the institutions whose work I have benefited from enormously, visiting in person or requesting digital reproductions, include the Sterling Library at Yale University; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the New-York Historical; city and state archives in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, New York, and right here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood.
And it was at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in early 2016 that I experienced one of the most transcendent experiences of my working life. I’d arrived to look at a selection of letters by the book editor and translator Sophie Wilkins, and what I thought would be anodyne correspondence between an editor and her author—the convicted murderer Edgar Smith—turned out to be anything but, altering the scope and trajectory of the project that would become my second book, Scoundrel. The excitement I felt at reading what perhaps three others—Sophie, Edgar, and the librarian cataloging the material—that I could not express in public, but could convey in book form, was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Libraries and archives hold so much knowledge within their sacred confines. I will never lose sight of the awesome responsibility for those tasked with curating, maintaining, and presenting the information so that researchers and authors like me can make meaning of these documents. The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
This is as precarious a moment as I’ve experienced in my own lifetime. Book bans accelerating at a pace that beggars belief. The unjust firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. The onrush to embrace generative AI without considering the consequences. And just yesterday, a terrible Supreme Court ruling that threatens to upend what books are taught in schools and available in their libraries.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
Tags: Books, Carla Hayden, Children Reading, Current Events, Dangerous Times, History, Librarian, Librarian of Congress, Librarians, Literary Hub, News, Taught in Schools#Books #CarlaHayden #ChildrenReading #CurrentEvents #DangerousTimes #History #Librarian #LibrarianOfCongress #Librarians #LiteraryHub #News #TaughtInSchools
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In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times – Literary Hub
– The Keynote address at the American Librarian’s Association annual convention, June 28th, 2025
Sarah Weinman
Sarah Weinman is the author of three nonfiction books: The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent (Ecco, November 2025). She is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. Weinman writes the Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.
Sarah Weinman on the Awesome Responsibility of the Seekers and Keepers of Truth
By Sarah Weinman, November 3, 2025
Librarians are on the front lines of history and current events, when news and change arrive at a furious clip that only quickens every day.
And without libraries, my work would simply not exist.
I was a child who read books. There’s a picture of me, not quite a year old, in a blue sailor suit and a red ribbon tied around my neck, staring avidly at a picture book. I couldn’t have been reading yet—that wouldn’t happen until I was close to three, still plenty precocious—but the devotion was already there, the calling always present. I would always prefer reading to pretty much anything, whether it was practicing piano, doing homework, playing sports, and chores.
Books were everywhere as I grew up, and I know how fortunate I was. All around the house, because my parents and older brother were avid readers, too. In the sprawling home of my great-uncle, who spent many years as a sales representative for Harper & Row—before it was absorbed into HarperCollins, now my own publisher—and the duplex townhouses of my grandparents.
Going to the library was special, though. The elementary and high school ones, staffed by people who understood what books meant to kids because they’d never lost sight of what books meant to them. The local branch, a few minutes’ drive from my home, where I borrowed countless books at every age and had my first formative experience with microfilm—and no matter how many times I have used it, I still need to ask a librarian for help. The flagship location in my hometown, with its brutalist architecture, piles of newspapers threatening to burst out of the shelves, and the abundance of books in every genre—particularly crime fiction, my first and still greatest love.
The university one, where not only could I request any book I needed for research—for class, and also my own—but I discovered the almighty power of the Lexis-Nexis database. And, when I moved to New York more than two decades ago, the magisterial 42nd Street Public Library, those twin lions beckoning visitors to climb up the stairs and partake of its treasures.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood. I have come to know so many archive repositories, sifting through collections of authors, editors, and other luminaries as part of my research for three nonfiction books, several anthologies, and other journalism projects. Some of the institutions whose work I have benefited from enormously, visiting in person or requesting digital reproductions, include the Sterling Library at Yale University; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the New-York Historical; city and state archives in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, New York, and right here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood.
And it was at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in early 2016 that I experienced one of the most transcendent experiences of my working life. I’d arrived to look at a selection of letters by the book editor and translator Sophie Wilkins, and what I thought would be anodyne correspondence between an editor and her author—the convicted murderer Edgar Smith—turned out to be anything but, altering the scope and trajectory of the project that would become my second book, Scoundrel. The excitement I felt at reading what perhaps three others—Sophie, Edgar, and the librarian cataloging the material—that I could not express in public, but could convey in book form, was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Libraries and archives hold so much knowledge within their sacred confines. I will never lose sight of the awesome responsibility for those tasked with curating, maintaining, and presenting the information so that researchers and authors like me can make meaning of these documents. The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
This is as precarious a moment as I’ve experienced in my own lifetime. Book bans accelerating at a pace that beggars belief. The unjust firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. The onrush to embrace generative AI without considering the consequences. And just yesterday, a terrible Supreme Court ruling that threatens to upend what books are taught in schools and available in their libraries.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
Tags: Books, Carla Hayden, Children Reading, Current Events, Dangerous Times, History, Librarian, Librarian of Congress, Librarians, Literary Hub, News, Taught in Schools#Books #CarlaHayden #ChildrenReading #CurrentEvents #DangerousTimes #History #Librarian #LibrarianOfCongress #Librarians #LiteraryHub #News #TaughtInSchools
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In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times – Literary Hub
– The Keynote address at the American Librarian’s Association annual convention, June 28th, 2025
Sarah Weinman
Sarah Weinman is the author of three nonfiction books: The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent (Ecco, November 2025). She is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. Weinman writes the Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.
Sarah Weinman on the Awesome Responsibility of the Seekers and Keepers of Truth
By Sarah Weinman, November 3, 2025
Librarians are on the front lines of history and current events, when news and change arrive at a furious clip that only quickens every day.
And without libraries, my work would simply not exist.
I was a child who read books. There’s a picture of me, not quite a year old, in a blue sailor suit and a red ribbon tied around my neck, staring avidly at a picture book. I couldn’t have been reading yet—that wouldn’t happen until I was close to three, still plenty precocious—but the devotion was already there, the calling always present. I would always prefer reading to pretty much anything, whether it was practicing piano, doing homework, playing sports, and chores.
Books were everywhere as I grew up, and I know how fortunate I was. All around the house, because my parents and older brother were avid readers, too. In the sprawling home of my great-uncle, who spent many years as a sales representative for Harper & Row—before it was absorbed into HarperCollins, now my own publisher—and the duplex townhouses of my grandparents.
Going to the library was special, though. The elementary and high school ones, staffed by people who understood what books meant to kids because they’d never lost sight of what books meant to them. The local branch, a few minutes’ drive from my home, where I borrowed countless books at every age and had my first formative experience with microfilm—and no matter how many times I have used it, I still need to ask a librarian for help. The flagship location in my hometown, with its brutalist architecture, piles of newspapers threatening to burst out of the shelves, and the abundance of books in every genre—particularly crime fiction, my first and still greatest love.
The university one, where not only could I request any book I needed for research—for class, and also my own—but I discovered the almighty power of the Lexis-Nexis database. And, when I moved to New York more than two decades ago, the magisterial 42nd Street Public Library, those twin lions beckoning visitors to climb up the stairs and partake of its treasures.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood. I have come to know so many archive repositories, sifting through collections of authors, editors, and other luminaries as part of my research for three nonfiction books, several anthologies, and other journalism projects. Some of the institutions whose work I have benefited from enormously, visiting in person or requesting digital reproductions, include the Sterling Library at Yale University; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the New-York Historical; city and state archives in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, New York, and right here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood.
And it was at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in early 2016 that I experienced one of the most transcendent experiences of my working life. I’d arrived to look at a selection of letters by the book editor and translator Sophie Wilkins, and what I thought would be anodyne correspondence between an editor and her author—the convicted murderer Edgar Smith—turned out to be anything but, altering the scope and trajectory of the project that would become my second book, Scoundrel. The excitement I felt at reading what perhaps three others—Sophie, Edgar, and the librarian cataloging the material—that I could not express in public, but could convey in book form, was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Libraries and archives hold so much knowledge within their sacred confines. I will never lose sight of the awesome responsibility for those tasked with curating, maintaining, and presenting the information so that researchers and authors like me can make meaning of these documents. The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
This is as precarious a moment as I’ve experienced in my own lifetime. Book bans accelerating at a pace that beggars belief. The unjust firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. The onrush to embrace generative AI without considering the consequences. And just yesterday, a terrible Supreme Court ruling that threatens to upend what books are taught in schools and available in their libraries.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
#Books #CarlaHayden #ChildrenReading #CurrentEvents #DangerousTimes #History #Librarian #LibrarianOfCongress #Librarians #LiteraryHub #News #SocietyChanges #TaughtInSchools
-
In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times – Literary Hub
– The Keynote address at the American Librarian’s Association annual convention, June 28th, 2025
Sarah Weinman
Sarah Weinman is the author of three nonfiction books: The Real Lolita, Scoundrel, and Without Consent (Ecco, November 2025). She is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. Weinman writes the Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.
Sarah Weinman on the Awesome Responsibility of the Seekers and Keepers of Truth
By Sarah Weinman, November 3, 2025
Librarians are on the front lines of history and current events, when news and change arrive at a furious clip that only quickens every day.
And without libraries, my work would simply not exist.
I was a child who read books. There’s a picture of me, not quite a year old, in a blue sailor suit and a red ribbon tied around my neck, staring avidly at a picture book. I couldn’t have been reading yet—that wouldn’t happen until I was close to three, still plenty precocious—but the devotion was already there, the calling always present. I would always prefer reading to pretty much anything, whether it was practicing piano, doing homework, playing sports, and chores.
Books were everywhere as I grew up, and I know how fortunate I was. All around the house, because my parents and older brother were avid readers, too. In the sprawling home of my great-uncle, who spent many years as a sales representative for Harper & Row—before it was absorbed into HarperCollins, now my own publisher—and the duplex townhouses of my grandparents.
Going to the library was special, though. The elementary and high school ones, staffed by people who understood what books meant to kids because they’d never lost sight of what books meant to them. The local branch, a few minutes’ drive from my home, where I borrowed countless books at every age and had my first formative experience with microfilm—and no matter how many times I have used it, I still need to ask a librarian for help. The flagship location in my hometown, with its brutalist architecture, piles of newspapers threatening to burst out of the shelves, and the abundance of books in every genre—particularly crime fiction, my first and still greatest love.
The university one, where not only could I request any book I needed for research—for class, and also my own—but I discovered the almighty power of the Lexis-Nexis database. And, when I moved to New York more than two decades ago, the magisterial 42nd Street Public Library, those twin lions beckoning visitors to climb up the stairs and partake of its treasures.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood. I have come to know so many archive repositories, sifting through collections of authors, editors, and other luminaries as part of my research for three nonfiction books, several anthologies, and other journalism projects. Some of the institutions whose work I have benefited from enormously, visiting in person or requesting digital reproductions, include the Sterling Library at Yale University; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the New-York Historical; city and state archives in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, New York, and right here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.
The wonder and thrill of the library hasn’t gone away for me, not at all, but it has certainly evolved in adulthood.
And it was at Columbia University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in early 2016 that I experienced one of the most transcendent experiences of my working life. I’d arrived to look at a selection of letters by the book editor and translator Sophie Wilkins, and what I thought would be anodyne correspondence between an editor and her author—the convicted murderer Edgar Smith—turned out to be anything but, altering the scope and trajectory of the project that would become my second book, Scoundrel. The excitement I felt at reading what perhaps three others—Sophie, Edgar, and the librarian cataloging the material—that I could not express in public, but could convey in book form, was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
Libraries and archives hold so much knowledge within their sacred confines. I will never lose sight of the awesome responsibility for those tasked with curating, maintaining, and presenting the information so that researchers and authors like me can make meaning of these documents. The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
The librarian is a seeker and keeper of truth, and that makes her a dangerous figure in the eyes of those who fear the fullest, most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths emerging.
This is as precarious a moment as I’ve experienced in my own lifetime. Book bans accelerating at a pace that beggars belief. The unjust firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. The onrush to embrace generative AI without considering the consequences. And just yesterday, a terrible Supreme Court ruling that threatens to upend what books are taught in schools and available in their libraries.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » In Praise of Librarians in Dangerous Times
#Books #CarlaHayden #ChildrenReading #CurrentEvents #DangerousTimes #History #Librarian #LibrarianOfCongress #Librarians #LiteraryHub #News #SocietyChanges #TaughtInSchools
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Mostly Monday Reads: Oy mishigas!
“Putin addresses the residents of his newly acquired territory.” John Buss, @repeat1968, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I am having an ongoing debate with myself about the current administration. Is it the stupidity, the arrogance, or the meanness that most damaged our Constitutional democracy? Or is it the greed? I’m tagging all my posts here with the words Polycrisis, Kakistocracy, and Oligarchy or Broligarchy. It’s getting to be a tough search to find a few journalists who will actually tell it like it is.
This article in The Guardian early this month by Jonathan Freeland describes the current president thusly. “Donald Trump is turning America into a mafia state. The pattern is inescapable – with just one caveat: organised crime bosses occasionally display more honour.” I’ll just add a local New Orleans colloquialism. True Dat.
Behold Donald Corleone, the US president who behaves like a mafia boss – but without the principles. Of course, one hesitates to make the comparison, not least because Donald Trump would like it. And because the Godfather is an archetype of strength and macho glamour while Trump is weak, constantly handing gifts to America’s enemies and getting nothing in return. But when the world is changing so fast – when a nation that has been a friend for more than a century turns into a foe in a matter of weeks – it helps to have a guide. My colleague Luke Harding clarified the nature of Vladimir Putin’s Russia when he branded it the Mafia State. Now we need to attach the same label to the US under Putin’s most devoted admirer.
Consider the way Trump’s White House conducts itself, issuing threats and menaces that sound better in the original Sicilian. This week the president said that a deal ending Russia’s war on Ukraine “could be made very fast” but “if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long”. You didn’t need a translator to know that the somebody he had in mind was Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Thursday, Trump was confident that the Ukrainians would soon do his bidding “because I don’t think they have a choice”. Almost as if he had made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Which of course he had. By ending the supply of military aid and the sharing of US intelligence, as he did this week, he had effectively put a Russian revolver to Ukraine’s temple, its imprint scarcely reduced by Trump’s declaration today that he is “strongly considering” banking sanctions and tariffs against Moscow, a move that looked a lot like a man pretending to be equally tough on the two sides, but which should fool nobody. He expects Zelenskyy to sign away a huge chunk of Ukraine’s minerals, the way Corleone’s rivals surrendered their livelihoods to save their lives.
This is how the US now operates in the world. Dispensing with the formalities during his annual address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump repeated his threat to grab Greenland: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.” That recalled his earlier warning to Copenhagen to give him what he wants or face the consequences: “maybe things have to happen with respect to Denmark having to do with tariffs”. Nice place you got there; would be a shame if something happened to it.
It’s the same shakedown he’s performing on the US’s northern neighbour. Canada’s outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau spelled it out this week, accusing Trump of trying to engineer “a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us”, adding that: “We will never be the 51st state.” It’s a technique familiar in the darker corners of the New Jersey construction industry: a series of unfortunate fires that only stops when a recalcitrant competitor submits.
Both the substance and the style are pure mafia. Note the obsession with respect, demonstrated in last week’s Oval Office confrontation with Zelenskyy. Between them, JD Vance and Trump accused the Ukrainian leader three times of showing disrespect, sounding less like world leaders than touchy Tommy DeVito, the Joe Pesci character in Goodfellas.
Note too the humiliation of subordinates. In his address to Congress, the president introduced secretary of state Marco Rubio as the man charged with taking back the Panama canal. “Good luck, Marco,” said Trump, with a chuckle. “Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong.” Cue anxious laughter from the rest of the underlings, briefly relieved that it wasn’t them.
It’s hard for aides and opponents alike to keep up because power is exercised arbitrarily and inconsistently. Tariffs are imposed, then suspended. Indeed, one reason why import taxes so appeal to Trump is that they can be enforced instantly and by presidential edict. That extends to the exemptions Trump can offer to favoured US industries. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes observed: “This is very obviously going to be a protection racket, where Trump can at the stroke of a pen destroy or save your business depending on how compliant you are.”
This characterization of Trump is so spot on that you really should go read the rest. I’m using this description of FARTUS as a background to the absolutely appalling crap that’s going on today. It’s hard to mentally deal with how quickly he’s disassembled so many long-standing U.S. Institutions in such a short time. This is especially true because it appears that the massive amount of incompetence and ignorance that his appointments display just escalates the damage. Look at this headline in The Atlantic. It’s reported by Jeffrey Goldberg. “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans. U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.” WTAF?
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
This is going to require some explaining.
The story technically begins shortly after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, in October 2023. The Houthis—an Iran-backed terrorist organization whose motto is “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam”—soon launched attacks on Israel and on international shipping, creating havoc for global trade. Throughout 2024, the Biden administration was ineffective in countering these Houthi attacks; the incoming Trump administration promised a tougher response.
This is where Pete Hegseth and I come in.
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
The term principals committee generally refers to a group of the senior-most national-security officials, including the secretaries of defense, state, and the treasury, as well as the director of the CIA. It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on national-security matters, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.
Definitely go read this one. I’ve been missing reading John le Carré. I’m assuming anyone with a background in spying would have saucer eyes by this time. Trump’s love of playing checkers with the countries of the world is dangerous and immoral. He plays with everyone’s life like a mad king. This is from Oliver Darcy at Status. It’s a remarkable indictment of how the press enables his heinous policies and statements. “Gulf of Fear. When news anchors tiptoe around the name Gulf of Mexico, it’s not just semantics—it’s a glimpse at how the press starts to flinch under political pressure.”
In China, Taiwan doesn’t exist—at least not as a country. On official maps, it’s a province. The government enforces strict language about Taiwan’s status, shaping how its people—and the rest of the world—talk about it. The goal, of course, is far more significant than the name on a map. It’s not about semantics. It’s about wielding influence and asserting dominance. Controlling the language people use, particularly in relation to global geography, is a powerful capability to possess.
In the United States, that kind of top-down dictation might feel like a distant threat, the kind of thing that happens in authoritarian regimes or dystopian novels like “1984,” not in a country built on free speech safeguarded by the First Amendment. Americans tend to believe our press is too independent and and too proud to ever bow to government pressure. We assume that if a president ever tried to dictate language, the Fourth Estate would resist. We assume that we’re immune from such pressures.
But an important segment of the press—the television news media—over the past week quietly demonstrated that it is far less adversarial and far more compliant than the breathless promos these networks air hyping themselves as fearless truth-tellers. When the eyes of the world fixated on the stranded NASA astronauts being rescued and touching down back on Earth, every channel danced around what precisely to call the body of water they splashed into. A review of transcripts, courtesy of SnapStream, revealed an alarming reality: not one of the outlets could muster up the courage to simply refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico, the water feature’s name since the 16th century.
Instead, television news organizations tied themselves in knots, performing linguistic gymnastics to stay out of Donald Trump’s crosshairs, while also tiptoeing around audiences who would have surely been incensed to see them bend the knee and call it the “Gulf of America.” On ABC News, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir referred to “spectacular images from off the coast of Florida.” On the “NBC Nightly news,” anchor Lester Holt spoke about the astronauts “splashing down off the Florida Gulf coast.” On the “CBS Evening News,” it was referred to simply as “the Gulf.” And on CNN, anchor Jake Tapper tried to seemingly have it both ways, noting the U.S. government refers to it as the “Gulf of America,” but the rest of the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico.
In fact, I could only one find instance on a television newscast where a journalist referred to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. During an appearance on MSNBC, NBC News correspondent Tom Costello used the term, but then quickly corrected himself, almost as if he had realized he was forbidden from doing so. “Six hours from right now, there will be a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said, before backtracking. “Sorry, however you want to call the Gulf. It will be splashing down in the Gulf.”
Suffice to say, none of this was an accident.
We first saw the capitulation of the tech bros and their social media platforms, including Jeff Bezos, who has ruined The Washington Post. This week, the situation there is getting worse. The first thing any autocrat wants to do is to come for any vestige of a free media. This is from MEDIAITE as reported by David Gilmour. “Trump Claims Jeff Bezos Trashed the ‘Crazy People’ in His Own Newsroom: ‘They’re Out of Control’.
President Donald Trump claimed that billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos privately expressed regret over the newspaper’s editorial direction and trashed his own “out of control” newsroom for writing “bad articles” about him.
The comments came during a sit-down with OutKick’s Clay Travis aboard Air Force One on Saturday after Travis suggested “it seems” that Bezos may be attempting to make The Washington Post “more fair” in coverage towards Trump.
Trump agreed and didn’t hesitate to praise Bezos, telling Travis “I think it’s great.”
Travis later asked whether Trump had discussed how the newspaper had come after him “like crazy” in the past, AND the president replied: “At length, I talked to him about it. [Bezos is] a good guy. I didn’t really know him in the first term. I mean, it’s such a difference between now and the first time.”
Pressed on what Bezos had said he had planned for The Post’s coverage, Trump said: “Just that. He’s really trying to be more fair.”
Trump continued: “They actually did a couple of bad articles on him. He said, ‘This is crazy, I lose my fortune running this thing and they, you know, they’re out of control.’ These people are crazy. They’re crazy people. They’re out of control.”
“And he’s a actually a very good guy,” the president added. “If you look at the inauguration, look at the people that were on that stage, here was a who’s who of a world that was totally against me the first time. It’s a much different presidency. I have much more support.”
And now, we have the capitulation of top law firms. How many more legs of democracy will we lose? The Bulwark draws the line today. “Stop Making Excuses for Not Fighting Trump. The capitulations and acquiescence we’ve seen so far will only make opposition more difficult down the road.” This is written by William Kristol under the lede “No Excuse.”
Among those who might be expected to stand up against Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, the hills are alive with the sound of excuses.
You’re an elected official. The Trump administration has rounded up individuals and sent them, without any due process and with much carelessness about who’s been seized, to a mega-prison in El Salvador. The administration is boasting about what it’s done and heralding it a prelude to further actions in the same vein.
You’re thinking of condemning these truly grotesque violations of constitutional rights and human decency. Maybe I should say this isn’t right?
Whoa, Nellie! Not so fast, your political advisers hasten to instruct you. The polls on this issue aren’t great. This really isn’t the hill to die on.
You take their advice. But you tell yourself, and you assure others, that of course you will fight one day—on some other hill, on some faraway hill, some time far in the future.
But to fight now? Bad idea. That would simply play into Trump’s hands. After all, Trump and his allies are good at fighting. If you try to do something, there’s a risk they’ll turn it against you. Whereas if you say nothing, nothing can be used against you.
You might worry for a second that silence and acquiescence just plays into Trump’s hands. But you’re not a sophisticated Democratic operative. So you take their advice.
And anyway, there’s a better plan. That plan is that, eventually, Trump will become less popular. Then, the public will rise up. And then you can speak up. It all works out.
It also works out if you’re in the private sector. In fact, if you’re the head of a huge law firm, capitulation isn’t just a regrettable necessity, it’s your duty. You’re acting in the best interests of your clients. It would be wrong and irresponsible to act otherwise.
What’s more, No one in the wider world can appreciate how stressful it is to confront an executive order like this until one is directed at you.
The people in the “wider world”—those serving in the military or waiting tables or cleaning offices at Paul Weiss—they just can’t appreciate the stress that comes from occupying that corner office at 51st and 6th.
Ugh.
All of these excuses—and there are many more!—are distasteful. But what’s worse is that they make it easier and more likely that others will capitulate. They make it seem that you’re kind of a chump if you actually fight Trump’s authoritarian takeover. The excuses offered for capitulation increase the damage done by capitulation.
As usual, Shakespeare saw all. Here’s Pembroke in Act IV, Scene 2 of King John:
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by th’ excuse,
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patched.The excuses offered by our elites for not standing up to authoritarianism have the effect of helping the authoritarians gain further ground.
Zach Beauchamp writes at VOX, “There’s a pattern in Trump’s power grabs. The White House strategy demands we defend alleged criminals and those with unpopular views.”
After rising to power, Nazis pitched power grabs as efforts to address the alleged threat posed by menaces like “Judeo-Bolshevism,” harnessing the powers of bigotry and political polarization to get ordinary Germans on board with the demolition of their democracy.
What’s happening in America right now has chilling echoes of this old tactic. When engaging in unlawful or boundary-pushing behavior, the Trump administration has typically gone after targets who are either highly polarizing or unpopular. The idea is to politicize basic civil liberties questions — to turn a defense of the rule of law into either a defense of widely hated groups or else an ordinary matter of partisan politics.
The administration’s first known deportation of a green card holder targeted a pro-Palestinian college activist at Columbia University, the site of some of the most radical anti-Israel activity. For this reason, Columbia was also the first university it targeted for a funding cutoff. Trump has also targeted an even more unpopular cohort: The first group of American residents sent to do hard labor in a Salvadoran prison was a group of people his administration claimed without providing evidence were Tren de Aragua gang members.
Trump is counting on the twin powers of demonization and polarization to justify their various efforts to expand executive authority and assail civil liberties. They want to make the conversation less about the principle — whether what Trump is doing is legal or a threat to free speech — and more a referendum on whether the targeted group is good or bad.
There is every indication this pattern will continue. And if we as a society fail to understand how the Trump strategy works, or where it leads, the damage to democracy could be catastrophic.
This, too, is a long read that deserves a look. A lot of this goes back to White House aid Stephan Miller. This guy needs to have an entire press detail following him. I’m going to end with a few articles on economics. The first comes from Paul Krugman and will clarify what’s happening with Social Security. “Social Security: A Time for Outrage. Trump’s policies attack his own base — but who will tell them?” I often find myself in conversations with friends, and we all wonder if Trump Supporters will ever show a glimmer of intelligence.
Donald Trump is often described as a “populist.” Yet his administration is stuffed with wealthy men who are clueless about how the other 99.99 percent lives, while his policies involve undermining the working class while enabling wealthy tax cheats.
What is true is that many working-class voters supported Trump last year because they believed that he was on their side. And that disconnect between perceptions and reality ought to be at the heart of any discussion of what Democrats should do now.
Right now the central front in the assault on the working class is Social Security, which Elon Musk, unable to admit error, keeps insisting is riddled with fraud. The DOGE-bullied Social Security Administration has already announced that those applying for benefits or trying to change where their benefits are deposited will need to verify their identity either online or in person — a huge, sometimes impossible burden on the elderly, often disabled Americans who need those benefits most. And with staff cuts and massive DOGE disruption, it seems increasingly likely that some benefits just won’t arrive as scheduled.
Oh, and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security administrator, threatened to shut the whole thing down unless DOGE was given access to personal data.
Not to worry, says Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Commerce secretary. Only “fraudsters” would complain about missing a Social Security check:
Let’s say social security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.
There’s so much wrong with that statement that it’s hard to know where to start. But it’s clear that Lutnick — like many affluent people — has no idea how important Social Security is to the finances of most older Americans. According to a Social Security Administration study, half of Americans over 65 get a majority of their income from Social Security; a quarter depend almost entirely on Social Security, which supplies more than 90 percent of their income. I doubt that these people would shrug off a missed check.
Reliance on Social Security isn’t evenly distributed across the population; it’s strongly correlated with socioeconomic status. In particular, it very much depends on education, with less-educated Americans much more reliant on the program than those with more education:
That Lutnick quote cannot be repeated enough. The last read I’m sharing today comes from The Economist. “Musk Inc is under serious threat. The world’s richest man has lost focus. His competitors are taking advantage.” Well, isn’t that special?
UNTIL RECENTLY Elon Musk had little need to look over his shoulder. He once described competition for Tesla, his electric-vehicle (EV) company, as “the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day”, rather than the “small trickle” of other EV-makers. SpaceX, his rocket firm, had so undercut and outwitted the bloated aerospace incumbents that it had developed an almost invincible aura.
Yet if Mr Musk can tear himself away from the intoxication of shredding the American government, he may notice something. It is not just that the political firestorms he has whipped up this year are singeing his companies’ brands. It is that the two businesses that underpin his corporate empire—accounting for around 90% of its value and probably all its profit—are facing increasingly stiff competition. The world’s richest man has lost focus—and now has a target on his back.
Start with SpaceX. Last year it conducted five out of every six of the world’s spacecraft launches. Through its Starlink division, it owns 60% of satellites in space. In December it sold shares at a valuation of $350bn, two-thirds higher than its previous level. Starlink, its main profit engine, is on track to generate more than $11bn of revenue this year and $2bn of free cash flow, says Chris Quilty of Quilty Space, a consultancy.
Now, however, Mr Musk’s bomb-throwing interventions are alarming SpaceX customers, and at a time when rivals are growing more capable. His on-again, off-again threats to end Starlink’s support for Ukraine have raised the difficult question of trust. European politicians are pondering how reliable Mr Musk will be as a long-term provider of strategic satellite communications. The search for alternatives has helped spur a more than tripling of the share price of Eutelsat, the French owner of OneWeb, which provides satellite services to broadband companies.
No European supplier could come close to matching the 7,000 satellites Starlink has in low orbit. (Eutelsat has a mere 600.) Nor could any compete on price. As Simon Potter of BryceTech, another space consultancy, puts it, for now the concerns are “more noise than action”. Yet Starlink may soon face meaningful competition from Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which aims to put over 3,000 satellites into low orbit, creating a space-based broadband network. If it achieves that, some customers outside America may decide they have more confidence in an Amazon product than in one belonging to the mercurial Mr Musk.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, is also stepping up the pace in the launch business with Blue Origin. His rocket firm is separate from Project Kuiper, but has contracts to fly many of its satellites. In January Mr Bezos’s New Glenn rocket reached orbit on its first try. If Blue Origin manages to make repeated successful journeys with reusable rockets, it could become a meaningful competitor to SpaceX. So could Rocket Lab, SpaceX’s closest rival by number of launches, which is due to debut Neutron, a new rocket, this year.
Here comes the Rooster.
It’s like we’re in a very bad dystopian novel and can’t escape. Anyway, I’m not shutting up any time soon.
What’s on your Reading and Blogging list today?
Here’s a picture of this big boy who keeps crossing the road in front of my house. The rain just stopped, and the sun cleared up, so he’s been yelling at the sun for about an hour now. I feel like he’s some kind of omen.
Here’s an Alice in Chains song about the Vietnam War. That ought to cheer you up.
#Repeat1968 #Broligarchy #FARTUS #MafiaDon #oligarchy #PaulKrugman #VladimirPutin
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“Labor Is Life” (U.S. Postal Service’s Labor Day Stamp, 1956, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Bakers, blacksmiths, boatmen, butchers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, cigarmakers, coal miners, factory workers, farmers, gardeners, gold miners, iron workers, masons, quarry workers, teamsters, tombstone carvers. These were just a few of the diverse job titles held by the laborers who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.
Many returned to their same occupations after the war ended while others found new pathways for their life journeys. Far too many were never able to return to the arms of their loved ones and still rest in marked or unmarked graves far from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In honor of Labor Day, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story is proud to present this abridged list of blue-collar men and boys who served with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry between August 1861 and January 1866, as well as the names of two of the women associated with the regiment who made their own unforgettable marks on the world.
* Auchmuty, Samuel S. (First Lieutenant, Company D): A native of Duncannon, Perry County and veteran of the Mexican-American War who was employed as a carpenter during the early 1860s, Samuel Auchmuty responded to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War by enrolling as a first lieutenant with Company D of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 20, 1861; after completing his three-year term of enlistment, he was honorably discharged in September 1864 and returned home to Pennsylvania, where he resumed his work as a house carpenter and launched a successful contracting business that was responsible for building new business structures, churches, single-family homes, and schools, as well as renovating existing structures; he died in 1891, following a brief illness;
First Sergeant Christian S. Beard, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Beard, Christian Seiler (First Lieutenant, Company C): A twenty-seven-year-old, married carpenter residing in Williamsport, Lycoming County when President Abraham Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1865, Chistian S. Beard promptly enrolled for Civil War military service before that month was out as a private with Company D of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a sergeant with Company C of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers on August 19; after rising up through the ranks to become a first lieutenant, he was honorably discharged on Christmas Day, 1865, and returned home to his wife in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, where he continued to work as a carpenter; after having several children with his wife, he was widowed by her; remarried in 1884, he relocated with his wife and children to Pittsburgh, where he continued to work as a carpenter; ailing with heart and kidney disease, he died there on November 16, 1911 and was interred at that city’s Highwood Cemetery;
* Burke, Thomas (Sergeant, Company I): A first-generation American, Thomas Burke was a twenty-year-old cabinetmaker residing in Allentown at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service on the day that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was founded (August 5, 1861), he was officially mustered in as a private; from that point on, he continued to work his way up the ranks, receiving a promotion to corporal on September 19, 1864 and then to sergeant on July 11, 1865; honorably mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865, he returned home to Lehigh County, where he married and began a family; sometime in early to mid-1871, he and his family migrated west to Iowa, settling in Anamosa, Jones County, where he was employed as a carpenter and contractor; he died at his home there on October 22, 1910 and was buried at that town’s Riverside Cemetery;
* Colvin, John Dorrance (Second Lieutenant, Company C): A native of Abington Township, Lackawanna County who was a farmer when he enlisted for Civil War military service on September 12, 1861, John D. Colvin transferred to the U.S. Army Signal Corps on October 13, 1863, and continued to serve with the Signal Corps for the duration of the war; employed as an engineer, post-war, he helped the Pacific Railroad to extend its service from Atchison, Kansas to Fort Kearney in Nebraska before returning home to Pennsylvania, where he married, began a family and resided with them in Olyphant and Carbondale before relocating with them to Parsons in Luzerne County, where he became a prominent civic leader and member of the school board; initially employed as a machinist, he went on to become superintendent of the Delaware & Hudson Coal company before taking a similar job with the Lehigh Valley Coal Company; the U.S. Postal Service’s postmaster of Parsons during the early 1890s, he died there on March 15, 1901 and was buried at the Hollenback Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre;
* Crownover, James (Sergeant, Company D): A twenty-three-year-old teamster residing in Blain, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, James Crownover rose up through the ranks of the 47th Pennsylvania from private to reach the rank of sergeant; wounded in the right shoulder and captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864, he was marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, where he was held as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on November 25, 1864; during captivity, he was commissioned, but not mustered as a second lieutenant; given medical treatment before he was returned to active duty, he was honorably discharged with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865; after returning home, he found work at a tannery near Blain, married, began a family and then relocated with them to East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, where he worked as a teamster; relocating with them to Braddock in Allegheny County after the turn of the century, he worked at a local mill there; he died in Allegheny County on July 18, 1903 and was buried at the Monongahela Cemetery in Braddock Hills;
Jacob Daub, circa 1862-1865 (carte de visite, Cooley & Beckett Photographers, Savannah, Georgia and Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina, public domain).
* Daub, Jacob and William J. (Drummer Boy, Company A): A German immigrant as a child, Jacob Daub emigrated with his parents and younger brother, William, circa 1852; after settling in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where his father found work as a stone mason, Jacob grew up to become a cigarmaker, and also became the first of the two brothers to enlist in the American Civil War; after enrolling at the age of sixteen, he was classified as a field musician and assigned to Company A as its drummer boy; his nineteen-year-old brother, William, a carpenter by 1865, followed him into the war when he enlisted as a private with the same company in February of that year; after the war ended, both returned home to Northampton County, where they married, had children and went on to live long, full lives; William eventually died at the age of eighty in 1928, followed by Jacob, who passed away in 1936, roughly two months before his ninety-first birthday;
* Detweiler, Charles C. (Private, Company A): Berks County native Charles Detweiler enrolled for Civil War military service on September 16, 1862; a carpenter who later became a farmer, he served with Company A until he was severely injured in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864, when he sustained a musket ball wound to the middle of his thigh; treated at a Union Army hospital in Virginia before being transported to the Union’s Mower General Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he learned that the musket ball had damaged his femur and femoral arteries; following his wound-related death at Mower on March 12, 1865, he was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Kutztown, Berks County;
* Diaz, John (Private, Company I): An immigrant from Spain’s Canary Islands, John Diaz emigrated sometime between 1862 and 1865 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a cigarmaker; on January 25, 1865, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted with the Union Army at a recruiting depot in Norristown, Montgomery County and served as a private with Company I of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry until it was mustered out on Christmas Day, 1865; following his return to Pennsylvania, he resumed work as a cigarmaker in Philadelphia, eventually launching his own cigarmaking firm, which became a family business as his sons became old enough to work for him; sometime between 1906 and 1910, he relocated with his wife and several of his children to Camden County, New Jersey, where he died on September 5, 1915;
James Downs (circa 1880s, public domain).
* Downs, James (Corporal, Company D): A twenty-three-year-old tanner residing in Blain, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, James Downs was captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864 and marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River; held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on July 22, 1864, he received medical treatment and was subsequently returned to active duty; following his honorable discharge with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 25, 1865, he returned home, married, began a family and relocated with his family to Phillipsburg, New Jersey; suffering from heart and kidney disease, and possibly also from post-traumatic stress disorder, rather than “insane” as physicians at the Pennsylvania Memorial Home in Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania had diagnosed him, he fell from a window at that home and died at there on September 16, 1921; he was subsequently interred in the Veterans’ Circle of the Brookville Cemetery;
* Eagle, Augustus (Second Lieutenant, Company F): A German immigrant as a teenager, Augustus Eagle arrived in America on June 23, 1855, two years after his brother, Frederick Eagle, had emigrated and made a life for himself in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; both men married and began families there, with Fred employed as a laborer and Gus employed by the Crane Iron Works; when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, both men enrolled for military service on August 21, 1861 as privates with Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; in 1862, Fred fell ill and was honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability, but Gus continued to serve, rising up through the regiment’s enlisted and officers’ ranks; commissioned as a second lieutenant, he was honorably discharged on September 11, 1864, upon completion of his three-year term of service; post-war, Fred became a successful baker with real estate and personal property valued at $4,200 (roughly $155,750 in 2023 dollars) and died in Catasauqua in 1885, while Gus owned a successful restaurant in Whitehall Township before operating the Fairview Hotel, which became a popular spot for political gatherings; after suffering a series of strokes in 1902, Gus died at his home on August 17 and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua;
* Eisenbraun, Alfred (Drummer Boy, Company B): A tobacco stripper and first-generation American from Allentown, Lehigh County, fifteen-year-old Alfred Eisenbraun became the second “man” from the 47th Pennsylvania to die when he succumbed to complications from typhoid fever at the Kalorama Eruptive Fever Hospital in Georgetown, District of Columbia on October 26, 1861; he still rests at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home Cemetery in Washington, D.C.;
* Fink, Aaron (Corporal, Company B): A shoemaker and native of Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Aaron Fink, grew up, began a family and established a successful small shoemaking business, first in Allentown and then in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) in Carbon County; on August 20, 1861, he chose to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to help bring the American Civil War to a quick end when he enrolled for military service; shot in the right leg during the fighting at the Frampton Plantation during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, he was treated at the Union Army’s hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina, but died there from wound-related complications on November 5, 1862; initially buried near that hospital, his remains were later exhumed by Allentown undertaker Paul Balliet and returned to Pennsylvania for reinterment at that city’s Union-West End Cemetery;
* Fornwald, Reily M. (Corporal, Company G): Born in Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Reily Fornwald was raised there on his family’s farm near Stouchsberg; educated in his community’s common schools and then at Millersville State Normal School, he became a railroad worker before returning to farm life shortly before the dawn of the American Civil War; after enlisting for military service at the age of twenty on September 11, 1862, he was wounded in the head and groin by an exploding artillery shell during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862; stabilized on the battlefield before being transported to a field hospital for more advanced medical care, he spent four weeks recuperating before returning to active duty with his regiment; promoted to the rank of corporal on January 19, 1863, he continued to serve with his regiment until he was honorably discharged at Berryville, Virginia on September 18, 1864, upon expiration of his term of enlistment; after returning home, he spent four years operating a blast furnace for White & Ferguson in Robesonia, Berks County; he also married and began a family; sometime around 1870, he left that job to become an engine operator for Wright, Cook & Co. in Sheridan and then moved to a job as an engine operator for William M. Kauffman—a position he held for roughly a decade before securing employment as a shifting engineer with the Reading Railway Company at its yards in Reading; following his retirement in 1905, he and his wife settled in Robesonia, where he became involved in buying and selling real estate; following a severe fall in May 1925, during which he fractured a thigh bone, he died at the Homeopathic Hospital in Reading on June 1 and was buried at Robesonia’s Heidelberg Cemetery;
Captain Reuben Shatto Gardner, Company H, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Gardner, Reuben Shatto, John A. and Jacob S. R.: Natives of Perry County, Reuben Shatto Gardner and his brothers, John A. Gardner and Jacob S. R. Gardner, began their work lives as laborers; among the earliest responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861, Reuben was a twenty-five-year-old miller who resided in Newport, Perry County; after enlisting as a private with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 20, he was honorably mustered out after completing his term of service; he then re-upped for a three-year tour of duty, mustering in as a first sergeant with Company H of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; also enrolling with him that same day were his twenty-three-year-old and twenty-one-year-old brothers, John A. Gardner and Jacob S. R. Gardner; John officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on September 18 (the day before Reuben arrived), while Jacob officially mustered in on September 19; both joined their brother’s company, entering at their respective ranks of corporal and private, but Jacob’s tenure was a short one; sickened by typhoid fever in late December 1861, he died at the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental hospital at Camp Griffin, near Langley, Virginia on January 8, 1862; his remains were later returned to Perry County for burial at the Old Newport Cemetery; soldiering on, Reuben and John were transported with their regiment by ship to Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida and subsequently sent to South Carolina with their regiment and other Union troops; shot in the head and thigh during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, Reuben was treated at the Union Army’s hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina for an extended period of time, and then returned to active duty with his regiment; meanwhile, John was assigned with H Company and the men from Companies D, F and K to garrison Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas; both brothers then continued to work their way up the regiment’s ranks, with John promoted to corporal on September 18, 1864 and Reuben ultimately commissioned as a captain and given command of Company H on February 16, 1865; both then returned home after honorably mustering out with the regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865; sometime around 1866 or 1867, Reuben and his wife migrated west, first to Elk River Station in Sherburne County, Minnesota and then to Stillwater, Washington County, before settling in the city of Minneapolis; through it all, he worked as a miller; Reuben and his family then relocated farther west, arriving in King County, Washington after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889; initially employed in the restaurant industry, Reuben later found work as a railroad conductor before prospecting for gold with son Edward in the western United States and British Columbia, Canada during the 1890s Gold Rush; employed as a U.S. Post Office clerk in charge of the money order and registry departments in Seattle from 1898 to 1902, Reuben died in Seattle at the age of sixty-eight on September 25, 1903 and was interred at that city’s Lakeview Cemetery; meanwhile, his brother John, who had resumed work as a fireman with the Pennsylvania Railroad after returning from the war, was widowed by his wife in 1872; after remarrying and welcoming the births of more children, he was severely injured on October 9, 1873 while working as a fireman on the Pacific Express for the Pennsylvania Railroad; unable to continue working as a fireman due to his amputated hand, he worked briefly as a railroad call messenger before launching his own transfer business in Harrisburg; after he was widowed by his ailing second wife, John was severely injured in a second accident in 1894 while loading his delivery wagon; still operating his business after the turn of the century, he remarried on January 3, 1900, but was widowed by his third wife when she died during a surgical procedure in 1911; he subsequently closed his business and relocated to the home of his daughter in the city of Reading, Berks County; four years later, he fell on an icy sidewalk and became bedfast; aged eighty and ailing from arteriosclerosis and lung congestion, he died at her home on February 20, 1918 and was buried at Reading’s Charles Evans Cemetery;
* Gethers, Bristor (Under-Cook, Company F): Born into slavery in South Carolina circa 1829, Bristor Gethers was married “by slave custom at Georgetown, S.C.” on the Pringle plantation in Georgetown sometime around 1847 to “Rachael Richardson” (alternate spelling “Rachel”); a field hand at the dawn of the Civil War, he was freed from chattel enslavement in 1862 by Union Army troops; he then enlisted as an “Under-Cook” with Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in Beaufort, South Carolina on October 5, 1862, and traveled with the regiment until October 4, 1865, when he was honorably discharged in Charleston, South Carolina upon completion of his three-year term of enlistment; at that point, he returned to Beaufort and resumed life with his wife and their son, Peter; a farmer, Bristor was ultimately disabled by ailments that were directly attributable to his Union Army tenure; awarded a U.S. Civil War Soldiers’ Pension, he lived out his days with his wife on Horse Island, South Carolina, and died on Horse Island, South Carolina on June 24 or 25, 1894; he was then laid to rest at a graveyard on Parris Island on June 26 of that same year;
* Gilbert, Edwin (Captain, Company F): A native of Northampton County and a carpenter residing in Catasauqua, Lehigh County at the dawn of the American Civil War, Edwin Gilbert enrolled as a corporal on August 21, 1861; after rising up through his regiment’s officer ranks, he was ultimately commissioned as a captain and placed in charge of his company on New Year’s Day, 1865, and then mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina of Christmas of that same year; resuming his life with his wife and children in Lehigh County after the war, he continued to work as a carpenter; after suffering a stroke in late December 1893, he died on January 2, 1894 and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua;
Mrs. Caroline Bost and Martin L. Guth celebrated the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with fellow Grand Army of the Republic and ladies auxiliary members in February 1933 (public domain).
* Guth, Martin Luther (Corporal, Company K): A native of Lehigh County and son of a farmer, Martin L. Guth was a seventeen-year-old laborer and resident of Guthsville in Whitehall Township at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service on September 26, 1862, he was officially mustered in as a corporal; he continued to serve with his regiment until he was honorably mustered out on October 1, 1865, upon expiration of his term of service; at some point during that service, he broke his leg—an injury that did not heal properly and plagued him for the remainer of his life; after returning home to the Lehigh Valley, he found work again as a laborer; married in 1883, he became the father of four children, one of whom was born in New Mexico and another who was born in California; he had moved his family west in search of work in the mining industry; documented as a “prospector” or “miner” records created in Nevada during that period, he was also documented on voter registration rolls of Butte City in Glenn County, California in August 1892; by 1900, he was living separately from his wife, who was residing in Bandon, Coos County, Oregon with their two children while he was residing at the Veterans’ Home of California in Yount Township, Napa County, California; subsequently admitted to the Mountain Branch of the network of U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Johnson City, Tennessee on February 11, 1912, his disabilities included an old compound fracture of his right leg with chronic ulceration, defective vision (right eye), chronic bronchitis, and arteriosclerosis; discharged on December 12, 1920, he was admitted to the U.S. National Soldiers’ Home in Leavenworth, Kansas on July 30, 1912, but discharged on September 29, 1913; by 1920, he was living alone on Fruitvale Avenue in the city of Oakland, California, but was remaining active with his local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic as he rose through the leadership ranks of chapter, state and national G.A.R. organizations; after a long, adventure-filled life, he died on October 11, 1935, at the age of ninety-one, at the veterans’ home in San Francisco and was interred at the San Francisco National Cemetery (also known as the Presidio Cemetery);
Lieutenant Charles A. Hackman, Company G, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1864 (public domain).
* Hackman, Charles Abraham and Martin Henry (First Lieutenant and Sergeant, Company G): Natives of Rittersville, Lehigh County, Charles and Martin Hackman began their work lives as apprentices, with Charles employed by a carpenter and Martin employed by master coachmaker Jacob Graffin; members of the local militia unit known as the Allen Rifles, they were among the earliest responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861; both enlisted as privates with Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 20 and were honorably mustered out in July after completing their service; Charles then re-upped for a three-year tour of duty, mustering in as a sergeant with Company G of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; he then spent most of his early service in Virginia; meanwhile, his younger brother, Martin H. Hackman, who was employed as a coach trimmer in Lehigh County, re-enlisted for his own second tour of duty, as a private with Charles’ company, on January 8, 1862; working their way up the ranks, Charles was commissioned as a first lieutenant on June 18, 1863, while Martin was promoted to sergeant on April 26, 1864; Charles was then breveted as a captain on November 30, 1864 after having mustered out on November 5; Martin was then honorably discharged on January 8, 1865; initially employed, post-war, with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad’s train car facility in Reading, Berks County, Charles was promoted to car inspector at the company’s Philadelphia facility in December 1866; he subsequently married, but had no children and was widowed in 1904; remarried, he remained in Philadelphia until the early 1900s, when he relocated to Allentown; Martin, who worked as a bricklayer in Allentown, did have children after marrying, but he, too, was widowed; also remarried, he became a manager at a rolling mill; ailing with pneumonia in early 1917, Charles was eighty-six years old when he died in Allentown on January 17; he was buried at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery, while his brother Martin was buried at the Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem, following his death in Bethlehem from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 14, 1921;
* Junker, George (Captain, Company K): A German immigrant as a young adult, George Junker emigrated sometime around the early 1850s and settled in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where he found employment as a marble worker and tombstone carver, and where he also joined the Allen Infantry, one of his adopted hometown’s three militia units; responding to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, George enlisted with his fellow Allen Infantrymen, honorably completed his Three Months’ Service, and promptly began his own recruitment of men for an “all-German company” for the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; commissioned as a captain with the 47th Pennsylvania, he was placed in charge of his men who became known as Company K; mortally wounded by a Confederate rifle shot during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862, he died from his wounds the next day at the Union Army’s division hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina; his remains were returned to his family in Hazleton, Luzerne County for reburial at the Vine Street Cemetery;
* Kern, Samuel (Private, Company D): A native of Perry County who was employed as a farmer in Bloomfield, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861, Samuel Kern was wounded and captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864; marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, he was held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he died from harsh treatment on June 12, 1864; buried somewhere on the grounds of that prison camp, his grave remains unidentified;
* Kosier, George (Captain, Company D): A native of Perry County and twenty-four-year-old carpenter residing in that county’s community of New Bloomfield at the dawn of the American Civil War, George Kosier became one of the earliest men from his county to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort-Sumter in mid-April 1861, when he enrolled for military service on April 20 as a corporal with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a first sergeant with Company D of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; joining him were his younger brothers, Jesse and William S. Kosier, aged nineteen and twenty-three, who were enrolled as privates with the same company; all three subsequently re-enlisted with their company at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida in 1863; sadly, Jesse fell ill with pleurisy and died at the Union Army’s Field Hospital in Sandy Hook, Maryland on August 1864; initially buried at a cemetery in Weverton, Maryland, his remains were later exhumed and reinterred at the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Maryland; both George and William continued to serve with the regiment, with George continuing his rise up the ranks; commissioned as a captain, he was given command of Company D in early June 1865; both brothers were then honorably discharged with their regiment on Christmas Day, 1865; post-war, both men married and began families; William died in Pennsylvania sometime around 1879, but George went on to live a long full life; after settling in Ogle County, Illinois, where he was employed as a carpenter, he relocated with his family to Wright County, Iowa, where he built bridges; he died in Chicago on December 3, 1920 and was buried at that city’s Rosehill Cemetery;
Anna (Weiser) Leisenring (1851-1942) , circa 1914 (public domain).
* Leisenring, Annie (Weiser): The wife of Thomas B. Leisenring (Captain, Company G), Annie Leisenring was employed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a factory inspector after the American Civil War; she became well known through newspaper accounts of her inspection visits and also became widely respected for her efforts to improve child labor laws statewide;
* Lowrey, Thomas (Corporal, Company E): An Irish immigrant as a young adult, Thomas Lowrey emigrated sometime around the late 1840s or early 1850s and settled in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a miner, married and began a family; responding to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital during the opening weeks of the American Civil War, Thomas enlisted with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania on September 16, 1861; after completing his three-year term of enlistment, he was honorably discharged in September 1864 and returned home to Pennsylvania, where he resumed work as a coal miner near Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, and where he resided with his wife and children; after witnessing the dawn of a new century, he died in Shenandoah on January 11, 1906;
This image of Julia (Kuenher) Minnich, circa 1860s, is being presented here through the generosity of Chris Sapp and his family, and is being used with Mr. Sapp’s permission. This image may not be reproduced, repurposed, or shared with other websites without the permission of Chris Sapp.
* Magill, Julia Ann (Kuehner Minnich): Widowed and the mother of a young son at the time that her husband, B Company’s Captain Edwin G. Minnich, was killed in battle during the American Civil War, Julia Ann (Kuehner) Minnich became a Union Army nurse at Harewood Hospital in Washington, D.C. during the war in order to keep a roof over her son’s head; she then spent the remainder of her life battling the U.S. Pension Bureau to receive and keep both the U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension and U.S. Civil War Nurse’s Pension that she was entitled to under federal law; forced to go on working into her later years by poverty, she finally found work as a cook at a hotel in South Bethlehem; she died sometime after 1906;
* Menner, Edward W. (Second Lieutenant, Company E): A first-generation American who was a native of Easton, Northampton County, Edward Menner was a sixteen-year-old carpenter when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 25, 1861; working his way up from private to second lieutenant before he was honorably discharged with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he was wounded in the left shoulder during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19, 1864; after returning home to the Lehigh Valley, he secured employment as a hooker with the Bethlehem Iron Company (later known as Bethlehem Steel) on March 15, 1866; he married, begam a family and continued to work in the iron industry for much of his life; he died in Bethlehem on April 25, 1913 and was buried at that city’s Nisky Hill Cemetery;
* Miller, John Garber (Sergeant, Company D): A native of Ironville, Blair County, John G. Miller was a twenty-one-year-old laborer living in Duncannon, Perry County when he enrolled for Civil War military service on August 20, 1861; captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864 and marched to Camp Ford, near Tyler, Texas, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River, he was held there as a prisoner of war (POW) until he was released during a prisoner exchange on July 22, 1864; returned to active duty with his regiment after receiving medical treatment, he continued to serve until he was honorably discharged with the regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on December 25, 1865; after returning home, he married, began a family and relocated with his family to Philipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a teamster; returning to Blair County with his family, he resided with them in Logan Township before relocating with them again to Coalport, Clearfield County; suffering from heart disease, he died in Coalport on February 16, 1921 and was interred at the Coalport Cemetery;
Captain Theodore Mink, Company I, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (circa 1870s-1880s, courtesy of Julian Burley; used with permission).
* Mink, Theodore (Captain, Company I): A native of Allentown, Lehigh County who was apprenticed as a coachmaker and then tried his hand as a whaler and blacksmith prior to the American Civil War, Thedore Mink became one of the “First Defenders” who responded to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to defend the nation’s capital after the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861; after honorably completing his Three Months’ Service in July, he re-enlisted on August 5 as a sergeant with Company I of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; after steadily working his way up through the ranks, he was commissioned as a captain and placed in charge of his company on May 22, 1865; he continued to serve with his regiment until it was mustered out on Christmas Day, 1865; following his return to Pennsylvania, he was hired as a laborer with a circus troupe operated by Mike Lipman before finding longtime employment in advertising and then as head of the circus wardrobe for the Forepaugh Circus before he was promoted to management with the circus; felled by pneumonia during late 1889, he died in Philadelphia on January 7, 1890 and was interred in Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery;
* Newman, Edward (Private, Company H): A German immigrant who left his homeland sometime around 1920, Edward Newman chose to settle in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where he found work as a baker; after enlisting for Civil War military service in August 1862, he mustered in as a private with Company I of the 127th Pennsylvania Volunteers and fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg from December 11-15 of that year; honorably mustered out with his regiment in May 1863, he re-enlisted on October 23, 1863 for a second tour of duty—but as a private with a different regiment—Company H of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; he continued to serve with the 47th Pennsylvania until he was officially mustered out in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he returned to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where he worked briefly as a baker; suffering from rheumatism that developed while the 47th Pennsylvania was stationed near Cedar Creek, Virginia during the fall of 1864, he was admitted to the network of U.S. Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at the Central Branch in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio on July 17, 1877; still unmarried and still living there in 1880, his health continued to decline; diagnosed with acute enteritis, he died there on January 22, 1886 and was buried at the Dayton National Cemetery;
Captain Daniel Oyster, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1864 (public domain).
* Oyster, Daniel (Captain, Company C): A native of Sunbury, Northumberland County who was employed as a machinist, Daniel Oyster became one of the earliest men from his county to respond to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to defend the nation’s capital, following the fall of Fort-Sumter in mid-April 1861, when he enrolled for Civil War military service on April 23 as a corporal with Company F of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers; honorably discharged in July after completing his Three Months’ Service, he re-enlisted as a first sergeant with Company C of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers on August 19; his brother, John Oyster, subsequently followed him into the service, enrolling as a private with his company on November 20, 1863; after rising up through the ranks to become captain of his company, Daniel was shot in his left shoulder near Berryville, Virginia on September 5, 1864 and then shot in his right shoulder during the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19; successfully treated by Union Army surgeons for both wounds, he was awarded a veteran’s furlough in order to continue his recuperation and returned home to Sunbury; he then returned to duty and was honorably discharged with his company on Christmas Day, 1865; post-discharge, he and his brother, John, returned home to Sunbury; Daniel continued to reside with their aging mother and was initially employed as a policeman, but was then forced by a war-related decline in his health to take less-taxing work as a railroad postal agent; his brother John, who was married, lived nearby and worked as a fireman, but died in Sunbury on April 20, 1899; employed as a bookkeeper after the turn of the century, Daniel never married and was ultimately admitted to the Southern Branch of the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, Virginia, where he died on August 5, 1922—exactly sixty-one years to the day after the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was founded; he was given a funeral with full military honors before being laid to rest in the officers’ section at the Arlington National Cemetery on August 11;
* Sauerwein, Thomas Franklin (First Sergeant, Company B): The son of a lock tender in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Thomas Sauerwein was employed as a carpenter at the dawn of the American Civil War; following his enrollment for military service in Allentown, Lehigh County on August 20, 1861, he was officially mustered in as a private with Company B of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry; from that point on, he steadily worked his way up the ranks of the regiment, ultimately being promoted to first sergeant on New Year’s Day, 1865; following his honorable discharge with his company on Christmas Day of that same year, he returned home to the Lehigh Valley, where he found work as a carpenter, married and began a family; by 1880, he had moved his family west to Williamsport in Lycoming County, where he had found work as a machinist; employed as a leather roller with a tanning factory, he was promoted to a position as a leather finisher after the turn of the century, while his two sons worked as leather rollers in the same industry; he died in Williamsport on July 29, 1912 and was buried at the East Wildwood Cemetery in Loyalsock;
* Slayer, Joseph (Private, Company E; also known as “Dead Eye Dick” and “E. J. McMeeser”): A native of Philadelphia, Joseph Slayer was a nineteen-year-old miner residing in Willliams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania at the dawn of the American Civil War; after enrolling for military service in Easton, Northampton County on September 9, 1861, he was officially mustered in as a private with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; he continued to serve with his company, re-enlisting as a private with Company E, under the name of Joseph Slayer, at Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas on January 4, 1864; honorably mustered out with his company in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day, 1865, he relocated to Zanesville, Ohio sometime after the war, where he joined the Grand Army of the Republic’s Hazlett Post No. 81; he may then have relocated briefly to St. Paul, Minnesota sometime around the 1870s or early 1880s, or may simply have had a child and grandchild living there, because newspaper reports of his death noted that he had been carrying a photograph of a toddler named Robert—a photo that had “To Grandpa” inscribed on it and indicated that the grandchild, Robert, was a resident of St. Paul in 1892; by the 1880s, Joseph had made it as far west as the Dakota Territory—but this was where his life’s journey took a strange twist; discarding the name he had used in the army (“Joseph Slayer”), he changed his name several times over the next several years, as if he were trying to shed his prior life and all of its associations; acquaintances he met in the southern part of the Dakota Territory during the early to mid-1880s knew him as “Dead Eye Dick” while others who met him after he had resettled in Bismarck, in the northern part of the Dakota Territory, knew him as “Eugene McMeeser” or “E. J. McMeeser” (alternate spelling: “McNeeser”); by the time that the federal government conducted its special census of Civil War veterans in June 1890, Joseph was so comfortable fusing parts of his old and new lives together that he was convincingly documented by an enumerator as “Eugene McMeeser,” a veteran who had served as a private with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry from September 9, 1861 until January 11, 1866; in 1890, Joseph became a married man; documented as having rheumatism so severe that he was “at times confined at home,” he filed for a U.S. Civil War Pension from North Dakota on March 28, 1891—but he did so as “Joseph Slayer”—the name under which he had first enrolled for military service in Pennsylvania in 1861; ultimately awarded a pension—which would not have happened if federal officials had not been able to verify his identity and match it to his existing military service records, he was diagnosed with angina pectoris in 1904, but still managed to secure a U.S. patent for one of his inventions—a napkin holder; he died in Bismarck less than a month later, on January 12 or 13, 1905; found on the floor of his rented room, his death sparked a coroner’s inquest which revealed that he had been living under an assumed name; he was buried at Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Bismarck; the name “Joseph Slayer” was carved onto his military headstone;
* Snyder, Timothy (Corporal, Company C): A carpenter who was born in Rebuck, Northumberland County, Tim Snyder was employed as a carpenter and residing in the city of Sunbury in that county by the dawn of the American Civil War; after enlisting for military service as a private in August 1861, he was wounded twice in combat, once during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (1862) and a second time, in the knee, during the Battle of Opequan, Virginia (1864), shortly after he had been promoted to the rank of corporal; he survived and returned to Pennsylvania, where he resumed work as a carpenter; after relocating to Schuylkill County, he settled in the community of Ashland; in 1870, he married Catharine Boyer and started a family with her; he continued to work as a carpenter in Schuylkill County until his untimely death in May 1889 and was laid to rest with military honors at the Brock Cemetery in Ashland; John Hartranft Snyder, his first son to survive infancy, grew up to become a co-founder of the Lavelle Telegraph and Telephone Company, while his second son to survive infancy, Timothy Grant Snyder, became a corporal in the United States Marine Corps during the Spanish-American War; stationed on the USS Buffalo as it visited Port Said, Egypt, he also served aboard Admiral George Dewey’s flagship, the USS Olympia, in 1899;
Drummer Boy William Williamson, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company A, circa 1863 (public domain).
* Williamson, William (Drummer, Company A): A farmer from Stockertown, Northampton County, William Williamson was documented by a mid-nineteenth-century federal census enumerator as an unmarried laborer who lived at the Easton home of Northampton County physician John Sandt, M.D.—an indication that William’s parents may have either died or were struggling so much financially during the 1850s and early 1860s that they had encouraged him to “leave the nest” and begin supporting himself, or had hired him out as an apprentice or indentured servant; like so many other young men from Northampton County, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for help to protect the nation’s capital from a likely invasion by Confederate States Army troops, he stepped forward, raised his hand, and stated the following:
I, William Williamson appointed a private in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear, or affirm, that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government of the Armies of the United States.
Later in life, William Williamson became a champion for an older woman who had been struggling to convince officials of the federal government that she was worthy enough to be awarded a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension, after her son had died in service to the nation as a Union Army soldier.
Post-war, William Williamson found work at a slate quarry, married, began a family in Belfast, Northampton County, and lived to witness the dawn of a new century. Following his death at the age of sixty in Plainfield Township on June 17, 1901, he was laid to rest at the Belfast Union Cemetery.
Sources:
- “A Badge from Admiral Dewey and Schuylkill County” (announcements of Timothy Grant Snyder’s service on Admiral Dewey’s flagship). Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle: October 3, 1899 and November 21, 1899.
- Baptismal, census, marriage, military, death, and burial records of the Snyder family. Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio, etc.: Snyder Family Archives, 1650-present; and in Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (baptismal, marriage, death and burial records of various churches across Pennsylvania). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1776-1918.
- Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
- James Crownover, James Downs and Samuel Kern, et. al., in Camp Ford Prison Records. Tyler, Texas: The Smith County Historical Society, 1864.
- Civil War Muster Rolls, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
- Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
- Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, U.S. Army; Admissions Ledgers, U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; federal burial ledgers, and national cemetery interment control forms, 1861-1935. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 94), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
- Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
- U.S. Census Records, 1830-1930. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
- U.S. Civil War Pension Records, 1862-1935. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
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